A wind turbine that uses boundary layers instead of blades to generate power has been patented by Solar Aero, a New Hampshire based not-for-profit scientific research organization. Modeled on the 1913 Tesla steam turbine, the Fuller turbine is virtually silent and completely enclosed, which avoids many of the drawbacks of bladed turbines such as noise, radar interference, visual pollution and wildlife injuries.
Solar Aero's Howard Fuller says the principal of operation is roughly the same as for the Tesla steam turbine.
"Closely-spaced discs trap the motive fluid molecules (in this case air) in a laminar flow adjacent to the disc surface. This provides aerodynamic drag, which imparts force to the disc surface. By using multiple discs, the turbine then provides considerable torque to accelerate the rotation of the central driveshaft, which is directly coupled to an alternator, typically located at the base of a tower, or alternatively co-located on a rooftop."
The turbine is likely to have a cut-in speed of about 3.5 knots and optimum speed is about 20 knots and near transparency to radar microwave transmissions can be achieved with proper construction materials and techniques.
Although currently only in pre-prototype stage, it is anticipated that units would be available in different sizes. The smallest unit would be likely to produce about 5kW at 15 knots.
Solar Aero expects costs to be comparable to coal-fired power generation - around $0.05/kWh. When used in conjunction with a suitable storage device, this should provide reliable, inexpensive power in either residential or commercial applications.
Maintenance costs should be less than for bladed turbines. As the up-tower turbine is supported solely on zero maintenance magnetic bearings, there will be no friction to impede acceleration and no routine lubrication required.
Solar Aero is currently completing a full scale prototype. The design will be available for worldwide production licensing following testing.
Contact Solar Aero for further information.
It will be interesting to see what power this produces at low wind speeds... which may be it\'s drawback vs. lightweight bladed designs.
Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India
Nor is the one shown a Tesla Turbine which is even less eff. The people who do these kind of things should be put in jail for fraud.
kiwi
That\'s not a centrifugal turbine. First, if you look at what you assume are blades, they\'re pointed in the wrong direction -- inward, not outward. Second, if you go read the patent at uspto.gov, you can see that the air flows from the right in this drawing and through the airfoil-shaped spacers which you believe are blades. Once through the short spacers, they pass over the disks to the central opening and out through the exhaust on the left. Still a bad design that I don\'t think will work. The patent files are full of \"innovative\" wind turbine designs that have never panned out. Their functional problems are obvious, but again, the patent examiner\'s job is not to decide whether an invention will work, just whether it\'s novel and unobvious.
jimbo,
Research in the 1970s and 1980s showed that concentrator intake ducts don\'t really work. Wind just backs up and goes around them. Diffuser exhaust ducts work much better.