We must harvest the sound of wind for eternal renewable kakaphonic power!!

1. a very nice form of energy is socalled thermo-acoustic energy. Sound waves traveling through a gas can be converted, via a 'stack' placed into the body that contains the gas, into thermal energy. You can then either use this to make a refrigerator or to create work (heat converted into work).

2. This is technology in the making, but has already resulted in high-tech applications, such as in cryogenics, to make natural gas liquid and to cool satellites and radars and such expensive things. Some VIP (very intelligent persons) are working on real thermo-acoustic engines that may one day power our cars, homes, etc... Currently they are designing such an engine to power deep-space exploration ships. They are very robust, simple, durable, reliable, and efficient.

3. Thermoacoustic engines are basically a gas-tube with a stack of porous material in the middle that converts the thermal differentials of the gas as it is displaced by the sound wave. These engines have no moving parts, are very simple, and a bit magical (like a Stirling engine, no moving parts, and what's more, they are even being developed in combination with Stirling engines, because the acoustic behavior of sound in a gas is very compatible with the Stirling cycle... according to the VIP misters!)

3. All you need to make such an engine is a source of sound. (You can make one yourself for uunder US$25 if you have a music box, sound box - [link]).

4. Cling-a-ling-a-ling!! Wear ear plugs because now comes the obvious and fun part. We put a huge megaphone-like structure in a windy place. This megaphone is always faced to the wind.

5. In front of the megaphone, we build our Kakaphone. A structure of copper bars that make a beautifully horrible sound in the wind (like the Asian bamboo ting-a-ling-a wind machines, I don't know the English word). This light-weight structure moves along in the wind with our megaphone.

6. Voilà, we have our Kakaphonic Renewable Wind Generator!!!

7. To understand the idea better, I made a quick drawing of it [link].

8. You must wear ear plugs if you visit the power plant.

Wind turbines are okay, but they do not warn the birds nearby. My mega-kaka-phonic device is kind to all the birds of the planet!!

BREAKING NEWS EDIT: in English it's Kak-o-phony, not kak-a-phony! In my language it's kakafonie!! Hence the mistranslation.
-- django, May 12 2007

Los Alamos National Lab Thermoacoustics!! http://www.lanl.gov/thermoacoustics/
These guys really rock, gimme decibels baby!! [django, May 12 2007]

How to build a demonstration model for less than $25 http://www.ketterin...ions/ThermoDemo.pdf
This is a PDF file [django, May 12 2007]

Mega-Kakaphonic Wind Generator http://i3.photobuck...ic.jpg?t=1179011273
Design can be changed according to musical preferences [django, May 12 2007]

Wikipedia: Cacophony http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cacophony
Screech, kablankle, bump. [jutta, May 13 2007]

So suddenly everything at the Halfbakery must be hyper-efficient and not fun? http://www.halfbake...al/help.html#tongue
No. But being funny is harder than being serious, and sometimes it just doesn't quite work. [jutta, May 15 2007]

If you generate sound to genrate electrictity, your system will run at a net loss, requiring more power to create the sound than can be generated from it.
-- nuclear hobo, May 13 2007


But in this case the sound is free, isn't it? You harvest it from the wind.
-- django, May 13 2007


[I'm not sure where you get your breaking news, but the word is spelled "cacophony"; as always, I've renamed the idea to be more conventionally spelled, but am leaving the text alone.]

If you just used the moving air (wind) directly, instead of first converting it to moving air (sound), you would get more energy out.
-- jutta, May 13 2007


I believe you don't actually need audible sound but rather just some pulses or different air pressures. The first gereration of wind turbines were particularly good at this. Standing within a couple of hundred metres of them made you feel ill every time a blade went past the tower and sent out a shockwave. Windows were rattled miles away.

Perhaps your idea could be used near existing wind turbines to increase efficiency.
-- marklar, May 13 2007


So suddenly everything at the Halfbakery must be hyper-efficient and not fun?

Common, this can't be serious. We don't want to be serious!
-- django, May 15 2007


//So suddenly everything at the Halfbakery must be hyper-efficient and not fun?//

Well, it's bound to happen by accident every so often.
-- shapu, May 15 2007



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