Buoyancy/gravity wheel - another approach?

[norman6538]

Thanks Vidar,
I would start by manually switching and measuring the forces to see that there is
OU potential and then go on to making the valves work automatically and then
with the power available I'd kick the block over the edge and use that power to
switch the valves and hopefully have extra left over to use elsewhere.

In some other work I have done that has OU there has to be about 250-300% to
do the switching so that it will self run. So If I used 1 foot lb to push the block
in place then it would have to have lets say 100% more to do the switching and
100% more to kick the block out and 100% more to kick the next block in place
roughly.

Norman

[norman6538]

The question I'm struggling with now is if I have a 10 foot tall device and a 20 foot
tall device made the same will the taller one have more power available like a 10 foot dam verses a 20 foot dam of water for power.

Anybody got a bead on that concept?

There have been some other buoyancy devices around in the last few years but
I could not understand the basics enough to believe in them.

Norman

[sm0ky2]

Looks nice!
Now you need automatic valves that is activated by the buoyant material. Only one problem; How do the buoyant material jump out of the upper reservoir and down in the lower reservoir so it can repeat the cycle?


Vidar

its at the top of the water, because its floating.
so you only have to move it a small amount, then you have available all of the energy of the mass as it falls back to the bottom.
some kind of pulley system could be generating energy with the mass of several floats, and some of that can be used to pick up the floats out of the water.

that can be automated easily.
have a wheel with hooks on it, that picks them up and transfers them to the pulley belt. then at the bottom, you have some sort of mechanism to reload them into the tube.

switches inside the tube can be activated by the floats to open and close the locks.

[sm0ky2]

If we put the buoyant object beneath the rock, it will float like a dock
channels at the top and bottom can be used to move the rocks to and from the tube
to the loading areas where they enter and exit the pulleys.

assuming all objects are the same physical size::

    a 1 Ton rock displaces 3/4Ton of water
    the buoyant object (Styrofoam?) weighs 0.01 Ton, but also displaces 3/4 Ton of water
each object has an upwards force from 3/4 ton of water they are displacing (1 & 1/2 Tons of water!!)
so gravity is only affecting the (now) 1/4Ton rock and 20 lbs of Styrofoam which leaves 0.49 Tons for upwards force.

that's obviously too much buoyancy for a practical system, but if you were able to get it into the tube the rock will have no problem raising itself as high as you can build your tube....

Also, with the locks, the water pressure is not the full force of water above,
but only what is in the lowest lock

if the buoyant force and the total mass of rock and float are dissimilar enough only to make it slightly buoyant
the input energy can be minimized and easily compensated for by height of tube.

someone builds this..... may just win that prize 

[sm0ky2]

Energy input takes place 4 times::

1)  E = mgh1
2) E = mgh2
3) E = dgh3 (d is the displacement)
4) E = energy to control valves in the tube (unknown?)
    note that this valve energy will be a constant value based on water pressure and volume of the water system.
    This is completely separated from the energy value of the mass cycle. we change the mass and buoyancy, the valve control energy does not change.

Energy out:   E = mgh`