Wind Turbine Concept Inspired by Jet Engines
According to a recent article from Greentech Media, a Massachusetts aerospace company called FloDesign is working on a wind turbine concept that could potentially be at least twice as efficient as traditional rotor blade turbines, which force air around them instead of through them. It works by channeling wind into a vortex that spins the blades and generates electricity. The company hopes to have a working prototype completed by the end of 2009. Unfortunately their website at flodesignwindturbine.org is not currently functional, but the following video gives a great overview and technical details.
YouTube: FloDesign Wind Turbine | More Videos
Benefits of FloDesign Turbines
The traditional prop acts as an obstruction to airflow, forcing air around it instead of through it. To compensate for this, props are built at huge sizes, with blades around 150 feet long. Their size makes them fragile, requiring low rotational speed, and large gearboxes. FloDesign’s wind turbine extracts 3-4 times as much energy from the wind, allowing much smaller and faster blades. Diffusers provide greater efficiency at the expense of weight and length, and they are prone to separation of flow and losses. FloDesign’s mixer duct is less effected by off-axis flow, or turbulence, and uses FloDesign’s mixer ejector uses axial vorticity.
It’s like an Archimedes screw for air. When the two flows meet from different angles, they create a rapid mixing vortex. FloDesign’s turbine can automatically align to the wind direction like a kite string, and does not need motorized alignment. Traditional blades are enormous, and require special infrastructure to manufacture and transport. The FloDesign turbine can be disassembled to fit in one truck. FloDesign’s smaller robust rotor spins effectively at lower winds, but can also sustain higher winds in which other turbines would stall or break.
Traditional turbines require wide spacing, while FloDesign’s turbines can be placed closer together, optimizing land. While traditional turbines use fragile cantilevered beams, FloDesign’s shorter, stronger rotor benefits from a hoop. Traditional turbines require placement away from people and buildings. FloDesign turbines are inherently safer, adopting methods from the engineering of jet engines.
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May 29th, 2008
Great innovation. Kindly look into using the bernouli principle. This wind turbine will make it produce more RPM with less wind or air. Keep up the good job!
June 6th, 2008
The FloDesign Turbine looks like a very good idea. Why hasn’t anyone come up with this before?
June 7th, 2008
The use of deflectors and collectors to concentrate wind energy suits this design. Standard wind turbines are relatively inefficient as they are collecting a relatively diffuse energy source over a restricted wind speed range with the difficulties inherent in large moving structures. The FloDesign system would work well with collectors, baffles and natural features (such as gorges) that serve to concentrate air flow or channel wind from one particular direction. These could be fitted onto the top and sides of skyscrapers or cliffs where high speed surface winds provide a concentrated energy flow.
A similar modified design could be used for water turbines for the collection of tidal or current flow water energy. Hydro is more concentrated than wind energy and could yield high energy collection and efficiency gains over wave and obstructive tidal collectors.
Fantastic system design!
July 9th, 2008
It’s a great idea, I guess but it’s already been patented by a chinese guy. I would look into that before spending too much money. There’s a guy who has many patents with VAWT turbines and such in China, he’s already patented this concept and I already saw drawings of it a while back.
WindEnergy7
July 23rd, 2008
An idea whos time has come. This idea has an absolute host of benefits to compliment the already heavily used and promoted wind turbine that are being agressively built.
Imagine 3 of these FloDesign Wind Turbines attached to the top of an Electric Vehicle providing both extended mile capacity but also recharging fewer-lighter weight batteries furthering the mileage capacity. Currently most vehicle already have Air Damns under the front…just imagine the potential benefits for years to come! Stay focused on the GOAL…Make it happen NOW!
July 31st, 2008
“manjit: ” I understand what you mean, but all wings work with the bernouilli principle. I think what’s different here is really the capture of the high velocity wind that is deflected in the traditional concept.
August 5th, 2008
Jet engine concepts do NOT translate well to low speed applications as we have seen in general aviation where many folks have repeatedly attempted to “revolutionize” aviation….. and routinely failed to achieve anything even close to the propulsion efficiency of an open prop. In this application it makes even less sense. Extracting more energy from wind results in more resistance to airflow resulting in MORE air going around rather than through the turbine. The video is liberally salted with BS, and has all the earmarks of a marketing scam built around a non-functional concept. I don’t buy a word of it!!! None of this is new or original in concept.
Howard Wilkinson
August 6th, 2008
The basic idea is sound - use a shroud to make the effective area of the rotor larger than its physical size, by inducing additional flow. Grumman built a similar machine called the Diffuser Augmented Wind Turbine, and I believe an Israeli outfit also tried it. There are two problems - one is the size, weight and cost of the shroud, and the other is a tendency for the flow to separate in the diffuser, reducing its effectiveness. If I understand what these folks are trying to do, their mixer/ejector is supposed to re-energize the boundary layer in the diffuser to prevent separation. That still leaves the problems of shroud weight and cost. By the way, an inventor by the name of Suess built a similar rig to get energy from fast-flowing rivers in the late 1920’s; a favorable report on his work was made by the Polytechnic Institute of Vienna. For Suess, the problem was much easier due to the 800 times higher density of water.
September 3rd, 2008
Please check the following web site:
http://www.torishima.co.jp/wind-1000/feature.html
Patent ownwd by Kushiyu University. Torishima is selling this type of wind turbine, but the size is small.