A bit of a laugh

[JulianEdgar]

A guy in India has been writing to me: he believes he has invented a new and worthwhile device.

It comprises a wind turbine attached to the car to, in his words, "gain energy from wasted wind energy around the vehicle generated by vehicle".

He remained unconvinced when I pointed out that this would simply increase drag, and so the energy is actually coming from the fuel in the vehicle's tank.

Today he linked to a video showing all the 'wasted wind energy':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO9Hm14C7jQ

He seems quite serious - he also sent me a pdf presentation showing (more compact) turbines attached to trucks, trains, buses...

[freebeard]

Send back a picture of the wind-powered car that goes faster than the wind, to show how far he's got to go. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind-powered_vehicle#Rotor-powered

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

I remember seeing claims about similar devices, also from India, but they're not effective. Reminds me more the idea behind those Ramjet engines, depending on another source of motion to start.

[Cd]

Popular Science ( 1998 -1999 ) i think it was, had a small write up on a van with a horizontal fan mounted in a roof duct.
As the fan turned, the blades would collapse, thereby reducing drag, but allowing the fan to turn a generator.
It looked as if the company had put quite a bit of thought into it, but I have never seen anything on it again .

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Cd

Popular Science ( 1998 -1999 ) i think it was, had a small write up on a van with a horizontal fan mounted in a roof duct.
As the fan turned, the blades would collapse, thereby reducing drag, but allowing the fan to turn a generator.

Interesting, but I wouldn't hold my breath for it to provide an actual improvement. Had it been more similar in appearance to a turbofan aircraft engine, and eventually with adjustable pitch allowing it to take benefit from the relative wind at other directions too, I would be quite curious to try it.

[Stubby79]

Maybe if you ported air from a place of high pressure (front bumper) to low pressure (Rear bumper), you could offset actual wasted energy by actually decreasing the drag by a similar amount...but you wouldn't get enough power out of it to be all that useful. Going to do that, just skip the generator and it would presumably net more in fuel economy.

Anyone stuck a 12" tube from the front of the car to the rear yet? Too bad that pesky engine is in the way!

[jakobnev]

Originally Posted by Christos Archontoulakis

When i was a little child, i had also dreamt of a car that would produce electricity from the wind. Nevertheless, this pajero seems to be very dangerous.. i think it shouldn't wander around the streets.

This did give me a bit of a laugh, only after reading this did I see that the car was a Mitsubishi.

(The funny part is what pajero means in Spanish.)

[AeroMcAeroFace]

Freebeard is right, it is possible. https://www.wired.com/2010/06/downwi...than-the-wind/ but that looks lethal and reminds me of this comparatively safe car.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by jakobnev

The funny part is what pajero means in Spanish.

My country is surrounded mostly by Spanish-speaking countries, so it was not unusual for me to see older Pajeros branded as Montero instead. Took me a while to figure out why it happened, unlike some regional econoboxes which also had different names in Argentina for no actual reason.

[aerohead]

1) using a 15% thermally efficient ICE vehicle to
2) spin a turbine of around 85% mechanical efficiency, to
3) power an alternator of 90-95% mechanical efficiency, to'
4) store power in a battery which will rod 20% of the stored power when withdrawn to do work.
5) about 9.7% overall efficiency with best case scenario.
Can anyone say Second Law of Thermodynamics?