Hydro Differential pressure exchange over unity system.

[TinselKoala]

For a larger system and possibly even for what's being presented as model size I would consider an external alignment system like many industrial press applications use. With polished rods and recirculating bearings or Teflon sleeves friction could be quite low, and alignment accuracy very high.

A thought
Dale

I agree and that is the way I'd do it in a big, machined system... if it is necessary. But mondrasek reminded us that the patent application speaks of this automatic centering caused by the pressure distribution. I'm not quite able to wrap my mind around that one yet without some more experimentation, and I'm a little worried about capillary effects when wall spacing is small wrt wetted area. If you, say, float a 1-inch ID O-ring on the top of a tub of water, then put a 1/2-inch OD O-ring to float inside the first one, surface tension/capillary effect will cause the two to come together instead of centering concentrically, I think.

It may even be possible just to float some plastic spheres of the right diameter on the water surface "ring" around the annular walls. Like 5mm plastic bbs for airsoft guns. If they were, say, 0.5 mm smaller than the normal clearance they'd float in there like the balls in a bearing, and my intuition tells me that the water surfaces are going to remain near the centers of mass of the riser vertically, so just the single layer of spheres at the water surface won't make the riser "" or ride crooked, they should automagically be in just about the right place to provide clean and constant spacing separation between riser and fixed wall.

ETA: lol, the missing word in the "" quotes must be a forbidden forum word.  What crows at dawn, is also what a rooster or male pea... bird is called, and means "run crooked" and is also what you do to a rifle before you can fire it.... heh.....
Dirty he who dirty thinks.. .this forum has a dirty mind, because "" is forbidden, so is "", but many other really foul words are allowed like the "f" bomb, British nasties like b****r, even the German slang version of our English "f" bomb are allowed, but you dare not speak of the pea-hen's husband, and if you are going to the range for some target practice, be sure to un.... er, un......  well, just don't pull back the hammer until you get there.

[TinselKoala]

@webby:
That's interesting, I can't quite understand why that self centering would happen. Is there a difference in the area between two different sized circles, if they are concentric vs. wall-touching? If the area is different then I can understand the self centering effect, but I think the areas are the same, geometrically, and so for cylinders so would be the volume. I'm not confident of this though, I'll have to look in some geometry books or make some drawings, try to remember how to prove a Euclidian theorem... heh, with my ossified brain not likely. Maybe I'll just cut out some shapes and weigh them, that much I can still do.

When you were giving the riser dry weights and sink weights earlier I thought they were out of the system so the feed tube didn't come into play?

[LarryC]

@webby:
That's interesting, I can't quite understand why that self centering would happen.

Simple as it can get example of self centering.

[see3d]

Hi All,

I was preparing to release an updated version of my simulator PDF document tonight, but that is not going to happen.  Just as I was finishing up, I realized that I had made a conceptual error in the sim.  I have to rework the formulas one more time -- again.

The road to success is a series of learning experiences that some call failures.  No, just "1000 ways not to build a lightbulb".

Back to the drawing board...

[TinselKoala]

@LarryC: Thanks for your drawing. But please look down at the system from above, not at it sideways. As I understand it there are no balloons in there, but a cylindrical chamber filled with air and water. Will this still self-center? No balloons please unless they are in the actual device we are discussing.

ETA: I don't know, either way, I'd just like to understand how. It sure would be nice if it did self center, that would eliminate a bunch of design problems.