Cycloturbine

hey guys,

was not sure to go with the opinions section or wind section with this post.

i can hear the groans now!..oh no not another silly u-tube vawt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4-MuOFl1ts

this is a cycloturbine variant of the Darrieus class of vawt that i have been following closely for the past year with interest.


i would urge folks to have a closer look, i'm sold that it's a real project using real engineering methods and obeying all laws.

some may find the story behind the project of even more interest. this is an independent guy here who designed, built, and prototyped this out in idaho..he even did all the prelimary patent work and drew up all the images for the application. he now has it at an approved test site to obtain real numbers for the spec sheet.
https://inlportal.inl.gov/portal/server ... =DA_521418
lots of other info available if you snoop around a bit.
http://www.blackhawkproject.com/index.p ... ,category/

interesting.
cheers, dave

[Gotwind Ben]

I've just had a quick scan through Dave, I will read more later.
Looks like an interesting and genuine project.
It's claimed as 'self starting', This is unclear to me how that works?

Maybe the 15 degree inward lean?

Edit: on second thought the vanes tilt depending on wind direction, which makes it wind direction dependent for optimal farming of wind energy.

I glanced real quick Dave at the sites, but didn't see a "power curve" chart listed - did I miss it?

Thanks,
Tim

didn't see a "power curve" chart listed - did I miss it?

still no spec sheet on the thing tim. the designer/project leader has been keeping the reins on the marketing guys and won't let them publish any non test lab data. thus the idaho test lab trials now.
i really respect that approach..(a turbine that can reference their published claims).

hopefully..soon..we might expect to see a testing lab stamp of some kind on every turbine to back all these crazy claims we see with these wind machines. yes, someday soon..

It's claimed as 'self starting', This is unclear to me how that works?

seems the self starting is in the design of the articulating rotor..when the wind teters it the mechanical rods adjust the angle of attack of the blades according to the wind direction.

better said here by the designer in a response to some of my probing.

"The airfoils are canted in such a manner as to produce lift on two perpendicular axes simultaneously. There's the normal rotational lift, but also vertical lift created by a fixed angle of the airfoils (pitch bearing housings) mounted relative to the rotor arms. The lift created in the perpendicular dimension causes a tilting action...which causes the overall rotor to align itself with the wind...which causes the proper AOA to be set for each airfoil...and it's off to the races!"

cheers, dave

I think this is the patent application (number 20080095608)

http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Pars ... 0080095608

or

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20080095608.pdf

found a spec sheet for power..sort of.
looks like projected 120 watts at 12mph
http://www.blackhawkproject.com/index.p ... rotor.html

at the bottom they say it's not yet a product and is undergoing testing.

yes frepdx. that's the guy.