New ocean current power production: Vivace

[capthook]

Vivace, or "vortex-induced vibrations for aquatic clean energy", is a new ocean current power production technology that can convert low-speed currents (as low as 1knot) into useable power.
With so many viable options â€" how can fossil fuels continue to be the mainstay 10-20 years out?!?

Newspaper article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/renewableenergy/3535012/Ocean-currents-can-power-the-world-say-scientists.html

And the Vivace website:

http://www.vortexhydroenergy.com/

"Cylinders arranged over a cubic metre of the sea or river bed in a flow of three knots can produce 51 watts. "

[Kator01]

Hi capthook,

interesting find. The physical phaenomenon was discovered at the beginning of 20 th century by a ungarian named
Theodore von Kármán.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_von_K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n

I wonder why these guys do not give credit to this man. It is all there since the 1930´s

I came to know it when I studied engineering at the Technical Univerisity in Munich.
In one lecture the power of this effect was shown by collapsing bridges.

See here, I found this :

http://hmf.enseeiht.fr/travaux/CD0102/travaux/optmfn/gpfmho/01-02/grp1/presenta.htm

Another technique - based on fluid dynamics in general - is the Flettner-Rotor ( based on the Magnus-Effect )
This works in a more controlled way as these turbulences are hard to excite and to control ( chaos ).


Magnus-effect discovered 150 years ago :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_effect

Flettner-Rotor - I just came to know two days ago :

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=Flettner+Rotor&go=Go

A Flettner-Rotor of  the size shown in these pics has about 10 times the size of the active cloth-surface of a sailboat.
A boat with this propulsion-system crossed th Antlantic ocean long time ago ( 1925) , see here a pic from an archive of a german engineer who build his own ship :
http://www.rafoeg.de/20,Dokumentenarchiv/10,Personenbezogenes_Archiv/,Hoehndorf_Rainer/Images/Flettnerschiff.jpg.

This is his webside, just for looking at the pics

There were also efforts in using this for aircrafts - and it works. It supplies a 7-times stronger uplift in comparison to normal wing-structure.


Most information in the web is in german language, as Anton Flttner was a german engineer :

http://www.buch-der-synergie.de/c_neu_html/c_08_08_windenergie_senkrechtachser.htm

It looks very odd - but the idea I got when I read your post here is to combine  the Flettner-Technique with what is shown in the last video-animation - for a better wind-turbine-design

Regards

Kator01