![SVPG](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/SVPG.jpg)
The concept of a vortex engine or atmospheric vortex engine (AVE), independently proposed by Norman Louat and Louis M. Michaud, aims to replace large physical chimneys with a
vortex
In fluid dynamics, a vortex ( : vortices or vortexes) is a region in a fluid in which the flow revolves around an axis line, which may be straight or curved. Vortices form in stirred fluids, and may be observed in smoke rings, whirlpools in th ...
of air created by a shorter, less-expensive structure. The AVE induces ground-level vorticity, resulting in a vortex similar to a naturally occurring
landspout __NOTOC__
Landspout is a term created by atmospheric scientist Howard B. Bluestein in 1985 for a kind of tornado not associated with a mesocyclone. The ''Glossary of Meteorology'' defines a landspout as
: "Colloquial expression describing torn ...
or
waterspout
A waterspout is an intense columnar vortex (usually appearing as a funnel cloud, funnel-shaped cloud) that occurs over a body of water. Some are connected to a cumulus congestus cloud, some to a cumuliform cloud and some to a cumulonimbus clou ...
.
Michaud's patent claims that the main application is that the air flow through the louvers at the base will drive low-speed air turbines, generating twenty percent additional electric power from the heat normally wasted by conventional power plants. That is, the vortex engine's proposed main application is as a "
bottoming cycle
A combined cycle power plant is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem from the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy. On land, when used to make electricity the most common type is called a combined cycle gas turb ...
" for large power plants that need cooling towers.
The application proposed by Louat in his patent claims is to provide a less-expensive alternative to a physical
solar updraft tower
The solar updraft tower (SUT) is a design concept for a renewable-energy power plant for generating electricity from low temperature solar heat. Sunshine heats the air beneath a very wide greenhouse-like roofed collector structure surrounding t ...
. In this application, the heat is provided by a large area of ground heated by the sun and covered by a transparent surface that traps hot air, in the manner of a
greenhouse
A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...
. A vortex is created by deflecting vanes set at an angle relative to the tangent of the outer radius of the
solar collector. Louat estimated that the minimum diameter of the solar collector would need to be 44+ metres in order to collect "useful energy". A similar proposal is to eliminate the transparent cover. This scheme would drive the chimney-vortex with warm seawater or warm air from the ambient surface layer of the earth. In this application, the application strongly resembles a
dust devil
A dust devil is a strong, well-formed, and relatively short-lived whirlwind. Its size ranges from small (half a metre wide and a few metres tall) to large (more than 10 m wide and more than 1 km tall). The primary vertical motion is u ...
with an air-turbine in the center.
Since 2000, Croatian researchers Ninic and Nizetic (from the ''Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture''
University of Split
The University of Split ( hr, Sveučilište u Splitu) is a university located in Split, Croatia. It was founded in 1974. and is organized in 13 faculties and 124 faculty programmes. As of 2009, a total of approximately 40,000 students have gradua ...
) have also developed this technology. and patents.
The solar research team at
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) is a Malaysian research university established 10 January 1997. It is wholly owned by Petroliam Nasional Berhad ( PETRONAS), Malaysia's oil and gas multinational corporation. The campus is built on in the ...
(UTP), Malaysia, headed by Prof. Hussain H. Al-Kayiem, developed the first experimental prototype of a solar vortex power generation (SVPG) technology that uses solar energy as a heat source. The basic prototype was then subjected to a series of developments and performance enhancements by integration with sensible thermal energy storage (TES) and modification in the design of the vortex generator. The team carried out and published an experimental evaluation, theoretical analysis, and computational simulations of the SVPG and compiled the findings in a book which summarizes the fundamentals of this technology.
Theory of operation
(applicable primarily to the Michaud patent)
In operation, the vortex
centripetally expels heavier, colder external air (37), and therefore forms a large, low-pressure
chimney
A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typic ...
of hot air (35). It uses about twenty percent of a power-plant's
waste heat
Waste heat is heat that is produced by a machine, or other process that uses energy, as a byproduct of doing work. All such processes give off some waste heat as a fundamental result of the laws of thermodynamics. Waste heat has lower utility ...
to drive its air motion. Depending on weather, a large station may create a virtual chimney from 200 m to 15 km high, efficiently venting waste power plant heat into colder upper atmosphere with minimal structure.
The vortex is begun by briefly turning on a diffuse heater (83) and electrically driving the turbines (21) as fans. This moves mildly heated air into the vortex arena (2). The air must have only a mild temperature difference because large temperature differences increase mixing
with cold ambient air and reduce efficiency. The heat might be from flue gases, turbine exhaust or small natural gas heaters.
The air in the arena rises (35). This draws more air (33, 34) through directing louvers (3, 5), which cause a vortex to form (35). In the early stages, external airflow (31) is restricted as little as possible by opening external louvers (25). Most of the heat energy is at first used to start the vortex.
In the next stage of start-up, the heater (83) may be turned off and the turbines (21) by-passed by louvers (25). At this time, low-temperature heat from an external powerplant drives the updraft and vortex via a conventional crossway cooling tower (61).
As the air leaves the louvers (3, 5) more rapidly, the vortex increases in speed. The air's momentum causes centrifugal forces on the air in the vortex, which reduce pressure in the vortex, narrowing it further. Narrowing further increases the vortex speed as
conservation of momentum
In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. If is an object's mass an ...
causes it to spin faster. The speed of spin is set by the speed of the air leaving louvers (33, 34) and the width of the arena (2). A wider arena and faster louver speed cause a faster, tighter vortex.
Heated air (33, 34) from the crossway cooling tower (61) enters the concrete vortex arena (2) via two rings of directing louvers (3, 5, height exaggerated for clarity) and rises (35). The upper ring of louvers (5) seals the low-pressure end of the vortex with a thick, relatively high-speed air-curtain (34). This substantially increases the pressure difference between the base of the vortex (33) and the outside air (31). In turn, this increases the efficiency of the power turbines (21).
The lower ring of louvers (3) convey large masses of air (33) almost directly into the low-pressure end of the vortex. The lower ring of louvers (3) are crucial to get high mass flows, because air from them (33) spins more slowly, and thus has lower centripetal forces and a higher pressure at the vortex.
Air-driven turbines (21) in constrictions at the inlet of the cooling tower (61) drive electric motor-generators. The generators begin to function only in the last stages of start-up, as a strong pressure differential forms between the base of the vortex arena (33) and the outside air (31). At this time, the bypass louvers (25) are closed.
The wall (1) and bump (85) retain the base of the vortex (35) in ambient winds by shielding the low-velocity air-motion (33) in the base of the arena, and smoothing turbulent airflow. The height of the wall (1) must be five to thirty times the height of the louvers (3, 5) to retain the vortex in normal wind conditions.
To manage safety and wear of the arena (2), the planned maximum speed of the vortex base (33) is near 3 m/s (10 ft/s). The resulting vortex should resemble a large, slow dust-devil of water-mist more than a violent tornado. In uninhabited areas, faster speeds might be permitted so the vortex can survive in faster ambient winds.
Most of the unnamed numbered items are a system of internal louvers and water pumps to manage air velocities and heating as the engine starts.
Criticism and history
In early studies it was not absolutely clear that this could be made workable due to cross-wind disruption of the vortex. This motivated later studies with wind tunnel empirical validation of the CFD model, which conclude, "The full scale simulations subjected to cross wind show that the power generation capacity is not affected by the cross winds."
Michaud has built a prototype in
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
with colleague Tom Fletcher.
Also, according to Michaud's patent application, the design was initially prototyped with a gasoline-powered 50 cm "fire-swirl".
The University of Western Ontario's wind-tunnel laboratory, through a seed investment from OCE's Centre for Energy, is studying the dynamics of a one-metre version of Michaud's vortex engine.
PayPal founder Peter Thiel's Breakout Labs sponsored an AVE test with a (2012) $300,000 grant. The preliminary results (2015) for which were reported in The Atlantic.
Disambiguation
The term « Vortex Engine » also refers to a new kind of internal combustion engine.
See also
*
Solar updraft tower
The solar updraft tower (SUT) is a design concept for a renewable-energy power plant for generating electricity from low temperature solar heat. Sunshine heats the air beneath a very wide greenhouse-like roofed collector structure surrounding t ...
*
Landspout __NOTOC__
Landspout is a term created by atmospheric scientist Howard B. Bluestein in 1985 for a kind of tornado not associated with a mesocyclone. The ''Glossary of Meteorology'' defines a landspout as
: "Colloquial expression describing torn ...
*
Waterspout
A waterspout is an intense columnar vortex (usually appearing as a funnel cloud, funnel-shaped cloud) that occurs over a body of water. Some are connected to a cumulus congestus cloud, some to a cumuliform cloud and some to a cumulonimbus clou ...
References
External links
Atmospheric Vortex Engine* http://quanthomme.free.fr/energieencore/carnet14.htm ( In French, for automatic English translation Google "Edgard Nazare")
* http://vortexengine.ca (Index: "Endorsements", Powerpoint presentation by D Cooper CPEng.)
* http://cdurable.info/Tour-solaire-a-vortex-maitriser-la,547.html (In French, for automatic English translation Google "Tour solaire a vortex")
* http://evgars.com/ (English, Russian some ideas about Schauberger's inventories)
* http://www.vortexengineer.com/ Vortexengineer - presentation by Donald Cooper relating to the combination of vortex engines with low grade geothermal energy as the priming source
* https://www.breakoutlabs.org/news-events/news-event-item/article/power-a-city-with-tornados-latest-grants-announced-by-thiel-foundations-breakout-labs-includes-an.html
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