WO2009090506A2

WO2009090506A2 - Air flow controller

Info

Publication number: WO2009090506A2
Application number: PCT/IB2008/052124
Authority: WO
Inventors: Neville Saumyasiri Wickramasinghe
Original assignee: Wickramasinghe Neville Saumyas
Priority date: 2008-01-16
Filing date: 2008-05-30
Publication date: 2009-07-23
Also published as: WO2009090506A3

Abstract

The present invention is a device which can be used to generate power in a wind Turbine introducing tunnel vane effect and a hill vane effect to artificially increase or to control incoming air flow in to a wind turbine and to artificially reduce or to control the pressure of wind in the depression area. This invention describes the use of both effects simultaneously in a wind turbine.

Description

DESCRIPTION

1) Title: Air Flow Controller

2) Technical Field

It is not necessary to reiterate the adverse consequences brought about by the burning of fossil fuels. There are uncertainties in the achievement of our energy requirement which substitutes the fossil fuels. The use of alternative energy sources such as atomic energy, hydropower, wind power, sea wave energy, geothermal power, solar power, and biomass have been considered as an alternative energy sources for the fossil fuels. However, some of the energy sources such as atomic energy bring a number of additional devastating consequences.

Studies on the renewable energy have showed that there are limitations in each energy source. In the present invention, an attention was paid to production of energy using wind power. It is obvious that velocity of wind plays an important role in the wind mill industry. In the present claim, the velocity of the wind is increased by fixing a newly invented system to the conventional wind mill.

3) Background

The wind power is a derivative of solar energy. The major driving forces of the wind energy include uneven heating of atmosphere by the sun, rotation of earth and irregularities of the earth surface. The use of the wind power does not contribute to environmental pollution such as acid rains and emission of greenhouse gases. There is irrecoverable damage incurred by the fossil fuel burning which is beyond the tolerance limit of the mother earth. Therefore, there is an urgent need to consider the use of renewable energy as an alternative for fossil fuels. The wind power, an abundant energy source has been recognized as an answer to the above challenge. The main drawback of the conventional wind turbine industry is that it faces the problems in controlling the velocity of air current. In the newly invented air flow controller which enables the control of air current according to our requirements.

4) Description

The wind power which is created by the nature is an abundant renewable energy source. This source of energy could be exploited for our energy requirement. The earth's atmosphere absorbs 1-2% of solar insolation. Comparatively, solar energy that converted into wind power is 50-100 times of the energy that fixed by entire global green vegetation via photosynthesis.

The wind turbine which produces electricity from wind power has an ancient history. There are evidences for the usage of wind mill in China and subsequent distribution of the same to European and American countries through Middle East. The wind mill has been forgotten with the invention of fossil fuels and increased use of fossil fuels. During 1970^th decade the price of fossil fuel have considerable increased and use of an alternative energy sources were reconsidered. At the beginning of 1980^th decade, it was understood that use of fossil fuels led to environmental pollution and changes in the earth's climate which discourage the use of fossil fuels. At the same time, it encourages the reconsideration of renewable energy sources.

The present invention is planned to increase the velocity of the ambient air flow which enters into wind turbine. In wind power energy industry, the sites were classified into 1-10 classes based on the velocity of the wind. The sites with velocity class numbers 3-7 (5 m s^"1 - 11 m s^"1) were recommended for generation of wind energy. The available conventional wind turbines are suited for the sites with velocity classes 6-7 and are of importance in generation of electricity. The present invention could be use to produce electricity in sites with velocity classes 3-5.

The drawing of the invention is depicted in Fig. 01. For this invention, an efficient conventional wind mill is used. This turbine consists of an upwind tubular tower, three blades, yaw drive and computerized controlling system.

According to Fig. 01, the part that is fixed in the outermost of the wind mill is named as air flow controller. The air flow controller is fixed on the nacelle of the turbine as shown in Fig. 01, No. 14. This part is fixed and adjusted to prevent interference with rotor and to move with the nacelle to the direction of wind. The front and rear faces of the air flow controller which is fixed on the yaw drive are referred to as tunnel vane and hill vane respectively.

The aim of this invention is to increase the velocity of incoming wind by increasing catchments area of the turbine and decreasing air pressure at the rear of the motor (depression area) (Fig. 01, No. 06). For this purpose, the air flow controller is fixed at tunnel vane and hill vane (Fig. 01, Nos. 7 and 8). The area of the incoming wind current is equal to the area of the tunnel vane. According to Bernoylli's Principle, there is an increase in the velocity of the wind that passed from larger area to smaller area. As described above, the air flow controller is fixed on the mounts of the nacelle of the wind turbine (Fig. 01, No. 14).

The air controller is consists of a tunnel vane and hill vane which are adjusted according to velocity class of the normal wind in the site. The air flow controller is firmly fixed and supporters are constructed on the nacelle of the turbine as shown in Fig. 01, No. 14. These supporters are reinforced to suite for the capacity of the air flow controller (Fig. 01, No.9). The air flow controller is mad up of fiber glass and reinforced with steel tubes (Fig. 01, No. 9). A counter weight is placed to balance these parts on the supporters (Fig. 1, No. 10). The behavioral pattern of incoming wind current is shown in Fig. 01, No. 11. The efficiency of the conventional turbine will be increase considerable by fixing the air flow controller as already described above.

The function of the above mentioned invention could be easily explained using Bernoylli's principle which was forwarded in 1740. Further, benefits of this invention is easily understood by the obvious phenomena such as speed up effect, hill effect and tunnel effect which are related to the wind mill industry.

5) Advantages

1. Expansion of wind mills to sites with lower wind speeds.

2. Ability to plan the air flow controller according to the wind speeds of the area considered.

Claims

1. A device (air flow controller) which increases the incoming air pressure and controls the outgoing air through the use of the hill effect and tunnel effect artificially due to its conical shaped design and the placement of the said device strategically on the nacelle of the wind turbine.

2. As claimed in 1 above the air flow controller is made up of fiber glass or any other material and reinforced with steel tubes

3. As claimed in 2 above the air flow controller has a counter weight to balance these parts on the supporters.

4. The air flow controller claimed in 1, 2 and 3 above is fixed and adjusted to prevent interference with rotor and to move with the nacelle to the direction of Yaw drive.

5. The front and rear faces of the air flow controller which is fixed on the Nacelle are referred to as tunnel vane and hill vane respectively