Saturday, 1 September 2012

Fan of funnels

I was reading recently about Mass Megawatts Augmentation System, which makes use of funnels to amplify wind, similar to my post on the potential for underground wind turbines. I had originally conceived of pivoting funnels that, with the help of fins, would point towards and away from the wind. However, I wonder now whether it would be possible to have zero moving parts at the top of the device, just a set of funnels in a fan arrangement.

Depending on the wind direction, one set of funnels would get more wind than the others. Inside the body would be a series of pipes to direct the wind down, through the generator, back up and out. A system of valves could be used to ensure that the pipes connecting the active funnels (i.e. those best angled to the wind) is routed to the turbine.

Obviously this system benefits from having the turbine at ground level for easy maintenance and installation, and zero moving parts (and no maintenance) up in the air flow. Would it work?


1 comment:

adreama said...

And now it's been done. The Invelox Wind Generator

http://www.gizmag.com/invelox-wind-generator/27377/