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Lord Kelvin's generator on steroids! By using this generator [1][2] in conjunction with an Atmospheric Vortex Engine [3], it might be able to create a power plant with no moving parts (except the air and water).
With the force of a tornado, some water spouts could be funneled through some metal cylinders
to create one hella Kelvin generator.
(Thanks FlyingToaster and csea!)
(?) 1) Kelvin Generator Demo
http://www.youtube....watch?v=F5PvIPgJGx0
MIT's famous professor Walter Lewin's demo of Lord Kelvin generator [CoolSolutions, Jan 06 2008]
2) Kelvin's Thunderstorm
http://amasci.com/emotor/kelvin.html
How to build your own Kelvin Generator [CoolSolutions, Jan 06 2008]
3) Atmospheric Vortex Engine
http://vortexengine.ca/index.shtml
explaining tethered tornado concept [CoolSolutions, Jan 06 2008]
4) solar chimney video
http://www.youtube....watch?v=XCGVTYtJEFk
a working model of the solar chimney in Spain [CoolSolutions, Jan 06 2008]
A modest proposal
Rainpowered_20Giant...lvin_20Thunderstorm
[MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 06 2008]
6) Floating Solar Chimney
http://www.floatingsolarchimney.gr/
Artist rendition of a floating solar chimney [CoolSolutions, Jan 07 2008, last modified Jan 08 2008]
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beautiful... cheap electric generation fom trailer-parks. |
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Welcome to the HB [CoolSolutions]! |
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I think your idea is clever, but maybe maybe only 3/8 baked. At a minimum, you'll need four metal cylinders, cross coupled to extract any electrical energy. |
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Also, please use the [link] function to post URLs, makes it easier to check them out. And specify a category such as "product: power source." |
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Might be good to read the "meta" section up there on the upper left. Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to your next idea. |
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Believe it or not, not everyone is comfortable with the idea of a tethered tornado ("not in my trailer park!") So, a variation of the AVE is the solar chimney[4]. It's the same driving convective solar winds principle without the ruby slippers. |
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The expense of erecting a HUGE solar chimney can be reduced by using inflatable donuts (no sprinkles) stacked on top of each other and tied together to make a very long, like totally tubular, chimney. The balloon donuts could be filled with a lighter than air gas to allow buoyancy without necessarily needing guide wires. It would sway in the wind[6], and not be totally rigid, (but at these lengths, who cares?), reaching the troposphere just like the AVE. A single donut blow-out (from perhaps a bullet from big oil) would not cause the structure to fail catastrophically. Instead, the tower could be raised and lowered for repairs, or in case of bad weather like if a tornado was in the vicinity. |
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Thanks MaxwellBuchanan. I didn't mean to steal your thunder. |
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Nor I yours - you're welcome. Not entirely
sure I follow your physics - the classic
Kelvin machine has two cylinders and two
buckets cross-connected. But I like the
idea of using such a machine on a large
scale for power generation, so [+]. |
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Thanks again, Max. csea also made the comment, but I feel a little guilty making changes because the date doesn't change. Oh what the hey... |
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I was trying to guesstimate the
efficiency of a Kelvin generator -
perhaps someone else can do better. |
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In the videos I've seen, the water
typically falls a metre or so, and I'm
guessing that a decent size spark
happens for every 100ml (or so) of
water that falls. Hence, one spark is
generated for every Joule (100grams x
1m) of gravitational energy. So how
much energy is in the spark? Again, at
a rough guess I'm assuming that the
spark is 1kW for 1microsecond (no real
evidence for that), or 1mJ of energy.
This would give an efficiency of about
0.1%. |
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However, this could be out by a factor
of 1000 (though only in one direction). |
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Good question. I googled the efficiency. Not much came up. Might be a dv/dt thing, but not an EE here (except thats what the diploma says). Can't be anymore than force times distance over time. |
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So, the Lord Kelvin generator -- wonder if it would work with twin downspouts from a rain gutter on your home or apartment building... |
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The solar chimney video makes me wonder if you could generate power with hot air from your attic ducted up a tall chimney... |
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Creating a direct path from the ground to the troposphere might invoke some pretty knarly forces. It's more than a backyard project for the weekend hobbyist. You would probably need a permit. It's not too cheap either. Do you know the price of donuts these days? |
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Could one build it on the top of a big mountain to get a head start? |
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Anchoring this monster over a warm body of water works best. We need a big delta (pressure from the base of the tube to the top). Moist air is lighter than dry air for more loft. A draft would form towards the base of the tube from all directions on a calm day.
Water isn't required. A hot desert or open flame would do the trick. Anyone want to build one for Burning Man? |
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But why on earth would anyone want to generate Lord Kelvins? |
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