Rotary kinetic fluid motors or pumps – With means for controlling casing or flow guiding means in... – Natural fluid current force responsive
Reexamination Certificate
2001-08-13
2004-06-15
Verdier, Christopher (Department: 3745)
Rotary kinetic fluid motors or pumps
With means for controlling casing or flow guiding means in...
Natural fluid current force responsive
C415S004200, C415S004400, C415S014000, C415S042000, C415S045000, C416S046000, C416S117000, C416S118000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06749393
ABSTRACT:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART
The use of wind power as a source of energy, especially windmills, has a long history tracing for hundreds of years. But these windmills were designed for fulfilling specific needs on specific sites and could not provide electrical energy for large grid of electrical power because they had too small scale and could not meet necessary standard for electrical power because of constant change of their speed of rotation and absence of means for controlling this speed. Propellers, used in most power plants, that we can see, for example, in California, cannot provide us with a solution. Even theoretically they cannot use all the energy of areas swept by propellers because they move in plane perpendicular to the direction of the wind. The surface of propeller should be curved to face the wind with proper angle, and it is difficult to build a wide propeller blade twisted at the hub. Also, we cannot build too long blades because it faces too big distractive centrifugal forces in cross section of their twisted blades near the hub. Since the energy of the wind corresponds to the surface of its cross section, narrow blade faces narrow strip of the wind and receives a small portion of energy of the wind that passes by. At the same time, big amount of small size plants consumes too much areas of the land. They don't have good aesthetic view, are bad for bird population and difficult for maintenance, especially in case of stormy weather or snow.
Wind power plant, proposed by Heidelberg, Fed. Rep. of Germany, U.S. Pat. No.; 5,299,913, date of patent Apr. 5, 1994, includes a plurality of upright rotor blades, which could be more longer lasting than propeller blades. This plant also comprises energy conversion means for converting rotary motion into electrical energy. But this plant cannot have more than six narrow blades of special shape (see column 4, 10), so the output of energy, which depends of surface of the blades, disposed to the direction of the wind, cannot be big. This plant also doesn't have any control of the rotational speed, any safety measures and means for maintenance, especially, as it proposes to be located at the sea, and will be broken after the first storm, when the wind can be too erratic and very strong.
International publication number WO 00/45050, International publication date 3 Aug. 2000, applicant and inventor Israelsson Alf, Stockholm (SE), describes a wind power plant, which includes many narrow parallel arranged wind absorbing blades, suggesting that they will move with medium speed (see page 3
a
) on carriages. These carriages are connected one after the other in an oblong and closed track in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the wind. Each blade has its own electrical correcting unit that should correct the pitch angle regulation. But it is not clear, what and when will send signals to these units. And how the author of the invention knows, that the carriages with the blades will move with medium speed along the track. Sooner, the proposed conveyor with blades will move erratically, and sometimes stop completely, depending of the changing speed of the wind or direction of the wind. The friction between the wheels of the carriages and the tracks can be too high and will be changing with every change of the wind because part of the force of the wind, impacting on the blades, pushes the wheels perpendicular to tracks. And every change of the angle of the blades also will change the vertical force onto the wheels and the force of friction between the wheels and the tracks.
Erratic movement of the generators cannot produce standard electric power. In this invention author also did not mention which means will orient the plant toward the wind. Because of oblong structure of this plant, it will always try to turn it in the direction of the wind on its rotational base while it needs to be placed perpendicular to wind in order to work.
United States Patent for Dec. 5, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 6,157,088, inventor Horst Bendix, Leipzig, Germany, shows a wind energy system for utilizing of a decommissioned power station or industrial chimney as a tower for a wind converter with high electrical output and propeller type turbines with horizontal axis of rotation of the rotor.
FIG. 8
, FIG.
9
and
FIG. 10
show different arrangements of several converters on one tower with height of the 300 meters.
But this energy system does not have any rate control and does not have any means for preventing synchronous speed of the rotors. The system also uses propeller type rotors with narrow blades and cannot utilize all the energy of the area swept by these propellers. It does not have any prevention against storm, snow, can harm the bird population, does not have any safety measures for maintenance and overhaul.
United States Patent for March 1919, U.S. Pat. No. 1,298,247, inventor John Muller, shows a windmill, containing a wind wheel, a windshield, and a tail vane. This windmill does not have means for controlling the wheel speed. The shield should cover near 180 degrees of wheel surface and is too big for easy operating.
United States Patent for Oct. 9. 1928, U.S. Pat. No. 1,687,181, inventor Thomas B. Prease, shows a wind motor, comprising a supportive frame, a vertical shaft, a rotor, rotating on this shaft, having a plurality of disks, secured to this shaft, blades disposed between the disks and rigidly secured to the disks.
This windmill does not have any rate control. A shield is covering 180 degrees of the surface of the rotor and it will cause eddying of the air in the narrow passage between the blades and the shield despite the openings in the shield: if the openings are too small, they will provide a little help; if the openings are big, the shield will not be a shield.
The blades are secured to disks but have curved surfaces in horizontal and vertical directions and too complicated, heavy and expensive to be implemented on a large scale. A rotor having blades of such bended shape can rotate under impact of the wind even without shield, and we can see small turbines working as fans on the roofs of different buildings, having similar shape of blades.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,252,523, for Windmill, inventor Milton Plotkin, patented Aug. 12, 1941, describes a structure, comprising a frameworks, in which is rotatable mounted a revolving shield, partially enclosing a wing-equipped rotor, exposed at one side thereof to the force of the wind; the shield is being provided with fins, which cooperate to ensure the proper automatic positioning of the shield, relative to the direction of the wind.
The shield is slightly less than 180 degrees of a circumferential length and present a vertical leading and trailing edges. The size of the shield is too big but it cannot cover from the snow or very strong wind more than 180 degrees of the surface of the rotor from the left side of axis of rotation, if the wind will change the directions too quickly. At the same time, the air, exiting the blades, will eddy between the rotor and the trailing edge and between rotor and shield from back-side of the rotor, decreasing the efficiency of the windmill. The inventor suggested to make the blades curved and bowed to diminish the eddies, but it would make the blades more complicated and the eddies still are present when the air will be pushed by the blades in a narrow passage between the blades and the shield from the half of the back side of the rotor.
Two fins, fixed to said shield, are forming pockets of air, one between trailing edge and the wall of the shield, the other for the flow of the air, exiting the blades from both sides of the second fin. It also creates additional eddies for the air, exiting the rotor and for the wind striking the fins from left and right sides, what will cause instability for the position of the shield and for the speed of the rotor. This windmill also does not have any means for rate control for the rotor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,134,708, Jan. 16, 1979, Brauser et al. This patent describes a wind driven electric power plant comprising
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