Patent Publication Number: US-2011070065-A1

Title: Wind energy device with increased wind speed feature

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     Not Applicable 
     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH 
     Not Applicable 
     REFERENCE TO A SEQUENCE LISTING 
     Not Applicable 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Wind is an unlimited natural energy resource that can be utilized in many different applications. Conversion of the wind kinetic energy into windmill&#39;s mechanical energy to generate wind powered electricity through electrical generators is a major approach of utilization of renewable energy resources in the current market. Wind power is directly related to its speed. In order to generate low cost wind powered electricity, using a wind energy device that can increase the wind speed on the device by certain methods to increase the wind kinetic energy capacity to power electric generators is an approach to achieve this goal. 
     SUMMARY OF INVENTION 
     The current key technology in wind energy application is to use wind turbines to capture wind kinetic energy and convert it into mechanical energy to power electrical generators to produce electricity. Due to the design and material limit for large size wind turbines, the current large capacity wind turbine approaches only can use two to four windmill blades with low efficiency and high installation cost. 
     Based on the nature of wind, wind kinetic energy is directly related to its speed. Wind speed increase will significantly increase the wind kinetic energy, therefore to increase the wind energy device&#39;s output capacity. A small multiple blades windmill can capture more wind kinetic energy to achieve higher efficiency. 
     According to the invention, the wind energy device is composed of an enlarged main shroud structure with flare feature to capture large mount of on-coming wind energy to increase the wind speed at the wind energy device&#39;s wind flow inlet place. Based on the aerodynamics, Wind Tunnel Effect will achieve when wind passes through a bluff body with a small opening that increases wind speed inside of the opening. 
     Another aspect of a preferred embodiment of the invention is to use a multiple stage coaxial counter rotating fan system with duct feature to attach to the wind energy device&#39;s wind flow inlet to capture and remove as much of the wind flow captured by the main shroud, and add more energy into the captured wind flow through this fan system to boost the captured wind flow energy. This coaxial counter rotating fan system is driven by external wind force supplied from an external windmill that captures and converts the on-coming wind energy. 
     Another aspect of a preferred embodiment of the invention is to use a multiple blade supply windmill attached to the coaxial counter rotating fan system&#39;s drive shaft to capture the on-coming wind energy and supply the power to drive the coaxial counter rotating fan system. A shroud feature will be included in the supply windmill blades to capture more on-coming wind energy to increase the supply windmill&#39;s driving capacity. 
     Another aspect of a preferred embodiment of the invention is to use a multiple blade main windmill at the wind energy device&#39;s wind flow outlet place to capture the boosted wind energy and convert it into mechanical energy to drive an electrical generator at the front of the wind energy device through a shaft passing through the coaxial counter rotating fan system. 
     Another aspect of a preferred embodiment of the invention is to use individual gearbox and fan modules to form the coaxial counter rotating fan system to achieve boosting the air power through the fan system. Each of modules will include coupling features that can couple the adjacent modules together. The coaxial counter rotating fan system can be built cost effectively by the modules. The fan types, blade numbers, stages and gearbox selections can be decided based on the capacity needed. 
     Another aspect of a preferred embodiment of the invention is to add wind flow swirling guide vanes onto the main shroud at the wind energy device&#39;s wind flow inlet place to rotate the captured wind flow against the adjacent coaxial counter rotating fan&#39;s rotating direction to increase the fan efficiency; and to add wind flow swirling guide vanes at the wind energy device&#39;s wind flow outlet place in front of the main windmill to generate air rotation to strike onto the main windmill blades with an angle to increase the main windmill&#39;s output capacity. 
     The accompanying drawing illustrates the example of components arrangement incorporating preferred embodiments of various aspects of the invention. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  illustrates the embodiment of the wind energy device with some explanations. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Like numbers refer to like elements in the following descriptions. 
     In  FIG. 1 , an assembled wind energy device is composed of an enlarged main shroud structure ( 1 ) to capture large mount of on-coming wind energy with wind flow swirling guide vanes ( 2 ) at the device&#39;s wind flow inlet place to force the captured wind flow to rotate. An assembled coaxial counter rotating fan system composed of four individual modules ( 3 ), ( 4 ), ( 5 ) and ( 6 ) is attached to the main shroud ( 1 ) to boost the captured wind flow air power through the fan system. The module gearbox ( 3 ) and ( 5 ) are composed of high ratio gearboxes to increase the module fan ( 4 ) and ( 6 ) rotating speeds and achieve the module fan ( 4 ) and ( 6 ) rotating in opposite directions. The module fan ( 4 ) rotating direction will be opposite to the in-coming wind flow rotating direction forced by the wind flow swirling guide vanes ( 2 ) to achieve higher efficiency. A hub structure ( 7 ) is mounted onto the coaxial counter rotating fan system for the supply windmill ( 8 ) assembly. The supply windmill ( 8 ) will include a shroud ( 9 ) to capture more on-coming wind energy. The captured wind energy by the supply windmill ( 8 ) will drive the coaxial counter rotating fan system through drive shaft ( 10 ) to boost the air power inside of the fan system. Each of the module ( 3 ), ( 4 ), ( 5 ) and ( 6 ) will include coupling features ( 11 ) that drive shaft ( 10 ) can drive all of the module components at the same time. The boosted wind flow will be forced to rotate again by the wind flow swirling guide vanes ( 12 ) at the device&#39;s wind flow outlet place to strike onto main windmill ( 13 ) with an angle to increase the main windmill ( 13 ) output capacity. The main windmill ( 13 ) completely housed inside of a shroud ( 14 ) is located at the wind energy device&#39;s wind flow outlet place to capture and convert the boosted air power to drive an electrical generator ( 15 ) at the front through a drive shaft ( 16 ) and coupling ( 17 ). An electrical generator housing structure ( 18 ) inside of the main shroud ( 1 ) will support the electrical generator ( 15 ). The whole assembled wind energy device will rotate towards the wind direction on the mounting structure ( 19 ) through the wind vane structure ( 20 ).