By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Journal of Engineering -- According to news reporting originating from
Alexandria, Virginia
, by VerticalNews journalists, a patent by the inventors Zha, Gecheng (Cutler Bay, FL); Dano, Bertrand (
Miami, FL
), filed on May 4, 2015, was published online on March 15, 2016.
The assignee for this patent, patent number 9284943, is Vortexis Energy Solutions, Inc. (
Boca Raton, FL
).
Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: "Conventional wind turbines operate on the energy of the wind to turn two or three propeller-like blades around a rotor. The rotor is connected to either a vertical or horizontal shaft mounted generator that spins to generate electricity. Wind turbines are preferably mounted on a tower or building structure so as to capture the most energy in a location so as to receive the full effects of the wind yet not disturb the immediate environment. Typically wind turbines are positioned about thirty meters (30 m) above the ground where they can take advantage of winds that are not affected by ground effect obstructions. Wind turbines consist generally of blades that spin with respect to two orientations, vertically orientated axis or horizontally orientated axis.
"Wind energy is fueled from the kinetic energy of the wind, making wind a clean fuel source. Wind energy will not pollute the air like power plants that rely on combustion of fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas. Wind turbines that rotate about a horizontal axis are best suited for large unobstructed areas hence the creation of the wind farms. Vertically disposed wind turbines are well suited for congested areas, such as residential neighborhoods.
"Wind power must compete with conventional generation sources on a cost basis. Depending on how energetic a wind site is, the wind farm may or may not be cost competitive. Even though the cost of wind power has decreased dramatically in the past ten (10) years, the technology still requires a higher initial investment than fossil-fueled generators as they typically operate at ten percent (10%) efficiency.
"Further, although wind power plants have relatively little impact on the environment compared to other conventional power plants, there is some concern over the noise produced by the rotor blades, aesthetic (visual) impacts, and sometimes birds that have been killed by flying into the rotors of horizontal placed axis.
"The need for renewable energy sources is constantly increasing. A focus on improved wind turbines has steadily increased over time. The general quandary with wind turbines to date relates to the inefficient transfer of kinetic energy to mechanical energy for power generation. A conventional wind turbine converts as little as ten percent (10%) of the possible kinetic energy into mechanical energy for electricity generation due to the many factors that affect the efficiency of a conventional wind turbine.
"What is lacking in the art is a vertical axis wind turbine design capable of producing a wind turbine capable of improving upon the efficiencies necessary to convert a higher amount of kinetic energy into mechanical energy. The instant invention addresses these and other shortcomings by introducing a vertically aligned wind turbine power generator having improved rotor and stator blade geometry."
In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, VerticalNews editors also obtained the inventors' summary information for this patent: "Disclosed is an improved fluid turbine formed from a concentric arrangement of fixed stator blades having an optimal geometric formation to provide fluid flow acceleration into a concentric arrangement of rotatable blades having a geometric formation for rotating to invoke electrical power generation. In a basic configuration, the turbine of the instant invention has at least three stator blades and at least two rotor blades for the direction of air. The amount of stator and rotor blades may be scaled in number and size depending upon the type of generator to be driven and associated mechanical energy to be obtained. The turbine preferably has a vertical axis for deflecting air acceleration into a rotatable rotor blade assembly that is coupled to a generator to invoke electrical power generation. The stator blades are designed for air deflection in a direction for optimal rotor blade rotation by accelerating air flow into a pre-swirl before the flow contacts the rotor blades. The rotor blades output the power by turning flow with a large angle for rotation of a generator.
"Accordingly, it is an objective of the instant invention to provide a wind turbine having stator and rotor blades of a geometric formation that provide for greater efficiencies over a conventional vertical axis wind turbine, the wind turbine having a vertical axis that allows for a smaller footprint, reduced noise, and an omni-directional (axis-symmetric) design to allow wind from any direction to be captured.
"It is a further objective of the instant invention to encase the rotor assembly within the stator assembly so that only two bearings are needed and constitute the only mechanical rotating parts of the assembly.
"It is a further objective of the instant invention to strategically position stator blades to accelerate the airflow by passage area reduction.
"It is a further objective of the instant invention to strategically position stator blades to generate pre-swirl of the flow, which is to guide the flow to tangential direction in the direction of rotor rotation instead of keeping the flow in the radial direction before the flow hits the rotor.
"Yet still a further objective of the instant invention is to disclose the use of stator blades that are oriented at a sufficient stagger angle so that an angle of the relative velocity does not exceed the stall angle of a rotor blade.
"It is a still further objective of the invention to provide a plurality of stator blades for engaging an incoming wind flow. The wind flow may include, inter alia, wind, air water or the like fluid flow containing kinetic energy for conversion to mechanical energy for use in power generation.
"It is a further objective of the instant invention to use the stator leading edges as a support for an optional mesh/screen to prevent injuries and protect the invention from unwanted objects in the proximity of the rotor assembly.
"It is another objective of the instant invention to provide a plurality of rotor blades rotatably coupled that have an increased rotor turning angle capable of improved efficiency.
"Other objectives and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with any accompanying drawings wherein are set forth, by way of illustration and example, certain embodiments of this invention. Any drawings contained herein constitute a part of this specification and include exemplary embodiments of the present invention and illustrate various objects and features thereof."
For more information, see this patent: Zha, Gecheng; Dano, Bertrand. Vertical Axis Wind Turbine.
U.S.
Patent Number 9284943, filed May 4, 2015, and published online on March 15, 2016. Patent URL:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=9284943.PN.&OS=PN/9284943RS=PN/9284943
Keywords for this news article include: Oil & Gas, Power Plant, Wind Energy, Vortexis Energy Solutions Inc..
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