Unrelated, but kind of interesting: Investigation Report for the Collapse of a Nordex Wind Turbine at Screggagh Wind Farm.pdf
18 (ish) Mechanical Design Tips and Tricks for Engineers Inventors and Serious Makers: # 093
lt-2197-brochure-design-guide-for-bonding-plastics-volume-6-2011.pdf (3.0 MB)
SOLIDWORKS Simulation - Topology Optimization
Michell, A. G. M. (1904) The limits of economy of material in frame-structures , Philosophical Magazine, Vol. 8(47), p. 589-597.
Kite plane designers might want to get in touch with Ole Sigmund: [10:46], [34:37]
EML Webinar by Ole Sigmund on the topology optimization
EML Webinar on 21 Oct 2020 by Michael Mcalpine on 3D Printing Functional Materials and Devices
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WAVE POWER: Hi Guys just ran across this article on ocean wave power.
$25 million spent, and now looking for more millions to test one. Really? You couldnāt build and test one for $25 million?
Anyone out playing in the surf cannot help but be impressed with the immense power of waves, especially when they knock you on your arse and smash you into the water. Out surfing, big waves seem like a freight train tipping over on you. I have always been intrigued by the concept of wave power, but, despite the apparent simplicity of the challenge, I noticed there did not seem to be any actual compelling solution. At this point I do not expect one to emerge. It seems to be one more case of āchasing the dragonā. I donāt know exactly why. I guess it would have to start with how much energy is actually there to collect, then how to collect it efficiently. Never seen anything turn out to be promising, yet.
In-depth and relevant for AWE developers, watch a part of it at 75% speed:
How Googleās Wing Drone Delivery Aircraft Works
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Like āLaddermillā, and SuperTurbineā¢, I thought this one up so long ago it had not exactly slipped my mind, but I hadnāt thought about it in some time. A hollow (vacuum-filled) flying saucer-shaped disc, with a flywheel inside, and an exit tube to shoot a projectile, possibly into space.
(Also reminiscent of proposed merry-go-round spin-launch schemes for AWES.)
LINK:
The expected problems:
- Hi G forces during rotation
- Breaching the vacuum for an exit (I had imagined a membrane but that might prove too destructive - maybe an iris or fast-opening hatch - looks like they have a membrane and a hatch;
- the impact of āhittingā the air (and membrane)from a vacuum;
- Considering re-entry speeds burn up almost anything, even way up there at 80-90 miles high, where there is so little air you canāt even see it, how the heck could this thing āpunch throughā the denser air near ground level and
a) not burn up instantly - how much thermal shielding would it take???
b) retain enough speed to continue on to orbit after all that air resistance?
There is also the residual spin of the projectile to consider.
Anyway, my idea had one more component that I thought was essential.
They do not seem to include this component so I assume they found another way to address the problem my extra component solved.
OK this is funded by Kleiner Perkins.
I know from experience they donāt always ādo the mathā on ideas they fund.
I met the founders Bill Joy and John Doerr at a multi-day event years ago and had no luck convincing them that their ducted-turbine wind energy project Ogin was long-disproven and would never fly. My impression at the time was they simply could not grasp what I was trying to tell them. What I did not realize at the time was, they donāt care if something will work at all, if they can find another sucker to buy it, which they did, and I had inadvertently told them who would buy it - New Zealand, which had previously wasted $20 million on the same basic idea. Iāll bet their sales pitch to New Zealand was to redeem their previous bad judgement with a ābetter versionāā¦ Wow, hucksters! As long as they make money, they donāt care who they fool or rip off.
Anyway I noticed Spinlaunch has a large facility already, and get all excited and huggy that their own large demo actually seemed to work and did not explode, but there is a bad sign: Their biggest promotional tool seems to be a āgroup-selfieā, and we know how that goesā¦
Of course, like a broken record, I cite the immense amount of money they must be going through, and if the idea is so good, why not start at a more manageable scale? Of course, by now, we know the answer: The world wonāt take us seriously unless we make it REALLY BIG!!! Iād say they should start with flinging cow-patties to neighboring ranches, or maybe the compete in the pumpkin toss, or offer it as an alternative to artillery? Some approach or scale that would be immediately profitable, solving some simple problem, rather than immediately trying to launch into space. The core principle is essentially a very old idea or technology - a sling - remember the story of David and Goliath?
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I did at some point think about tow launching commercial aircraft to save gasā¦ though the idea never got past the Ā«nice ideaĀ» stage for me. Nothing really inventive though
Scott Manley - Can Spinlaunch Throw Rockets Into Space?
https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/qr06qm/californiabased_startup_spinlaunch_is_developing/
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The Scott Manley video seems to present a decent analysis of this. They do point out the main problem, (which would be potentially solved by what I interpret as the missing ingredient). I agree that it might be more appropriate to operate in a vacuum, like launching from the moon, especially with its much lower gravity = much lower physical demands on the system, with no rocket required. For now, Iām gonna apply the flavor test. The group selfie looks too familiar. Seems like a bad sign for this particular project, but someone has got to try such an idea, so at least they are trying.
Funny, the next thing I clicked on is Amazon and they tried to sell me this - coincidence?
I have never searched for anything even remotely related to this on Amazon, yet the image almost exactly matches what weāve been looking at on this chat group. Hard to imagine this could be anything but attempted āartificial intelligenceā, which I often jokingly call āartificial stupidityā, due to the many hours spent suffering through robotic phone answering software that will first try to tell you āPlease explain the reason for your call - you can use plain Englishā, followed by āIā¦ didnāt get thatā¦ā.
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SpinLaunch in action is well explained on the video of:
I see some possibilities for reduced versions to launch AWES, comprising flexible wings previously compressed (mechanical system to be found), and why not by using the generator as motor as for current yo-yo systems.
Flying with 50 drone motors (homemade flying machine)
Transform this paramultimotor into a FlygenKite and gain in lightness?
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What an awesome 2 wheel robot
https://www.ascento.ch/
Love the way it can roam around rough ground and sit on a post to charge.
Got potential to be brought in as a field line handling bot taking lines from one field post to another could enable some amazing AWES forms to be realised.
If you could reposition your anchors about the fieldā¦ What kite AWES would you design?
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