The basic design:
The impressive results of S1000 prompted me to see if there wasn’t a simpler way to take advantage of the shrouded turbine shape.
With a 40 cm diameter fan, I tested a 23 cm diameter propeller alone, then inside a tire of 42 cm external diameter and 24 cm internal diameter. And the propeller spun much faster inside the tire than alone. My measuring instruments were the sound produced by the propeller, and the pain of the fingers to stop it, with (ouch!) or without a tire.
A tire or a torus (for example the 22 m diameter torus) with a turbine inside, act like shrouded turbines, being far easier to build, and far lighter, with a possible (but not needed) helium or hydrogen option. And a tire or a torus is a protection for the turbine.
In the sketch below, we can see (?) a AWES farm in bumper car mode. Indeed collisions between tires or flexible static kites are without heavy consequence.
We could imagine a tire inflated with helium with its turbine flying alone: it would be a flying tire. But I prefer the lifter (or crosswind in a lesser level) kite, with a tire inflated with air.
Experiment Findings: Flexible kite carrying a turbine within a torus-shaped balloon
- February 2025
- DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.29622.00320