Fluid reaction surfaces (i.e. – impellers) – Cupped reaction surface normal to rotation plane – Torque converters
Patent
1992-07-09
1994-04-05
Look, Edward K.
Fluid reaction surfaces (i.e., impellers)
Cupped reaction surface normal to rotation plane
Torque converters
290 55, 416119, 416204R, 416211, 416DIG6, F03D 300
Patent
active
052999130
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a wind power plant having a plurality of rotor blades.
The presumably most widespread kind of wind power plant used today has a rotor with a horizontal axis in the manner of an airplane propeller and a customary electric power generator that is driven by the rotor via a gearing.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved wind power plant of the above-outlined type in which the rotor blades are loaded less and are therefore longer-lasting or can have a simpler design, in particular because no combined load resulting from centrifugal force and wind power acting in two directions is concentrated and attacks only one place, the root of the rotor blade. This results in favorable preconditions for building inventive wind power plants having high power and also for utilizing high wind velocities.
It is a further object of the invention to simplify and reduce the price of the supporting structure for the rotor blades. A lightweight and simply produced supporting structure contributes to a substantial price reduction in the overall wind power plant.
These objects and others to become apparent as the specification progresses, are accomplished by the invention, according to which, briefly stated, the wind power plant has a tower; a plurality of upright rotor blades which are circumferentially spaced apart and which are radially spaced from a rotational axis; and a supporting structure for the rotor blades extending from the tower to the rotor blades.
In a preferred embodiment the supporting structure and the rotor blades form a common rigid unit that can be mounted on the tower with only one bearing or with only two bearings. The outer area of the supporting structure preferably comprises substantially a number of circumferentially distributed, substantially tetrahedral elements, each having four struts, a tangential strut or a circumferential portion of the inner area and a central portion of the rotor blade in question.
The inventive wind power plant can be realized in two different designs, namely with a stationary tower about which the supporting structure, the rotor blades and optionally the supporting structure bracing cables or struts rotate under the action of the wind, and with a rotatable central tower to which the supporting structure the rotor blades and optionally the supporting structure bracing cables or struts are firmly connected. In the latter case the bracing cables or inclined supports for the tower, if any, are favorably connected to the central tower in such a way that the central tower can rotate relative to them. The tower can be replaced, in particular in a lower area but also altogether, by a number of downwardly diverging supports.
According to a preferred embodiment the wind power plant is designed for generating electric power. The arrangement for converting the rotary motion of the rotor blades into electric energy differs fundamentally from a customary generator by the very much larger diameter of the ring-shaped air gap. There is no generator constituting a separate expensive machine. The functional parts of the converting arrangement, that is, the rotor and stator structures are instead integrated into the steel structure of the wind power plant. The tolerances are clearly greater than in customary generators. From this point of view as well it is favorable to design the converting arrangements with an exciter system constructed with permanent magnets, preferably highly coercive permanent magnets, for example on the basis of elements of the rare earths with cobalt or on an iron-neodymium base or with cheaper ferrite permanent magnets. With such permanent magnets one can realize a relatively thick air gap. Also, such magnets react only little to air gap variations induced for example by the abovementioned greater tolerances. Such a converting arrangements could be called a "ring generator" or "long stator generator"; it is more like a linear generator than a customary electric power generato
REFERENCES:
patent: 1917655 (1933-07-01), Leash
patent: 3473038 (1969-10-01), Hakkarinen
patent: 4130380 (1978-12-01), Kaiser
patent: 4285636 (1981-08-01), Kato et al.
patent: 4970404 (1990-11-01), Barger
patent: 4979871 (1990-12-01), Reiner
Lee Mchael S.
Look Edward K.
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