BoatBanter.com - The wind powered car

wrote:
On Jan 29, 4:02 am, gabydewilde wrote:

Hello all,

I would like to invite you to help develop a recumbent bicycle with 4
wheels, an electric motor reasonable aerodynamics and a wind turbine.

http://wind-car.go-here.nl

During normal use almost all of the energy used by a vehicle is lost
though the displacement of air. But, if we have a high pressure zone
and a low pressure zone we can extract energy and regenerate some of
those losses back onto the propulsion.

Moving close-to or even up the wind we may use the combination of
human power and electric power to amplify this wind.

The wall like cycling up the wind phenomenon is something every
cyclist should be familiar with. This wind power exceeds the power
needed to move the vehicle forwards. The energy extracted by the
turbine is stored as kinetic energy but is also increasing the
available wind pressure.

The wind car is not intended to be a real car but to be a fun freeware
project that gets us places. I hope for you to help me design a
vehicle roughly costing 200 euro/dollar to build using off the shelve
parts. It is my believe that such miracle savings may be accomplish
though pure resourcefulness. A set of old bike wheels doesn't have to
cost much, Constructing a frame doesn't have to cost much, An
electric motor doesn't have to cost much. (as low as 20$), If you own
battery powered tools you can use those batteries and buy some extra
to save money. The suggested wind motor doesn't involve much more as
an axle, some blades and a chain. The cabin can be made of tent
materials. A cheap 10 watt solar panel can keep the battery topped
off, combined with charging on the wind this may prove more then
sufficient never to need to recharge it or to plug-in some new
batteries.

I invite you all to help design this vehicle by posting your opinion/
thoughts/suggestions good or bad happy or sad. :-)

http://wind-car.go-here.nl

Thank you,

Gaby de Wilde

Jag wrote:

Gaby,
Essentially this is a boat on wheels
- with a rotary sail. The design seems
to indicate that the "boat" to turn
the rotor must sail directly into the
wind. Boats don't sail particularly
well directly into the wind. You'd do
better to try and tack into the wind
rather than ride head-first into it.

Note the following: -
1) You'll get some significant losses with
the road surface that you have to overcome.
2) You have no keel,
so crosswinds might be a significant problem,
you have three wheels on your boat however
which should add to the stabilization, but
a good gust could topple you over.

This is indeed what limits the size of the turbine. It will need to be
low with enough weight below it's axles.

3) Your rotor needs to be rigid.
(unless you use a Magenn - style rotor)
http://www.magenn.com

Thats a nice windmill. I was thinking about blades made of fabric. But
straight sheets of plastic would work. An inflatable turbine would
sure have the weight benefits.

What great idea jag.

4) Go look at Land yachts for the type
of physics you need to deal with in your design.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_sailing

best of luck

I look at it like this,
No matter how aerodynamic a vehicle is it will always be pushing air
aside. This is the end product we make from it's fuel sources. If we
push the air upwards it will go downwards behind the vehicle. There
where the distortion is the biggest the air is moving much faster as
a few meters above or besides it. It can reduce drag more then a
vehicle that discards the compressed streamline.

This is besides the sailing up the wind thing. The blades on the
windmill are moving down the wind not up the wind. So the blades are
sailing down the wind while the wind force is amplified relative to
the speed of the vehicle. :-) That way we wont need a big sail but a
small turbine will do. It can also charge 24 hours vs 1 hour driving.
I'm sure you agree that would work up the wind also ^_^

Add some old wires and an a car battery and you can have a spinning
250 watt motor in your hands for less then 50 bucks. The final
windmill should be just about as expensive then that.(I hope) Yeah,
inflatable sounds doable here. :-)

______
http://wind-car.go-here.nl
http://docs.google.com/Edit?tab=view...kf_245d9mb6rcn
http://quadracycle.blogspot.com/
http://forum.go-here.nl/index.php?c=8
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/factuurexpress
How will the losses from the turbine affect the input/output balance
Negative at a guess