Lifting wing power plant
A lifting wing power plant is a technical device for converting the kinetic energy of a flowing medium into an up-and-down movement , from which electrical energy is obtained with the help of a generator . While lifting wing generators have only been implemented experimentally so far, lifting wing power plants in the sea and in inland waters are already in the test stage.
Physical basics
The principle of the lifting wing power plant consists of a reversal of the flapping flight principle that is used by living creatures in flight (birds, insects, bats) and by ornithopter flying devices: While flapping flight requires energy to move the wing and thus a forward movement of the Creating a flying object can extract energy from a stationary object in a flow with a similar wing of the flow.
From a physical point of view, there is no fundamental difference between wind energy and hydropower plants , since both are based on the same principles. Aquatic, diving animals (such as fish , whales , penguins , seals , beavers , otters ...) basically perform the same movement with their fins , limbs or tails as flying animals do in flapping flight. The 800 times higher density of the water intensifies the effect, the lower flow velocity weakens it somewhat relative to this. The gain through higher density of the water is not weakened by this, the relation of the flow velocity only relates to comparably higher velocities in the air flow.
literature
- Albert Betz: Wind energy and its use by windmills. Ökobuch-Verlag, Grebenstein 1994 (Unchanged reprint of the first edition, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1926) ISBN 3-922964-11-7
- William McKinney & James DeLaurier: Wingmill - An oscillating-wing windmill. In: Journal of Energy 5 (2), 1981, pp. 109-115. ( Title page ) (PDF; 115 kB)