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U.S. patent pending: 61/245 461

WIND CONCENTRATOR TURBINE

By :

François Gagnon




Concepts and designs by Francois Gagnon of 13Intellectual property manage by ‘Goudreau Gage Dubuc’ of Montréal.

Abstract

The present conception of wind turbine systems suffers from several

weaknesses that hamper their wide scale installation. The principal

problems relate to their lack of efficiency at low or high winds, their

unacceptable noise level for residential areas, and the incessant movement of

their propellers blades that visually pollute the countryside and present a

danger to flying wildlife.

The present invention describes a principle of operation that can be applied

to a large variety of new wind turbines designs. As a function of the choices

in design, this new generation of a wind turbine apparatus improves or

remedies each of the above-mentioned problems associated with traditional

wind turbines.

The basic concept is the funnelling of wind in a conduit to concentring it.

The flux of compressed air is thereby directed to interact with the most

efficient surface of a wind turbine propeller blade. The turbine can thus be

designed with the goal of benefiting from the weakest winds or, contrarily,benefiting from the strongest winds. Since the wind turbine is housed within

the apparatus, the resulting noise caused by aerodynamic motions can be

almost completely attenuated. Furthermore, an enclosed wind turbine

conceals the visible movement of the propellers and protects flying wildlife

from entering into contact with the moving parts of the apparatus.





Summary of the invention

The present invention is related to a new approach to conceive electricity

generating wind turbines. Even if the known combination of a generator androtor blades can take advantage of the proposed wind concentrator, different

and more efficient configurations are also applicable. Depending on the

objectives of a product, diverse air capturing devices can be used depending

on the average wind speed available, the sound isolation required, or the

importance of visual impact.

Existing wind turbines have limitations associated to their use which greatly

reduce their scope of application. Firstly, they generally require a minimum

wind velocity of 10 kph to engage rotation of the wind turbine’s rotor and

require a greater wind velocity to generate any significant amount of

electricity. Secondly, large wind turbines have to reduce their rotational

speeds at wind velocities above 45 kph and have to be completely stop when

the wind velocities exceed 90 kph.

These aforementioned constraints further limit the choice of physical

locations where wind farms can be implemented. With a required average

wind speed of 20 kph needed for a large wind turbine to attain profitability,

the choices of sites are limited and are often located far from large urban

centres resulting in an associated loss of energy in transmission network.Furthermore, organized anti-wind power groups, even in rural areas, limit

even more the choice of site location. Local rural residents complain of

visual and noise pollution caused by wind farms and wildlife protection

groups seek to have wind farms prohibited on the migratory paths of birds.

The new generation of wind turbines should therefore improve or resolve all

these problems so that society can optimally utilize and benefit from the

potential energy that can be harnessed from the wind





The creative aspect

The main idea of this invention relates to the development of diverse wind

concentration arrangements that maintain laminar wind flow. A stream of

concentrated air will be thus directed onto the most efficient parts of a wind

turbine in order to produce the maximum torque.

Fig. 1 illustrates a laminar wind flow concentration within a wind

concentrator. The incoming wind at area 1 is concentrated up to area 2 via a

conduit, which favours the non-turbulent through-flow of the wind. If the

wind flow is thus concentrated in a laminar fashion, there is no significant

loss of energy. We note that there is no creation of energy: the wind

captured in the incidental area 1 which is concentrated into a smaller area 2

results only in the increase of wind pressure and speed which will be easierfor the turbine to harness. The flow of concentrated wind in area 2 is

orientated towards the most efficient part of the turbine 3. For example a tri-

blade wind turbine is inefficient along the central area about its axis of

rotation. Similarly, diverse wind speeds will have variable efficiencies as a

function of the eccentricity and the geometry of the main rotor blades. It

results that the design of new wind turbines should be adapted to the average

incidental wind. We finally note that the expulsion of air in area 4 utilized

by the turbine has to be facilitated. Such a consideration in the design of new

wind turbines is essential to a) respect the principle follow from Betz law

and b) to improve efficiency of the apparatus and approach the maximum

theoretical level of transformable wind energy into electricity

With reference to Fig. 2, we can calculate what the concentration factor will

be:

( )22

2

C B

A

−

In accordance with the scaled values of A=10, B=5, C=3 in Fig. 2, the

concentration factor is 6.25. Since energy contained within the wind variesby the cube of its speed, we can estimate that the speed of the concentrated

wind will be approximately 1.8 times that of the incidental wind speed. In

reality it will be bit below this value as air pressure will increase in a

significant manner.





The dimension L is an important factor for the diversity of possible designs.

The greater the desired wind concentration, the greater the length of L

should be in order to promote the most laminar air flow through-flow

possible. The various proposed designs should thus include options of wind

concentration in relation with the average observed winds at a site location.

With concentration factors ranging between 3 and 8, it is possible for the

wind turbine to produce electricity with winds speeds from 5 to 6 kph.

Similarly, winds of 50 to 75 kph could be utilized to their full potentials.

With a higher energy yield and a larger range of applications, the overall

performance of wind turbines will thus significantly increase.

Details on application and development

Fig. 3 illustrates several additional details on the potential of a wind turbine

enclosed within the wind concentrator. In this example, we favour a turbine

with a centre of rotation perpendicular to the incidental direction of the

wind. We thus ensure that one hundred percent of the airflow is utilized. As

the concentrator can be assimilated to a cube and the turbine to a cylinder,

the concentration factor will be A / B. In accordance with the scale of this

diagram, the concentration factor is 6.

Among the design considerations, we note that the inflow of air that is

concentrated is the same dimension as the turbine blades, here being B. We

thus have an airflow concentrated on the most efficient zone of the

apparatus. It is also important that no airflow impedes the rotation of the

turbine as the canalization 7 is also used as a cover 5 to cover the return

blades. Another artifice to increase the aerodynamic efficiency of the

machine are the deflectors 6 which increase the low pressure zone at the

output of the apparatus to thereby favour the outflow of the residual wind.

The choice of dimensions B and C of the turbine are optimized as a function

of the average speed of incidental wind. By increasing dimension B we

reduce the level of compression A / B, which is required for high wind

velocity sites where the laminar flow will be more difficult to maintain.Inversely, by increasing dimension C while maintaining dimension B, we

will favour lower rotational speeds with a corresponding increase in torque.

These dimensions increase efficiency for the sites where the average wind

speed is weaker.





To favour sound isolation and low weight of the unit, the housing 7 will be

constructed from expanded polystyrene or of a similar material. The sound

isolation will be further increased by laths or trellis 8 located at the input and

the output of the air conduits. These same laths or trellis are further useful

to restrict access to birds into the core of the apparatus.

It has been mentioned that the concentrated wind must enter the turbine in

the most laminar fashion possible. As illustrated in the diagram in Fig. 3,

the wind guided by the upper conduit 71 of the wind concentrator engages

the turbine before wind guided by the lower conduit 72. This could result in

turbulence in the lower conduit 72 that could reduce the overall performance

of the apparatus. Fig. 4 and 5 illustrate the same wind concentrator whereby

the upper and lower guides inject air into the different turbines D and E.

This result in a further concentration of wind on the horizontal plane. This

concentration is equal to ( ) E D

F

2+ . In these figures the concentration is 1.2,

for a total concentration of 6 (vertical) x 1.2 (horizontal) = 7.2. To favour

laminar flow of air, the height of L1 can be adjusted as seen in fig 4a.

We note in Fig. 4 that the laths 8 at the input and output of the concentrator

are designed so as not to hinder the wind flow. A second row of laths may

be required to optimally reduce the sound at the output and the dimension L2

can be revised. We finally note that the new configuration in Fig. 5 permits

the modification of the conduit in areas 9 to ensure that the turbine utilizesthe totality of the harnessed wind.





Directs applications of that new process.

Many new applications can be designed with this improved way to build

wind turbine. You will find with this global presentation documents that

present a new generation of wind turbines that are conceived for very

specifics applications.

- The urban wind turbine. This apparatus could be installed in

residential areas, for example on the roof of a house. The main effort

of design focused on eliminating the noise and vibration, visual

acceptability is also to be considered.

- The rural wind turbine. Those are products where noise and visual

impact are still important in design, but where some compromise can

be made on cost of production as the turbine will not be installed too

close to the dwellings. Cost of production and maintenance-freeconcepts will be major factors as wind farms will count many

hundreds apparatus.

- The wind deflector turbine. This is a special wind turbine designed

to be installed where there is a lot of wind but where it is also

mechanically unfeasible to fix a large tri-blades turbine, for example

on the roof of a skyscraper.

- The high-speed wind turbine. It is a special wind turbine designed to

efficiently harness energy from high-speed winds, as it may be found

in some valleys within large mountains ranges.





Conclusions

There is an absolute need to create a new generation of winds turbines toface the more and more organized resistance to the implantation of classical

wind farms.

No-one can question that Humanity will soon face a wide range of climatic

issues due to over-use of classical energy. On the other hand no-one want

the permanent noise and the visual pollution of larges tri-blades turbine in

their backyard.

There is enough energy in the wind to satisfy all the needs of Humanity.

The most efficient way to promote wind energy is to create noiseless and

motionless wind turbines that could then be accepted by all.

The most efficient way to use wind energy is to install wind turbines as close

as possible of the user allowing significant economies by reducing the cost

of new road, new transmission lines of electricity and reduce power losses in

network distribution.

With an appropriate budget, the basis of the concept provided in this patentwill rapidly conduct to the development of a new family of wind turbines

that will lead to a breakthrough to the production of clean energy.

François Gagnon ing.

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