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January 2010
Member-sent notes
Comment or advance any note for all. Thanks All.
Notes@energykitesystems.net
Early paravane art recorded in Benjamin Franklin's maritime
observations.
Mastering
parafoil turbines
Many AWE concepts involve looping a kite in the power zone low in the
kite-window. In a clockwise kite-loop maximum power occurs around 6-7 o'clock
& minimum power at 12-1 o'clock. Power is extractable by various means; tri-
bi- or mono-tethers to pulleys & levers, or even a small parasitic flygen
turbines on a solid wing. The looping power signal is a coarse sine wave with
chaotic peaks & valleys in gustiness (see attached
WindLift datalog JPG). While some anchor-point travel downwind or
crosswind is required to extract energy, excess travel saps kite power, hence
the need for a high mechanical step-up.
Parafoils are the highest performing & most mature soft kite technology. The Gigafly parafoil is already far larger than any conventional aircraft wing. Ram-air inflation is lighter, cheaper, & more reliable than the sealed bladders used for water kites. An oft overlooked advantage is that ram-air automatically super-pressurizes as speed increases & also self adjusts to pressure differences with altitude. A parafoil normally loops by shifting CP outboard: Using brake-line to loop in power extractions is counter-productive, as ideal helical pitch is reversed. Attaching a small pilot kite to the looping kite's inboard wing-tip retards it just enough for good looping, allows proper helical pitch, & tilts up the kite swept disc clear of the surface.
Active control of a looping kite is a daunting real-time challenge. The absence of a pilot kite in a looping system means the bottom of the dive is progressively dire & a crash often unavoidable. Wing & actuation force required to overcome inertia & pull out of a death-dive is considerable. Danger happens faster with increased mass aloft & must be sensed & preemptively counter-acted over a brief slice of the loop cycle. Instead of the harmless incident good kites experience, a heavy kiteplane, especially a hard wing, will undergo a Class A Mishap: total loss or even a fatality. Use of a pilot kite progressively limits looping dive & helps tension the system. Energy that would have been expended in a crash is transmitted efficiently down the tether.
Its easy to overlook the advanced nature of the Morse Sled pilot-kite. Its ram-air tubes have a small whisker rod along the top & thus are true original Tensarity, which scales beyond airbeams. Such sleds are the lightest of conventional kites & duplicate the essential function of station-keeping UAVs at a tiny fraction of the cost.. They are powered by free renewable energy & do endurance "as long as the wind blows".
In most lulls the looping power kite will stop looping & land gently while the
sled remains in the air. When the pilot does come down it is so light
that tiny helium balloon at the tail end of the system can speed relaunch as
wind returns. Don't want helium? The wonderful sled self-relaunches soon
enough & lifts the looper, which self-starts. This is the only currently
workable looping kite AWE solution & it has a big window of market
opportunity.
COOIP
ds Dec. 27, 2009.
Triple-kite AWECS: air-hull-water: Air kite tugs shaped tacked hull which in turns tugs downing paravane which tether holds numerous turbines. Electricity makes and compresses hydrogen. Hydrogen containers released for pickup by other ships or aircraft to supply the world with its energy needs. Astern spreading paravanes provides turbine farm lines for attaching best-fit water turbines streamward.
AWECS pump water to high reservoir: 1. Extant holds. 2. Dig to new holds from extant hold. Then at peak need, drop the water through hydro turbines.
China
Clean Energy Network.
Article by
http://en.21ce.cc/contents/13/3307.html
Free registration to site.
AWECS will either send energy to load for immediate use or put the energy in various potential or kinetic or chemical energy sources. For instance, drive kite system to fetch water from low point and drop water to high point; later drop the water through water turbines. Similarly, with AWECS, lift sand or rock to high point; later drop the sand or rock to drive generators. Deep-holes lower than a reservoir can be flooded; AWECS could pump water back to reservoir only to be dropped through water turbines to the hole again; cycle this over and over; make electricity for peak load periods of the day. The following patent instructs toward the energy of position or potential energy:
(WO/2009/142979) AIRBORNE WIND TURBINE ELECTRICITY GENERATING SYSTEM
Moshe Meller has some critique of Magenn and Sky WindPower machines. There are some other interesting details instructed. E.g. Notice the off-center training; he instructs an advantage in that detail. Another: Once up, as needed, some lower gained energy might drive a lifting helicopter body above.
Posted in group AWE: M809
A Roller Fairlead, such as commonly used with winches, can be mounted face-up to allow a kite or aerostat tether to swing in any downwind direction. Tether twist is removed by a line swivel. Reciprocating power & reeling can transpass the fairlead with minimal disturbance & the hardware need not rotate about the wind compass by turret.
==================================
Parafoils may be stacked as a Parafoil Turbine scaling method. Each parafoil can swivel independently around an inboard line to a pilot kite, eliminating bow-tie fouling of the stack. The foils will self-synchronize looping as a single centrifugal mass. Launching might proceed by sequential lifting & popping like packed parachutes.
==================================
Winching Aloft thru the surface boundary layer, as done by HGs & PGs, is a low tech scalable AWE launch method, avoiding many problems of LTA & VTOL. `Towing Aloft to altitude has similar advantages
COOIP M811
FLPHG is being mentioned for several potential tasks in tethered aviation and tethered kite energy. The outline of services are fuzzy. Here are a few of those, to which anyone may add notes:
1. Carry up a given package. Toss that package out when FLPHG pilot reaches say 1000 m. The package would be given to the FLPHG by a member of the AWECS community (Airborne Wind Energy Conversion System). A fee would be extended, perhaps, for the service. The package once released would be controlled to fully deploy by the AWECS ground operator. What would open would be a dropped tether and a kited wing; the dropped tether and kited wing would be glided so that the tether lower terminus would be fetched by the ground operator for beginning a regular kite session; the wing would still be aloft and would gain full flying mode in kited position to drive ground-based generator. That is, the FLPHG would taxi the package ...as a launch-assist system. There are alternative to this theme that would use FLPHG services.
2. Maintenance of lofted large AWECSs: The FLPHG pilot would fly up to receptive platforms in the sky; the pilot would get out and do maintenance tasks on the lofted systems. Then, after completing tasks, the pilot would get back into his or her FLPHG to fly off the platform for other adventures. At the platform could be a napping cot, food, music, and other amenities. The FLPHG pilot could receive payment for the good works done.
3. The FLPHG could fly up and become a part of an active AWECS system. One scheme would be to become the control trigger for driving a GigaFly kite into large and long duration tacks left and right in the wind window.
4. Let yourself become an AWECS. Use FLPHG: Fly to altitude; drop kiteline; let the lower terminus be caught by AWECS ground operator. Fly into position. Cut engine. Change prop pitch for turbining unpowered during kiting. Control in circles and figure eights. Let the blades drive motor as generator; make electricity to charge your own E-FLPHG batteries; send excess energy to ground via conductive tether or dropped charged batteries or by laser beam or other methods.
Open for other first-level conceptualizing participation for FLPHG in the emerging AWECS realm.....
In all cases, I wish all a great and happy new year.
JoeF
blowcarting
Envision people in AWECS above just enjoying piloting a kite-energy systems.
Circles, 8s, ... all the while driving a generator on the ground or
aloft.
Also, while one is blowcarting, why not put a little generator in the
wheel area
and be trickle charging one's batteries during play?
Electronic elongation-sensing rope:
patent assigned to Makani Power, Inc.
Full patent: http://tinyurl.com/EELONGATIONsensingrope
US Patent 7,516,605 Electronic elongation-sensing rope
Makani Power, Inc. picked up on a March 2004 priority date. In 2009 the patent was issued. Will the instructions of this patent be used in AWECS effectively? If so, how? Makani Power, Inc. came after the priority date; the inventors assigned rights to Makani Power, Inc.
And what claims are novel and non-obvious?
How much of the instruction has been, if any, used in the extensive ropes and cables used for over a century in various settings, especially in the military efforts at sea, etc.? Elongation of elements has been the deep concern in industries for a very long time; electronic sensing of elongations has been deeply embedded in science and industry; so it will be interesting to clarify claim validities.
AWECS very well may be needing to know well the real-time status of ropes, lines, cables, and wire ropes used. How will we know the condition of our tethers, bridles, conductive ropes, belts. endless loops, guys, stays, etc.? What will be the most cost-effective strategy for the care and maintenance of our lines? Upon a certain change in elongation of a small sector of tether, one might want to shut down and de-power an AWECS system; insurance might require that elongation-sensing of safety-critical lines be in place and working.
Business IP paranoia: Will this patent and the current tether application for patent on tether fairing * somehow hogtie or advance our emerging industry? *[Public visitor or member may request passkey for tether working project notes@energykitesystems.net ]What say you?
- No doubt, Makani Power Inc., is business-minded. This highlights the need for all in the AWE industry to realize that some things that have been taken for granted hitherto may no longer be available for free and that much sooner than later.
The Airborne Wind Energy Group as a co-operative needs to take the business side a little more seriously, especially those whose concepts are yet aspiring for commercial status. JohnO Dec. 29, 2009
- Fortunately this "smart rope" concept is not a threat to general AWE. Squid Labs does not have the depth to make it work well enough, as i know first hand, & there are many alternate methods.
We cannot compete with Google.org IP money toe-to-toe, but the "defensive disclosure" strategy is working. We have several clear paths to AWE without patent barriers, except maybe for one or two aging key patents.
Our biz model must continue in underdog mode, but will pay off ultimately by acing the most basic solutions. Latest idea is to stack parafoils in parafoil turbine to reach fractional gigawatt (imagine 10 Gigaflies on one tether). No other scheme is so quickly developable to multi-megawatt scale.
Harry, your "superkite" friends should be aware of parafoil turbine concept & hopefully contribute prototypes. Year 2010 could be the big leap forward. ds Dec. 29, 2009
- ?
Gian Mauro Maneia
He graduated in Aerospace Engineering at Politecnico di Torino (Italy)
presenting a master thesis about the Kite Gen™ wind energy generator.
Gian Mauro Maneia http://www.mgmdesign.it/
- http://maneia.com/doc/MasterThesisManeia.pdf Aerodynamic study of airfoils and wings for power kites applications
- "Apparatus and method to make a sail and relative sail made", EP1802523, Inventors: Fiorenzi A., Maneia G.M.
- "Methods to design and produce sails", WO2007054562, Inventors: Fiorenzi A., Maneia G.M.
KiteNote:
Airborne Wind Turbine Tri-tether
to Groundgen Crankshaft
Lifted by a pilot kite, an Airborne HAWT is disclosed with a single crank on its shaft that pulls three low-stretch lines in sequence against a small triangle hub frame with three corner pulleys. The hub frame is kept from spinning by bracing along the pilot lifter line. The lines run down to the ground to drive a COTS three-phase crankshaft for rotary power. The best disposition of the three lines & crankshaft is crosswind horizontal. [COTS :: commercial off the shelf parts]
This idea is partly a simplified & optimized 1978 crankshaft/string AWE concept by Miles L. Loyd. Up to fairly high altitude it is a comparable transmission solution with capstan-to-capstan continuous loops. Good for Terrain Enabled Wind Power (TEWP, as suspended turbines). Even tower based turbines might benefit in similarly keeping generators & gearing on the ground. COOIP ds2jan2010 M822
Application US20020040948
Filed: 08/29/2001 Gary Dean Ragner of Florida, USA
Howard G. Carpenter
Patent number: 3227398
Arthur D. Struble, Jr.
Is Arthur still living?
Interview him or his heirs.
Filing date: Mar 4, 1965
Robert D. Carpenter
Patent number: 4218175
Filing date: Nov 28, 1978
What lessons of towered turbines might affect some designers of AWECS?
Notes are welcome.
Lightning hardened tether US Pat 4842221
Sacrificial wrap of a tether.
Kites deliberately built to attract lightning?
Protect trees and buildings of an area?
Lightning-struck trees may die. What is the full story here?
What is the status of arts of placing a lightning strike into capacitors
or put to immediate use beyond protecting trees, people, and buildings?
The hung free-end boom that drives a generator at its upper root?
Also consider the second type where endless loop at that boom's root is driven to drive a ground generator or pump. This is a lofted hung low-mass boom; options for construction of such lever ranges from airbeam to tensegrity tower or even a simple stick. COOIP
Small Kites Defended II
A tiny kite can usefully initiate
sequential launching of far larger elements.
The historic Niagara Falls Bridge was begun
by a boy with a homemade kite passing the first line across the abyss.
Kite-line marking at 50 ft. intervals. Let birds, hang glider pilots, paraglider pilots, glider pilots, sailplane pilots, other kite pilots, aircraft pilots, and balloonists see what you have placed in the atmosphere! Fulfill your airspace controlling agent's requirements on visibility.
I might be inclined to call Douglas Selsam's latest idea, a "Turbine Chain".
DaveL 5Jan2009
Please see this YouTube
video of a Superturbine®
with output measured and the
meter shown on camera:
http://www.wind-works.org/articles/index.html
Call for papers. Interesting issue collection.
Joby Energy in the news:
L'eolien a la conquete du ciel
Elia Echo (January 2010)
Evolving Trends in Wind Power Generation
EnergyPulse (December 15, 2009)
System Technology Information Sheet
Joby Energy (December 14, 2009)
Unique Wind Power Demonstration to Be Held at the Cleantech Innovation
Center/Oroville
San Francisco Business Times (November 2, 2009)
Eoliennes: L'avenir en Altitude
Science & Vie Junior (November 2009)
First Annual High Altitude Wind Power Conference to be Held in Northern
California Nov. 5-6
Chico State University (October 27, 2009)
What is being done to exploit wind energy?
Maltastar (October 26, 2009)
High Hopes - A Vast Supply of Energy is Racing Around the Planet Far Above
the Surface
Nature (June 30, 2009)
Study Maps Best Spots for Harnessing High-Altitude Winds
New York Times (June 16, 2009)
Inveterate Inventor JoeBen Bevirt Makes Good
San Francisco Business Times (March 20, 2009)
SurroundTurbine COOIP
Sketch of concept.
Hang unshown second cableway for people-and-goods transport cable.
No tethers to ground.
No ground station moorings.
Kite the aerostats in different wind strata to assure resistance for the
generating turbines.
Above everyone's backyard.
Cleantech.
Smart staying in high winds.
No conductive tethers.
Lifted by perma-kiting-LTA aerostats.
Multiple rotors.
International cooperation.
Farm scalable.
No bird or bat kills.
Status fully tracked.
Maintenance by aircraft crews.
Altitude variable.
No trucking; use aircraft construction.
Recharge gas via aloft methods from atomospheric moisture split.
Aerostats PV top covered.
Aloft conversion of electricity to power beams. Beam to needed areas on ground
or in air.
Explore various turbines on torque-cable earth-surround system
For AWE members whose ongoing efforts fall in
this range, please visit:
http://www.smallwindcertification.org
Application by Selsam
http://acousticecology.org/srwind.html
Grid-tie inverters, off-grid inverters, wind power inverters, grid-coupling small wind,
charge controller, batteries and associated switch gear
Magnets for generators
...comments welcome.
Variable sky-sector of endless working high tension loop for adjusting position of top end of endless working loop. Marine rigging. Logging rigging. AWE rigging. Change the position of the upper end of the endless loop tether. Position AWE working skied working part to best wind strata. Bring whole system down via working one of the two sides of the endless loop or have choice of pulling in both sides of the endless loop at once. All comment is invited.
Preliminaries:
Discussion on the matter is being run at
Ning.
"Challenges of endless-loop tethered AWECS"
haulback, deflection, rigging, gravity logging, skidding line, yarder motor, drum, shotgun rigging method, highlead, skyline,
Caizergues World Kite-board Record ratified by WSSR
An equal-cost square-set turbine with a bull
wheel (8-to-1 easy)
beats tilted bladed torque tube.
Furthering:
Large-annular generators for low rpm are now standard WP.
Furthering:
http://www.bwea.com/small/standard.html
Furthering:
Lambros Lois, filed March 30, 1976.57] ABSTRACT
A buoyant sail or wing tethered to a line an appreciable distance above the
surface where the winds are at higher speed than at ground level is provided
with wind velocity gradient sensing members to guide movement of the buoyant
sail to the elevation of greatest wind velocity, the other end of the line is
attached to an electric generator. A series of sails are utilized with one being
retracted while at least one other sail is positioned to catch the wind away
from the generator.
The wings may have dividers to increase the amount of flow disruption of the
wind and increase the drag coefficient and hence the amount of energy extracted,
and a pulley system may be utilized in lieu of a single pass tether line.
7 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures
Discussion invited:
Reel method...yo-yo is fully recognized in the instruction.
Full recognition of various means of adjusting buoyant gas pressure for various reasons was included in talk.
Lois instructed about a "novel tether line arrangement operating on a pulley principle in lieu of a single pass line to each sail to increase the speed of the unwinding line and consequently the rotational speed of a pulley attached thereto while at the same time proportionally reducing the force applied to the line."
Lois filed an earlier patent where he handle de-icing, heating of buoyant gases, and other control matters. US Patent 3924827 Apparatus for extracting energy from winds at significant height above the surface by Lambros Lois, filed April 25, 1975.
Pneumatic kite is member of generic family of kytoons of both HTA or LTA types. The play in AWE of pneumatic kites and kiteMotors could be extensive. http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=LoRTAAAAEBAJ
Discuss:
v
Pulling up a tree stump with a small kite? Ten pound tether tension force multiplied:
Discuss:
Method: Have lifter kite. Then secondarily have a rider on tether be pulling up a second line which second line is driving a ground generator. Then at predetermined height have rider hit trigger that changes the angle of attack of the rider so the rider drives back down the main lifter tether. Additionally consider with secondary endless loop that the downgoing rider drives the same generator.
Discuss:
Method: Have main lifter kite pull up parachutes and drop the parachutes; let the dropped parachutes be of the auto-gyro sort fixed with a generator. Let the drop's potential energy be converter in part to electricity that charges an onboard battery or runs lights, etc. during the glide down.
Discuss:
Method: Let heightened expansion and solar-heated expansion of cavexed bladder be so the new tension on the cavexor drives a generator.
Discuss:
Method: Using part of an AWECS gains to heat for de-icing the lofted parts.
Discuss:
Method: Instead of using fueled airplane to give parachutists practice jumps or to give launch to sky divers, control the AWECS system to lift and drop the parachutists and sky divers. Save some fuel. Repeat cycle all day. Larger systems could take up groups of sky divers at once. Lift, drop, lift, drop, ... Similarly for hang gliders and paragliders. Swoop down and grab catch line to pull up the next lot. Extract troopers and control them to a new sky sector and release them to glide to new region.
Discuss:
Lifted pilot to be released could pause and wait for a passing thermal.
Charge for the recreational lift could be made. Business opportunity.
One could have one's own private AWECS system with radio-control where pilot controls kite to lower a part that would be used to lift oneself to altitude for deliberate lift at choice time. Then glide to lift point again. Repeat.
http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=wT2TAAAAEBAJ
Gordon Bruce Kingsley
Application number:
10/656,004
Publication number:
Discuss:
Method: Use AWECS to draw water from deep well
Discuss:
v
Application Bi-fluid operation http://www.google.com/patents?id=bCyHAAAAEBAJ
Albert Granville Fonda
Discuss with eye toward AWECS:
This relates to coupled two-kite system in different fluid flows. Recall Miller's description in 1967 Without Visible Means of Support. Recall Kramer, Dale C with a filing in 2001. Recall Low & Slow with its keeping alive Miller's description.
Tapered tether.
The
Classification Challenge for AWECS
Comments are invited
I) Generator aloft (example Joby, Sky Wind Power, Makani, ...)
II) Generator on ground with
a) linear systems (example Kite Gen Stem)
b) cyclic systems with
1) rotating motion (examples Kite Gen Carousel, Laddermill),
2) oscillating motion (example OrthoKiteBunch).
The terms can be different, but I think such a classification lets one better understand specific advantages and problems according to these categories.
Lift
Pierre BenhaïemDiscuss:
What about traction? No generator aloft and no generator on ground. Sea-AWE. Cart-AWE.
What about when generator is in air and also traction?
What about when generator aloft and also generator at ground station?
What about FF-AWE where the whole system is aloft. There are several variations.
What about AWECS that work to save on fuel by doing special tasks to replace what otherwise would be done by fueled vehicles, e.g., lift parachutists for their drop practice instead of using a fueled aircraft? This can be done in several ways (line sailing devices on a lifter-kite system, controlled up and down of a main lifter kite,
What about lofted turbines that generate mechanical drive of an endless loop with the loop driving sawing on the ground?
Wind turbines don't operate in cold
Though wind turbines utilize North Dakota's plentiful gusts to generate energy, some agency officials say they are shut down in times of extreme temperature.
Jan 15 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Beth Wischmeyer The Dickinson Press, N.D.Discuss with eye to AWECS:
Have % of aloft energy go toward heating the aloft elements for de-icing. How would such be done and how much of the gained energy would be used for such?
AWEify this? Branches of this along tethers. Transfer mechanical power to
ground using endless loop.
Discuss:
DaveT (yep, an early "Dave" ) Welcome David Thayer from Boston, Mass. He feels close.
instructs: (click image)
His offerings seen by any of us:
1. Carry lifelines from shore to stranded vehicle.
2. Move things from place to place.
3. Tow things over water, land, ice.
4. Pilot kites
5. Left kites, central kites, right kites.
6. Keeping a kite down to steady an altitude while kite is let out.
7. Use of lifter balloons in kite systems.
8. Control of a dragging moving mooring while traveling in kite system from A to B.
9. Operate a two-body dynamic kiting system ...one in air and one in water or soil ...kept in balance during motion to effect net travel while keep human passengers comfortable aloft and without seasickness.
10. Awareness of harbor traffic by boats being tugged by kites.
11. Combine balloons with what he termed "pilot-kites"
12. ... what else do you see he saw
and instructed?????????????
/Fined in 1889. US Pat. 417755
I am searching for the longest trip by traveling kite system where human pilot is in the air and is controlling both the air kites and the lower water or soil kites . Contemporary Kramer, German, Santos, Culp, and others are contemplating breaking some records for the air-air mode. But what about the air-ground mode, air-ice mode, air-water mode, air-water-land-ice mode. A team traveling around the world non-stop by two-kite system. The pilots scooting around on the ground part is big sport these days, but the human pilot up in the kite controlling kite and ground-water-ice-soil kite from above in free travel is not such big sport yet.... Adding in the systems some electric generation for comforts, communications, fresh-water production, hydrogen production, etc. could extend the trips. Block the lower kite to stay in a place for some time. Etc.
Was this nearly the first use of the term "parakite" ?
Discuss:
Filing in 1895. Where does this stand in relation to Eddy? William Abner Eddy.
"restraining cord"
It is not easy to see just what might be novel in the claims over what Eddy knew, if anything.
Is this an instance of someone just change name "kite" to "parakite" or "kite-like aeroplane"?
Douglas Archibald in England
Herein: "kite" = "profile element"
Cooling ground-based generators
Discuss:
Prevent overheating
Air flows, heat sinks, robotic control of temperature,
Method: Have set main kite tether. Sail line riders up and down the main line. Have a line to the sailing craft drive a generator.
Discuss:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=71pgAAAAEBAJ Filing date: Oct 10, 1966 Term "paraglider" used.
Filing date: Oct 15, 1965 US
Patent 3356316
Joseph E. Forehand
One ref: Hewes, D. E.; NASA Technical Note D-927, Free-flight Investigation of Radio controlled Models With Parawings, September 1961, pp. 5-6.
1913
Benjamin T. Babbitt Hyde, Andrew Gaul, Jr.
I wonder if Hyde was aware of the 1908:
http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/library/Magazines/photos/Ludlow_height.jpg
http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/library/Magazines/photos/Villard.jpeg
http://upcoming.current.com/search?q=Ecotricity+plans+to+develop+wind-powered+electric+tractor
...to control kite
Patent number: 881837
Filing date: Dec 20, 1905
Notice use of two fluids.
.
Public domain:
http://darinselby.1hwy.com/GorlovTurboSail.html
Jan Akkerman powered by the Laddermill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oFWIYIUgo0
