Posts Tagged ‘renewable energy’

CR Especial v2.2 videos

Monday, August 24th, 2009

I finally got 2 of the videos of my cousin’s and my work on the Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) in Costa Rica up.

Some extended information: Each of these turbines is 6 feet tall… the total width of the two turbines is 10′ … it’s pretty big and will definitely crank out the wattage!  We estimate that the payback period for these simple to build[1] turbines will be 2-3 years.

Each of these was built for about $250 excluding the generator, electronics and batteries.  We think and hope that they will last for at least the next 10-20 years with very little maintenance.  They are solid steel construction turning in automotive axle supporting ball bearings.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSTCOtWx52g[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScD1xW9udF0[/youtube]

  1. built by 2+ non-engineers with a welder a drill and a few odds and ends from the local Costa Rican hardware store [↩]

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Fluid flow over a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

Since I’m in the habit of being a Mathematician I can’t do anything that has a cost associated with it without simulating it computationally.

And so, since my cousin and I are building these large Vertical Axis wind turbines down in Costa Rica on the Lord’s dime (what’s worse than wasting my money?  wasting Consecrated dollars of course!), I wanted to get a feel for what the turbines could do in a laminar flow, not that wind flow at 20-30 feet above ground is laminar… but as stated in paragraph one I’m a mathematician, reality is just a detail to be worked out.

I found this simulator online which allows you to upload any design to be tested.

And I produced these videos – note: the acqua color is an area of low pressure, pink is high pressure:

A PVC pipe cross section at 45 degrees makes up the outer blades.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVnopxl3wr8[/youtube]

A tri-blade VAWT.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnN5Cp05kWs[/youtube]

A tri-blade VAWT with baffling on the outside.  The idea is to make the tri-blade more efficient by taking a turbulent flow and making it laminar close to the blades.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpdnDWY-TyA[/youtube]

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