Wind Energy AIDED Car again.

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

"goucho" asked about a wind assisted auto.  The article was claimed to be an overunity device and locked.

A wind assisted land vehicle is NOT necessarily an overunity device.  A tailwind or a sidewind can provide power to help (or completely) propel the vehicle.  And such vehicles have been designed.

Now powering it from the headwind IS overunity - which is why sailboats can't sail straight into the wind.  You CAN go a lot faster than the wind while pulling power from it.  (That's just TSR > 1.)  And you can can "sail" at angles that are substantially toward the true wind (easily at 45 degrees to it, for instance) and MUCH closer to he apparent wind.

In fact you go your fastest on the "tight hauled" point of sail where you're going as much into the wind as possible - just before you get TOO close to the wind, your thrust stops overcoming your friction, you slow, you lose apparent wind speed, this costs you MORE thrust, and the whole business collapses leaving you "in irons" and being blown gently backward.

People have played with various kinds of turbine-powering-propellor/wheels arrangements.  But it's proven much more efficient (and simple) to do a "linear turbine" with one or a few airfoils (sails) and the vehicle itself as the "rotor".

Examples are sail wagons and iceboats.

Another approach that was played with a few decades back (by Dominos Pizza!) was a linear version of a darrieus turbine.  This consited of an arched airfoil on the back of a very streamlined three-wheel car.  As the car gets moving the apparent wind starts coming in from one or the other forequarter of the vehicle.  As with the Darrieus it attaches to the airfoil, exits almost directly toward the rear, and thus applies a forward (and a sideward) thrust.  Meanwhile it provides little drag in a calm because its airfoil shape is pointed straight forward, so it's optimally streamlined.

Don't know what happened to this.  But I bet that it proved impractical and/or hazardous due to the side forces and disturbances of the air from passing vehicles and roadside obstacles to the wind.

You'll probably have trouble with both sail and darrieus-blade airfoils on a highway.  The speeds are high compared to the wind speed.  (With a five MPH crosswind at perfect right angles to the road to provide your power you're talking a TSR of 11 at 55 MPH.)  But it might be worth a try.

[wooferhound]

If you are going to put sails on the car and sail it then you need a big parking lot

If you are going to put a wind turbine on a car to make it go farther then see the accurate answer that is available in your first posting.

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

A wind turbine pointed sideways, and at many other angles. could potentially help (though a sail would be better).

A wind turbine pointed straight forward, or close to that, is an overunity device..

[spinningmagnets]

Sail wagons and iceboats have lots of elbow room, and even then they sometimes blow over onto their sides. A car with a significant wind-gen will have lots of resistance, and will get knocked around in a gust.

You first mentioned (in the other post) that you wanted something that would extend your range. If its for an Electric Vehicle (EV) a small lightweight trailer that runs in the cars wake can have a small engine and a generator, possibly even a small diesel running off of free used restaurant cooking oil.

In a government funded study, a series hybrid car needed a generator that was rated for twice the Watts as the driving motor because of all the efficiency losses of conversion.

[wdyasq]

Tom killed my first post on this matter BUT.... UGL is wrong ... boats and wind-cars CAN go into the wind "and it ain't overunity".

http://www.gizmag.com/the-first-race-for-wind-powered-vehicles/9953/

Personally, I'd like to see the variable pitch mechanism on the winning car THAT WENT 64%+ OF THE WINDSPEED directly into the wind.

Thanks for bringing the subject up....

Ron

[tecker]

There are curves and flat areas on the average auto that form eddy s and back pressure .If foils and turbines are used in those areas then wind devices could  boost efficiencies with forward motion . Here's the turbine I use for hho production . I have it tapped out to around 35 to 40 volts at 70mph and it takes the load off the electrical system . I feel sure a wind turbine could handle most of the power needs of an auto with two batteries . The addition of the turbine facilitated the removal of the booster and batteries .I had the cell running at 24 with a drill pwm and a torus .I have it on the bench and will post it this weekend . here's the pics . I use the cell every day and wouldn't think of driving without it now . the jury's still out on this build but so far so good

[kurt]

Ungrounded Lightning Rod i read the original post and i locked it and what you are posting here about is not what he was asking about. i am well aware of wind powered vehicles including sailboats and land skiffs and can tell the difference if a person is asking about something like that or some half cocked overunity device.    

[tecker]

The bottom line is a vehical plows thru the air like a brick . Divert that through a turbine and you got big time power.  

[clflyguy]

Hey Kurt,

I went back and read his first post again twice more just to be sure, and all he wants to do is extend his range a little, recapture a bit of charge. this is do-able and is in NO WAY over unity. I probably wouldn't have commented about it but you have blasted me before when I didn't deserve it and I've watched you get attitude with others who didn't deserve it either. Quit being so d@^^^ trigger happy. The little tin god act is wearing thin.

[kurt]

you cannot extend your range by putting a turbine on top of your car and driving down the road it will cost you extra gas because it will create drag and you will loose more energy than you gain if you believe anything else you are an overunity nut and totally wrong headed and i cannot help you.