Thanks for the suggestion...sounds like a good idea.
To give you some idea of what I am trying to do I submit the following:
My turbine resembles a Savonius, but I am using a phenomena, known to Aerodynamicists, to provide increased lift. However its application on aircraft is not too reliable and in some cases not economical: I believe I have a method to employ this principle efficiently and economically on a VAWT. This is a big departure from what I am led to believe anyone else has tried and the only way I know of to prove it is to build and test one. I will post this design and my findings, even if a failure, for whatever it's worth to this board on completion.
To test this unit I have decided to build a pontoon boat with a raised deck and no superstructure with a top speed about 30 MPH; An anemometer will be forward of the bow and the readout, with all other data I want to collect, will be transmitted to the cockpit. The "basement" below the deck will be available for access to the turbine output shaft at all times.
I live on one of the coves of a fairly large lake and most early mornings the lake is very quiet without much wind. I intend to do all my testing at that time. The anemometer will indicate the wind speed so that I can measure performance over a wide range of speeds and geometry iterations.
Your loading device sound as if it would be quite adequate and less expensive than Torque sensors et al and while there would probably be a higher magnitude of parasitic losses they would be constant through out the matrix so that would give good comparitive figures.
If you will elaborate on the system I might better understand how to go about this.
With all this long winded explanation I wanted to give everyone as many facts as possible and would appreciate your, or others, additional comments.
Thank you for your help.
Paul
