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Greenbelt

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Joined: 11/01/2009
Location: United States
Posts: 566

Posted: 02:34am 12 Jan 2009

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A common conveyor belt, Add a couple of mods
in the right places and you have a real green machine. It is adaptable

to wind and Hydro sources. If anchored properly it can take awesome

abuse and the cost is downright thrifty. There are thousands in the

back lot of old factories and warehouses, Gravel pits, clay and brick

yards. Here are a few ways to use this ugly all purpose greenie.
As a water wheel application; A standard water wheel with buckets

accepts the water just
past top center, at this position the weight of water has very little

torque on the drive shaft
then as the wheel moves it to the 90 Deg. position it is most effective

here, as it rotates
the torque again becomes less and less to 180 Deg. bottom center.
Now evaluate the SANTA ANA All buckets (optional # ) are positioned at

90 Deg.with respect to the drive shaft rotation this means that the

weight of water is 100 % effective from top to bottom, This results in

Gobs of torque to drive the Gearbox. Worm or Screw drive gearboxes

should be avioded because the screw has a tendecy to bind when

backdriven by gear teeth..
it can be used as a swift water machine on creeks rivers, tide pools
And with some engineering it could be scaled to a megawatt size .
The Santa ana could drive an automobile air conditioning compressor. A

Heat pump
with its 3 watt for 1 watt efficiency is the perfect option for wind

power. A 10 MPH. wind will output 1.78 Kw.= 5.34 kilowatts heat value.

There is a design problem that can be overcome with perseverance, A

braking system.
This machine becomes a "MONSTER" at 60 MPH. Outputting 516 HP. Belt

speed
is over 87 feet per second, Torque is over 3000 static pounds feet =

385 kilowatts. Don't
even think about it" It would blow up long before this.
Here is the method I used to calculate the output, No losses of

gearbox, Belts or Bearings have been subtracted.
The sails or paddles I will name "Pushplates" are 5x12 feet = 60

sq.ft., There are 5 exposed
to the wind at 0 degree, Only one has 60 sq. ft. and the 4 wind shaded

ones at 30 sq. ft each.
Total =180 sq.ft. Acording to the wind chart, the wind force is 8

-ounces per square foot
at 10 Mph. (180 sq. ft.* 8 oz.=1440/16 = 90 pounds force.) Wind speed

is 14.6 ft. sec.which is also the belt speed. So 90 pounds on a 1 foot

radius moving at 14.6 ft. sec. = 1314 lb. ft. sec.
multiplied by 60 sec. = 78840 / 33000 = 2.39 hp. X 746 watts = 1782.4

/ 1000 = 1.78 kw.
With its huge pushplates the santa ana can not operate at wind speed

above 10 MPH, the end rollers induce a high "G" value to the plates

when they whip around.
In a commercial sized machine the rollers should be 20 or more feet in

diameter, A 28 ft. dia roller will permit 1 full second of time for the

pushplate to reverse direction when the wind speed is 44 ft. sec.(30)

mph.
I'm going to explore this, say I have a design with 28 ft. dia.

rollers, they are 50 ft. long, The
belt frame is a short 200 ft. between roller centers There are 10

pushplates Exposed to the wind , 50 ft. x 20 ft.of lightweight

composite and cross ribbed for strength.
Only (1) plate at full 1000 sq. ft.exposure, 9 more shadowed at 1/2, or

500 sq. ft. Total is(1000 + 4500 X 72 oz. wind force= 396000) divided

by 16 =24750 lb.of force at 30 mph Wind. (14 ft.roller radius X 24750

= 346500 lb. ft. this is static torque. now the wind or belt speed per

sec.(346500 X 43 ft.wind per sec.= 14899500 X 60 sec.= ( 893970000 foot

pounds per minute divide by horsepower constant. 33000 = 27090 HP). X

(.746) = 20209KW. 2.2 megawatts. The output at ten MPH. is 762.4 KW.
This machine should be inverted for all applications, this would make

use of gravity as an aid to fold the pushplates for the return trip and

automatic
deployment. Plate rollers and guide tracks would not be needed except

for deployment to ease
the wind shock. Tried to post a drawing But "oh no" I have posted this item at Instructable's Dot com / community / Green . Maybe some one can use this. Done, DUN, comments?

http://chestofbooks.com/crafts/popular-mechanics/Practical-M echanics-fo

Time has proven that I am blind to the Obvious, some of the above may be True?

Gizmo

Admin Group

Joined: 05/06/2004
Location: Australia
Posts: 5119

Posted: 01:03pm 12 Jan 2009

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Hi Greenbelt.

I think you need to start again with this message. The formatting looks like its been copy and pasted from another source, and the links dont work. Please post another message with some valid web links so we can see what you are working on.

Glenn

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now.
JAQ

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