VAWT With Fabric Sails (easy to build)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ค. 2024
- A vertical axis wind turbine is made using fabric sails. This is a "lift type" VAWT. It is made using readily available materials. This design is low cost and light weight. The sails are easily replaceable should they wear out. A follow-up video will show how to select and install a generator on a VAWT.
Here is a link to my first 2 videos on VAWTs:
• A new type of VAWT tha...
• Even Better VAWT That ...
Here is a link to more videos on wind turbines:
• VAWT - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
![[Full Episode] MasterChef Junior Thailand มาสเตอร์เชฟ จูเนียร์ ประเทศไทย Season 3 Episode 4](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/e7Oqqo90x_w/mqdefault.jpg)
Excellent video, great approach and love the steps. 10 months later still waiting for the final design.
old guy makes another great idea, easily beating most VAWT designs out there. his latest design is closer to what I have in mind.
Who is this old guy you are talking about? Thankyou for your comment.
@@Jimscoolstuff apologies for the language, it was meant for other people to read. good luck on more VAWT prototypes!
@@zodiacfml No apologies needed. I enjoyed reading your comments.
Ingenious concept for a DIY vawt! I'm looking forward to your progress and a working power generator. Subscribed👍
Thanks for your nice comment. Best regards.
I rember seeing papers on savinouse wind turbines with and without end caps. It concluded that the top and bottom end caps provided a higher COP over Savinous turbine without top and bottom end caps. Presumptivly the endcaps kept the air inside instead of being pushed up or down due to the higher pressure inside as the wind is slowed.
This latest design iteration with little to no endcaps looses the benefit of having a top and bottom endcap.
Rather than increasing the diameter to increase the cross section, I'll take this opportunity to sugest a taller turbine over wider for three reasons. 1) is faster rpm with less radius in a given wind asuming same tip speeds. 2) endcaps are cheaper and improve the coefficient of performance. 3) it would be easier to attach guid wires to the top of a vawt with a smaller radius by extending the shaft a little higher so the guid wires clear the turbine blades.
Testing conditions may not be ideal, but this is an excellent proof of concept. Such a simple design to turn the negative effects of the wind on the upwind side to a positive effect. Ingenious! Look forward to seeing what's next!
Thanks for your comment.
At 16:24 you talk about metal conduit with the advantage of it being able to bend it. PVC pipe can also be bent to what ever angle you need. Thus you keep the advantages of PVC including water proof material, light weight, etc.
thank you for your idea.
yes hello good to hear you working on a faster setup and RPM. I would like to say i to am working on a few myself and i have come to a conclusion of when adding the generator as you noted but the only way to find this out is to do what you are doing more test . I have tested that when running just like a removal of a tire of a car with a tire iron was difficult but using a breaker bar was the answer as it brook loose , the magnetic field . It seems to have proven not in theory but in practical as i will show in my next design and video as to yours, but with (PUMP)
Thanks for sharing ,we have solved some big issues
All can build now very easy, but will they build !!!
GOOD IDEA OF SAILING FABRIC WIND TURBINE 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹👍👍😎👍👍👍🤔👍👍👍👍👍
Sir, one of the problems you have run into is that the windward sails are masking it's opposite sail, an easy fix is to run an odd number of sails.
Thank you for your comment. I agree with you about this. I plan to use 3 sails on my next build.
Thanks for pioneering this Jim. I think it is ingenious. I'm going to build one to replace my roof mounted HAWT. It is underperforming in rooftop winds. I wonder how to make the sails last. I think that is the big issue.
Please let us know what you learn. Thanks for your comment.
thank you for your devotion
Just a suggestion but instead of flat panels how about kite shapes? When you see a kite flying, it has a lot of lift, and pulls hard on the string!! Thanks, Jim loved the video, keep going it's awesome. Bob in the UK where we have lots of wind.
You explain things so clearly!
Thank you for your nice comment.
This is just brilliant.
Thanks for your nice comment.
These are excellent videos. Thank you for sharing your knowledge Jim :)
Thank you for the nice comment.
This is reminiscent of the Sweeney (Princeton) sailwing. I built a horizontal axis one of those in 1979 :) Some people already have four model sailboats spinning on a vertical axis in their back yards, so this would be a fun way to disguise something that actually generates power. Mayme you could put a bunch on an oval racetrack that's perpendicular to the prevailing wind, so they're spending more time reaching. Looking forward to seeing the generator!
Thanks for your ideas. Best regards
An increadably informative video sir, you have definately solved some issues I have been thinking about. Thank you.
Regards from South Africa
Thank you for your comment. Best Regards.
Good video - I like your ability to work around the issues as you find them. The problem with the two sail setup, which was then made worse by the six sails arrangement when you set that up set me to thinking. The offset sail design that you came up with was a clever way to resolve the problem that you had come up against, but I immediately thought there there may be an easier and better way to do it. As you noted, the sail away from the fan was doing best, the one nearest to the fan from my observations was getting its kick of power mainly from being blown away by the fan, rather than from any wing type effect - I suspect with a static wing mount there will always be compromises to be made, so there will be no perfect setting. It seemed that as you added more wings the shielding effect became more relevant, as the more effective wings were being kept out of the wind by the wing nearest to the fan. So, to my theory - I thought that if you went to an odd number of wings - five I initially thought, though possibly three or even seven, that there will always be a route through to the furthest wing for the wind, whilst giving the wing nearest to the fan a kick on the way past. Interested to have your thoughts...
Thanks for your comment. I agree with what you are saying. I noticed that with 6 sails, the down wind sail did not billow out as much. Fewer sails may be better, or narrower sails might help as well. With air flow only down the center we are missing the action of the sails to the left. I need 3 or 4 fans side by side to see things more clearly. Since I am not going to buy more fans, the next step is to get outside, but there is snow on the ground and the ground is frozen solid. Looks like spring before serious work can begin again.
@@Jimscoolstuff Thanks for your reply - I shall continue to watch with interest.
@@Jimscoolstuff
Hi Jim,
Have you come across the green windmill design? It uses 4 fabric horizontal saiIs that automatically furl into an aerofoil profile sequentially as the rotor turns. I bought a set of plans from the inventor who was selling them at that time, i cant remember how many years ago it was but they came on a floppy disc ;)
Edit: after checking the date it was 2002 and $35, time seems to fly faster the older you get.
@@JohnGuest45 Thank you for the information. I will see what I can learn about it.
@@Jimscoolstuff
Hi Jim
Its a square rotor made of tubing.The rotor is connected to a central hub with flexible stainless steel cables (8 top and 4 bottom). The cable tension holds the rotor in place but its free to move in the vertical plane a little. Its a neat idea because the cables reduce the structural weight, noise and protect the rotor in strong gusty conditions. It has 4 horizontal sails made of flexible material, basically square pieces of fabric folded diagonally in half. Each pair of diagonally opposed sails are connected together by a cable. As one sail fills with wind the other is pulled closed (also aided by the wind). The opening sail is damped by the closing sail making for a nice smooth open/close transition. The pressure from the open sail keeps the closed sail fabric tight with a rough aerofoil profile. The sails create lift so the rotor floats upwards (constrained by the upper and lower cables) when it starts to turn. I made a 5ft`er out of fibreglass tubes (offcuts from an antenna project) a kids scooter (head bearing), strimmer line and some greenhouse polythene. High tech materials :) Needless to say, it was pretty rough and ready. I mounted it 4ft off the ground in very gusty conditions (gale the night before which took the fence out) but it did what it was supposed to do. It was fascinating to watch the sails opening and closing by themselves.
Here`s a short, not great quality vid of it th-cam.com/video/tl2wtlR0Al8/w-d-xo.html
If you fancy making one to test let me know, I have an xls that can calculate all the dimensions, cable lengths etc.
Any progress lately? This is a great project....
Great video series. Very useful info there. Can we look forward to any more updates on this project?
thanks for your comment. I am working on several other projects right now. I hope to get back to this as soon as I can. If anyone else is working on VAWTs please leave a link to your channel.
I have feeling it would generate more power than previous sails, but in both you got great concept 👍
Thankyou for your comment.
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 Good stuff. thank you.
Thanks for your nice comment.
Dope the material the weave often can allow wind to penetrate
Thanks for your idea. A lot of research is needed to determine the best material to use.
@@Jimscoolstuff
I`d suggest a silicon coated ripstop polyester, non stretch, lightweight (45 gsm), uv resistant, water and windproof .
@@Jimscoolstuffyou could probably coat the fabric in some kind of oil or wax or something both to waterproof it and keep the wind from going through the holes. or maybe you can use plastic sheets instead of or in combination with the fabric.
@@animehair05silently88 Thanks for sharing your ideas.
With the sails in that configuration, the wind is being blocked when both sails are lined up with the direction of the wind. It might be better if you had three sails and that way the power stroke is more continuous.
Thanks for your comment.
@@Jimscoolstuff back in the last century, I saw an article in scientific American about something called the Princeton Sailwing. It was similar to what you are proposing here. A. link about the wing
ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19740008656/downloads/19740008656.pdf
This is how the darrieus works
No, the Darrieus works on the same principle as a wing. It is not self starting.
Not sure but my feeling is 3 sails would work better... You wouldn't have a sail directly downwind of the upwind sail.
I think you are correct, Thanks for your comment.
i like you dude
Have you considered cheap polyethylene tarp as sail material ? It's readily available in hardware stores, and dirt cheap. Also available in different robustnesses
Thanks for your suggestion.
Those rarely last more than a year, due to the sun deteriorating the material. I live in the desert of southern CA, and would need a material that could handle the sun better. Not sure what that would be as of yet. I am very intrigued by this man's designs!
Not bad :)
What are the material that we can use instead of fabric. I am planning to make a vawt for myself.
isn't the sail area equal to the torque output of the windmill? i just ask cause the sail of your windmill seems small.
Thanks for your comment. Yes as the sail area is increased, the torque and the potential output power increases.
Betz limit has been smashed and debunked regards Graham S Flowers
Would an odd number of sails accomplish your goal?
I don't think that odd or even matters; it is the angle of attack and the ratio of open area to sail area that matters the most. Thanks for your comment.
I know this is an old video, but I have a hard time to understand at what part of the 360 degree rotation you actually have a beneficial lift instead of the regular drag. As per my understanding it is not the "lift" that makes it possible to sail faster than the wind speed but rather the angle of attack which makes the sail work as a rudder amplifying the distanse by more than 1:1. Like pushing you, with less force, for example 2 meters per every 1 meter the wind is traveling. But that is not lift, that is drag. You are literally making a design based on a number of parachutes (drag).
Only when a sailboat is traveling against the wind, which it can, is when it gets to a position where it actually achieves lift. So it is true that do happen, but I just cant see how that could be happening enough for you to call this a lift based design...
nope! waaayyy-tooo "ungainly", sorry! keep on...tryin' 🙂tanx!!
Good for drying clothes ? Only joking!
Thanks for your fun comment.
you waste some duty cycle
nice design btw, but check an even simpler version on my channel soon, based on the flex foil
could be more efficient, use the center drum as a nose cone, focusing all the air flow in on the blades on the rim
heavy oscillations, its a sail boat
using the pre-fabricated pipes-connectors is clever technique
homopolar dc generator-motors for most simplest designs and manufacturing without controllers, electronics or even rectifiers
Thank you Jim, that was an excellent explanation and demonstration of sail power.... Got me thinking...Like the idea of bending angles and one pipe but how are you going to put in pipe for the vertical distance without a 3way adapter? may interfere with using one pipe with bent angle in it... Just something to think about... Keep up great work. God speed
Thanks for your comment. I have not worked out all the details yet, but I am thinking that I will flatten the ends of the vertical pipe and attach it to the others with machine screws. Keep your ideas coming. sharing ideas can help create a better design.