Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Vibrating Wind Turbine Generator

Hello Future Engineer,

You may have seen many a type of wind turbine, and a common feature must have been that somehow wind energy caused rotation of the shaft that was coupled to a generator. The rotor of the generator rotates in a magnetic (or an electromagnetic) field, thus generating electricity. Of course, there is more physics to it, but I will spare you the details to continue on to something more interesting.

Shawn Frayne came up with a vibrating wind turbine, one that does not require any rotating parts. It works on the principle of aeroelasticity (von Karman vortex shedding causing the structure shedding vortices to vibrate), wherein vibration of the conducting membrane in a magnetic field generates electricity. In case if you wonder about benefit of this idea, please click on his name above and find out!

There is one apparent drawback to this device in that eventually metal fatigue will cause the membrane to fail. But that is easy to fix compared to a broken solar electric panel.

From Super Soaker Squirt Gun to Affordable Solar Power

Hello Future Engineer,

You may have never heard of Lonnie Johnson, who invented the super-soaker squirt gun. You can read about his invention here. But today I am going to tell you of his another breakthrough that might make solar power affordable for all of us. It involves using thermodynamics (instead of solar cells/photovoltaics) to harness solar power efficiently. I will now leave you to read about it on his website.

You may also derive inspiration from learning about his childhood as an African American in Alabama in 60s. This is to be found in the article published in The Atlantic Monthly.