Re: flocking windmills
Posted by
Hugh Trenchard on
Nov 25, 2009; 8:05am
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/flocking-windmills-tp4062545p4063491.html
It looks to me the article addresses this.
When windmills are in a conventional "face to the wind" position, they do need
to be well spread out in order to catch as much wind as possible. But if
you rotate the position 90 of the fans degrees so that they are spinning
"sideways", they spin with greater efficiency when lined up behind each
other in zones of lower air resistance. The article appears to
refer to this fan position as a "vertical" rotation. The photo shows
"vertically" rotating tube like structures, which are much like long fans turned
on their sides. Aligning them in fish school formation evidently is the
most efficient in terms of space and maximal wattage generation. That's
how it all appears to me in any event.
Hugh Trenchard
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 9:45
PM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] flocking
windmills
Sorry, everybody. What I meant to write was, "Wait
a blithering moment!!!", suggesting, at least, that
the metaphor between bunching up cyclists and bunching up windturbines was
backwards. Don't you WANT your turbines to "feel" the "headwind"?
Of course I am wrong about this, but I sure would like to
understand why.
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
----- Original Message -----
Sent: 11/24/2009 10:13:22 PM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] flocking
windmills
What they lack is mobility - lacking some sort
of mobile platform maybe they could get together and decide where the next
best placement would be and tell the manufacturing and installation
people. Some sort of distributed instantiation - Group orders
another member, turbine shows up in the mail, speaks up, says, "I am a wind
turbine, the group has determined that it will be most efficient if you
place me over there." And the humans would go do that, since the turbine
family was usually right about such things.
So maybe the turbines
"want" some particular configuration, the friction is just one
criteria. If they were a phased array antenna (in addition to
being a group of wind turbines) then they would have additional criteria.
C
Nicholas Thompson wrote:
Now what a blithering moment. Cyclists flock to reduce
friction. Ditto fish, I suppose.
So, turbines want less friction with the wind?????
Something screwy here.
N
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
----- Original Message -----
Sent: 11/24/2009 7:36:30 PM
Subject: [FRIAM] flocking windmills
Same power production as existing wind farms in 100th the
land area.
-- rec --
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Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St.
John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at
http://www.friam.org
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at
http://www.friam.org