| The NovaDyneTM
Wind Turbine (Patent No. US 7,329,965 -- Additional Patents Pending Foreign and Domestic) |
 Given the current global energy crisis,
increased political tension with the world's largest petroleum
suppliers, and the deleterious effects that fossil fuels have on the
environment, renewable energy resources, including wind, are rapidly
becoming less “alternative” and more an indispensable fact of life.
Properly designed, a vertical-axis wind turbine features several
distinct advantages over their horizontal-axis counterparts;
increased safety, reduced environmental issues, and ameliorated
location insensitivity are only a few of the more conspicuous
advantages.Unfortunately, prior art vertical-axis wind turbines suffer from fundamental design flaws, crippling their enormous latent potential. The overwhelming majority, of such, attempt to compete with the horizontal-axis turbine's highly efficient aerodynamic lift properties by compressing oncoming wind, in order to compensate with brute drag force (sail propulsion). Others simply provide various means for reducing back pressure. A few ineptly attempt both techniques with unsatisfactory results; primarily, because these attempt to compress oncoming wind well beyond the known limit of physical laws, resulting in a bow shock on the proximal side of the device, and increased turbulence distally. Simply stated, vertical-axis wind turbine designs have not been very successful, historically, due to their inherent inefficiencies resulting from back pressure, and a naive reliance on drag forces to induce torque. Most of these innovative, albeit elaborate, attempts remain unrewarded, because they were never shown to be economically, environmentally, or technologically competitive. Consequently, a plethora of failed endeavors litter the vertical-axis wind turbine graveyard. By applying Occam’s Razor to this dilemma, a vertical-axis wind turbine having an open center, augmented by a particularized stator, immediately becomes the obvious solution. The resulting device is inexpensively constructed, environmentally friendly, and remarkably efficient due to its inherent potential to employ both aerodynamic lift and drag forces. Furthermore, because the rotor is encompassed by a stator, the device is unusually safe, and counteracting wind/back pressures are virtually eliminated. The NovaDyneTM Wind Turbine's unique success may therefore be attributed to its novel, scientifically founded, means of inducing maximal energy transition torque on a stackable, vertical-axis wind turbine apparatus, over the entire 360 degrees of rotation, by eliminating salient back pressure while effectively and efficiently harnessing both aerodynamic lift and drag forces, without regard for horizontal wind orientation. Furthermore, the NovaDyneTM Wind Turbine is unique in that it exhibits energy extraction capabilities that border the currently understood theoretical limits, over an extended range of wind velocities and/or altitudes, and facilitates unrivaled implementation flexibility. Technology Overview: Wind engaging a NovaDyneTM Wind Turbine will first encounter a particularized compliment of stator blades engineered to provide an optimized omni-directional bias, and a virtually laminar conduction of wind both through and around the device; an appreciable advantage over prior art designs. Stator blades stationed at the proximal, or receiving side of the wind stream, are oriented and formed so as to accelerate, compress, and cyclonically focus oncoming wind, via the narrowing channels of the stator, while concurrently minimizing aerodynamic turbulence by means of the Coanada Effect. Furthermore, the unique, synergistic, characteristics of the stator blades facilitate their accessorial classification as complementary aerodynamic slots. Since the kinetic energy of wind varies as a cube function of its speed, this serves to optimize both aerodynamic lift and drag forces by constraining more of the available wind to engage the rotor airfoils at consummate angles. Consequently, at slow wind speeds the composite wind energy potential is increased, and the envelope of operation extended. Conversely, at a predetermined high wind speed, sequent wind pressures will reach critical mass, and form a self-governing bow shock, thereby, protecting key energy conversion systems from overload. This fortuitously abbreviates, or eliminates, the necessity of ancillary interrupt systems and technologies, for implementations operating in extremely harsh and/or variable wind speed environments. Referring now to optimized northern hemisphere implementations (optimized southern hemisphere designs should ideally have a transposed helix), stator blades positioned at the left periphery, relative to oncoming wind, gently deflect portions of the wind engaging a NovaDyneTM Wind Turbine at less than ideal angles, constraining the wind to flow around rather than through the device. As this excess wind accelerates circumferentially around the stator, it induces an area of significant low pressure on the wind-shade side of the operative blades, resulting from the Venturi Effect. This venturi, or vacuum, not only eliminates back pressure, but adds considerably to overall torque. Moreover, significant aerodynamic lift is thereby induced upon the returning rotor airfoils, as exit winds are literally drawn out of the turbine at this critical juncture. Stator blades at the right periphery, relative to oncoming wind, have been engineered to maximize wind harvesting potential without the ensuing turbulence that arose in prior art designs. The unique aerodynamic properties of the NovaDyneTM Wind Turbine facilitates a “best of both worlds” scenario that calls for a multi-tiered rotor construct, in order to smooth or eliminate torque pulsations that may arise as individual rotor airfoils wax or wane relative to their ideal attack angles; thereby, ensuring at least one rotor airfoil will be positioned at an ideal attack angle, for maximum aerodynamic lift and drag potential, over the entire 360 degrees of rotation. As the now cyclonic wind stream begins to engage the rotor, a particularized, multi-tiered compliment of individual rotor airfoils harness portions of the available wind energy, and begin oscillating between states of being highly efficient aerodynamic airfoils and optimized wind/drag sails, as they traverse their prescribed course. Moreover, the unique shape of these airfoils, in concert with their boomerang like gyrations, provides an ideal mechanism for both capturing and releasing the wind as it flows smoothly through the apparatus; exhibiting the same synchronized efficiency as two properly designed interlocking gears. The unambiguously open and unobstructed mid-section of the rotor not only permits wind to flow freely past each airfoil, producing significant aerodynamic lift, even upon airfoils stationed downstream, it facilitates the formation of a low pressure region at the heart of the turbine, thus, perfecting the stator-induced cyclone. The NovaDyneTM Wind Turbine is thereby able to employ the conservation of angular momentum to channel the majority of the wind’s energy toward the periphery, where this additional leverage will impart the most torque, during those moments when individual airfoils function, primarily, as optimized wind/drag sails. As kinetic energy transfers to the rotor, the wind gradually loses speed and begins to decompress. The NovaDyneTM Wind Turbine accommodates these expanding airflows, by allowing them to diffuse outwardly through the expanding vortical channels on the distal side of the stator. Furthermore, as these slower exit winds merge with the rapidly moving, highly compressed winds traveling circumferentially around the apparatus, the subsequent energy transferal normalizes both wind streams, and a smooth, nearly laminar, equilibrium rapidly ensues. One very interesting, if not synergistic, consequence of the highly efficient nature of the NovaDyneTM Wind Turbine's rotor airfoils is that they facilitate a statorless implementation of the technology. Omitting the stator will result in some lost efficiency and safety, but will substantially reduce the cost of construction, and will facilitate the production of a reduced cost alternative for small “backyard” turbine markets. Furthermore, unlike Darrieus-type rotors, the NovaDyneTM Rotor is inherently self-starting, virtually silent, and remarkably efficient even while operating independent of a stator. Combine these unique attributes with an equally innovative stator, and the result is an unprecedented scientific advancement in wind energy conversion technology utilizing a vertical-axis wind turbine apparatus.
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