Reciprocating Foil Energy Device for Low-Speed Fluids
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing fluid-energy devices are inefficient in harnessing energy from low-pressure, low-speed moving fluids, as they often rely on high-velocity or high-pressure systems, leading to turbulence and inefficiency when interfacing with slow-moving fluids, limiting their potential for commercial-scale energy generation.
Innovation Solution
A reciprocating fluid-energy device with a foil that moves laterally across the fluid flow, utilizing lift forces to create automatic and spontaneous reciprocation, eliminating the need for external mechanisms, and featuring a unique support structure that ensures continuous energy transfer without mechanical endpoints, minimizing shock forces and allowing operation in both unidirectional and bidirectional fluid flows.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional high-velocity or high-pressure systems are used to extract energy from fluids, then power generation efficiency is improved, but they create turbulence and inefficiency when interfacing with slow-moving fluids
Solution Approach 1:
The foil is designed to reciprocate dynamically, changing its position and orientation in response to fluid flow conditions. This dynamic movement allows the device to maintain efficient energy extraction across varying flow speeds by adjusting the foil's angle of attack and position, thereby reducing turbulence while maximizing power capture from slow-moving fluids
Solution Approach 2:
The device changes operational parameters by transitioning from static high-velocity systems to a reciprocating system that operates at low velocity. The foil's reciprocating motion alters the interaction parameters between the fluid and energy extraction surface, enabling efficient operation in low-speed flows without generating harmful turbulence
2Ease of operation
If rotating machines with continuous power transfer are used, then mechanical simplicity and continuous energy transfer are achieved, but blade speed varies by radius causing turbulence in slow-moving fluids
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using a rotating machine where the foil moves continuously in one direction, the invention inverts the approach by using a reciprocating foil that moves back and forth. This inversion allows the foil to maintain a consistent speed relationship with the slow-moving fluid throughout its stroke, eliminating the radius-dependent speed variation that causes turbulence in rotating systems
Solution Approach 2:
The foil employs periodic reciprocating motion rather than continuous rotation. This periodic action consists of alternating strokes in opposite directions, allowing the device to maintain efficient low-speed operation during each stroke while resetting position periodically, thereby avoiding the turbulence generated by continuous high-speed rotation
3Productivity
If reciprocating machines are used to extract energy from low-pressure fluids, then efficiency in slow-moving fluids is improved, but energy transfer occurs only during part of the cycle
Solution Approach 1:
The device achieves continuous useful action by incorporating mechanisms that capture energy during both the forward and reverse strokes of the reciprocating foil. The support members and force transfer mechanisms are designed to convert foil motion to useful work regardless of direction, ensuring that energy transfer occurs continuously throughout the entire reciprocating cycle rather than only during part of it
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The device efficiently captures kinetic energy from slow-moving fluids, reducing turbulence and environmental impact, enabling economically viable energy generation from low-pressure, low-speed fluids without the need for dams or reservoirs, and can be scaled for commercial use in various fluid environments.
Implementation Method 1
Energy transfer occurs by using the lifting force. The lift force is not continuous. Energy is not transferred by drag so all positions of the foil have equal potential energy.
Implementation Method 2
Energy transfer occurs either by drag when the foil and the fluid are moving in the same direction or by lift when the foil moves perpendicularly across the flow of moving fluid.
Data Source
AI summary
A reciprocating fluid-energy device to be used in a flowing fluid, having a foil, an upstream support member, a downstream support member, and a frame, where the frame retains the device in place within the flowing fluid, the support members movably attach the foil to the frame, and the foil moves laterally back and forth across the direction of the flow of the fluid, with changes in direction of the movement of the foil occurring automatically and spontaneously without external intervention other than the force of the flowing fluid.