Joined: Apr 28, 2005 Posts: 3442 Location: West shore Lake Eire, MI, USA
Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:33 am Post subject: Re: Copying Whales, 20% more efficient windmills?
JRP3 wrote:
Yeah, that's it. They are often used as self priming pumps, for example in boats.
Ah ok, those are a kind of centerfugal pumps which have contact between the blades and the housing. I agree for those applications this technology is probably a wash, the vanes undergo a lot of wear forces as is. A non-contact version is designed to last for decades between maintainence rebuilds like they do at the big hydroelectric plants. If you have to replace the pump every 5 years anyhow because one of the vanes breaks off or the set of vanes becomes too worn for solid contact then using Tubercles probably wouldn't do much for your application. _________________ Oxygen: - An intensely habit-forming accumulative toxic substance. As little
as one breath is known to produce a life-long addiction to the gas, which addiction invariably ends in death.--Isaac Asimov
Joined: Apr 28, 2005 Posts: 3442 Location: West shore Lake Eire, MI, USA
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 6:25 am Post subject: Re: Copying Whales, 20% more efficient windmills?
For those interested in this topic the new issue of National Geographic has an article on Biomimetics, including wind turbines using whale style tubercles. _________________ Oxygen: - An intensely habit-forming accumulative toxic substance. As little
as one breath is known to produce a life-long addiction to the gas, which addiction invariably ends in death.--Isaac Asimov
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 7:24 am Post subject: Re: Copying Whales, 20% more efficient windmills?
Tanada wrote:
For those interested in this topic the new issue of National Geographic
has an article on Biomimetics, including wind turbines using whale style tubercles.
Joined: Apr 28, 2005 Posts: 3442 Location: West shore Lake Eire, MI, USA
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 4:39 pm Post subject: Re: Copying Whales, 20% more efficient windmills?
Oh I dunno, at this point I expect the USA taxpayer to be stuck subsidizing airlines for a few years until they cry foul to the Congressmen hard enough. _________________ Oxygen: - An intensely habit-forming accumulative toxic substance. As little
as one breath is known to produce a life-long addiction to the gas, which addiction invariably ends in death.--Isaac Asimov
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