Vaneless turbines - a new type of wind generator

Alternative energy specialists have long formed a stereotype regarding how correct and efficient wind generators should look. This state of affairs is not at all surprising, because wind generators are built every year around the world, and these are always huge structures with blades, similar to giant windmills. As for the vaneless wind generators, the attitude towards them, as a rule, among alternative people is very, very skeptical.

Nevertheless, the developers of new solutions are in no hurry to stop in their enthusiasm. And so, in 2015, the Spanish company Vortex Bladeless proposed a new version and a ready-made solution model, showing how wind generators can be arranged that are not inferior in effectiveness to traditional vane, but surpassing them both in safety, in terms of production efficiency and capabilities installation.

Vortex Bladeless introduced the model and working layout of a fundamentally new wind generator, completely unlike ordinary windmills. There are no blades rotating in the wind, and large rotating parts are not foreseen at all.

The generator is not at all like a windmill; rather, it resembles a large baseball bat, mounted vertically on a pen, and swaying under the influence of the wind blowing on it. But the wind does not always blow in gusts, someone might argue, and how then will this gigantic bat swing, will it just bend down and stand motionless like a tree? In fact, everything is completely wrong!

The principle that a vertical bladeless wind generator will swing in the wind is not related to gusts of wind. The principle is to swing the vertical generator by invisible vortices of air formed in the form of a chain behind cylindrical objects, blown by gas or flowed around by a liquid in the transverse direction.

This phenomenon was explained back in 1912 by Theodore von Karman, an American physicist and specialist in aerodynamics and aeronautics. And the phenomenon of the formation of chains of vortices around a gas blown or streamlined liquid, the vertical axis was named in honor of the scientist "Pocket path". This phenomenon was laid by the developers as the basis for a unique bladeless wind generator.

A Vortex wind generator is half the cost of production than a vane turbine of similar capacity, and regular maintenance costs are five times less! In addition, the amount of greenhouse gases emitted is 40% lower, the generator works quieter, and is almost completely safe for birds and bats.

As for efficiency in general, vertical bladeless generators can be installed on a smaller area and thus receive more electricity than from the same blade wind generators that require huge areas so that the turbine could swing. This factor is extremely important in the construction of large wind farms, and several vertical generators can be installed, and close to each other - the power plant will turn out to be more compact.

Not only that, the developers checked the aerodynamics of the system from two of their wind generators when one stood behind the other, and it turned out that the one that stood behind was swinging even more, because it reused the vortices from the first.

The authors of the project are sure that for private households there will be enough mini Mini wind generators 12.5 meters high for a rated power of 4 kW, and the Gran models developed at 1 MW each will form the basis of large wind farms.Even at the initial stage of research, in 2012, European investors invested about 1,000,000 euros in Vortex Bladeless, and to this day the project seems very promising.

Structurally, the windmill consists of two parts. The upper part has an uneven surface, and it is it that sways and generates air vortices of the Pocket path around itself. In the stationary lower part of the structure are elements of an electric generator.

The setup is designed so that the buildup occurs at the resonant frequency, which coincides with the frequency of the vortices in the formed Karman track. So the wind swings the upper part of the windmill, using the phenomenon of mechanical resonance. And if earlier such a resonance destroyed bridges and other structures, now it will be able to generate electricity, showing its destructive potential more friendly.

At first, the company's specialists successfully tested 2 kW prototypes designed for wind blowing at a speed of 1.5 to 7 m / s; 4 kW models are designed for 3-15 m / s, and so scaling up to units of megawatts is possible. The main components of future wind farms on the new generators are Vortex Bladeless vertical generators of 1 MW, 150 meters high, from which it will be possible to assemble a huge power plant of the required capacity.

The developers, of course, do not disclose all the subtleties, but something is known. At the base of the moving part there are two rings of repulsive magnets, so when the wind bends the structure in one direction, the magnets pull in the other direction, and these small pushing and pushing movements contribute to the manifestation of kinetic energy arising from the circular sway of the tower, which then converted into electrical energy using a linear alternator. The tower oscillation frequency reaches 20 Hz.

Research continued for a long time, and at various stages the device was continuously improved, more than 200 models were manufactured, and each of them was tested by developers in a wind tunnel so that the mast geometry would finally allow to collect as much wind energy as possible, and so that the natural frequency of the Vortex mast Bladeless could change in order to adjust to resonance with the Pocket track.