Buoyancy-Based Power Generation - Full Disclosure

[sm0ky2]

While, knowing the mass-displacement of the bouyancy chamber, while in the working fluid, at a known pressure CAN be calculated.

In practice, the bouyant-force is measured, then the calculations are performed in reverse, to obtain the "effective displacement" volume.
This is because of the unknown pressure expansion curve of the low-pressure chamber seal. At different inner and outer pressures, rate and amplitude of expansion, the inner seal expands differently.
[note, this is a convex expansion function which can vary greatly with the use of different materials]

The B-unit must be first placed in the fluid, and the automated Zero-B state is iniated. This creates a "weightless" condition, and from there the B-unit scales the Bouyant state: positive (up force) and negative (down force gravity). We can measure bouyant force in either verticle direction at any desired state. With the measured verticle force, we can establish the displacement with respect to the mass of the B-unit, and its initial volume displacement.  It was mentioned before, the energy requirements to run the systems of the B-unit itself. To answer that question, the circuitry and logic chips used in the B-unit control systems consume less energy than a digital wristwatch.
The two power consuming functions are the wireless transmitter (optional) and the hydraulics used to alter the bouyant-state.
The latter accounting for 99% of the energy input, and also presents an engineering hurdle that must be overcome.
the test units are not large enough to carry their own hydraulics in air.
The mass per unit volume of a denser fluid such as water make this problem dissapear, even at test unit size, however, it would be more beneficial to displace additional fluid-mass to lift the additional mass and still provide usable bouyant force. that will get rid of the hose that tethers the B-unit's caliper to the ground-based main cylinder.
There is much room for design improvements, such as the use of plastic cylinders, or a lightweight aluminum tubing that has been investigated. low-density hydraulic fluids, ect.

The worm-gear actuator has been recently improved, it now uses a 5v motor, and is much smaller / lighter

the original test unit used a 12v  car window motor and actuator, to depress and retract, the hydraulic lever using a 6v util bat.
Now this is done using a wormgear on a much smaller compound-lever, lowering the size of the motor/actuator
and its energy use/ battery size.

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The actual power generation should take place with each invididual unit. This eliminates a majority of the timing concerns, and cooridinating all parts of the system.  Link the interface to a large flywheel, and a 1-way "freewheel" greaing to a much smaller driveshaft. simlar to a bicycle.... the moving B-unit gets the flyhweel moving, and this power is translated to the generator shaft at much faster RPM. additional flywheel mass can be added to the shaft itself, which keep the generator in operation constantly, although the B-units are adding energy periodically.

Think of those toys, where you pull a zip-string, and the driveshaft spins, then a freewheel gear and spring combination wind the zip-cord back up.
something kind of like that, but more cyclical, probably two-stage.
up and down.

the up-gear would be larger, to make use of the slower speeds and greater upward (bouyancy dependent) torque,
the down-gear would be smaller than the up, to make use of gravity's constant speed, and mass-dependent torque.

Using that type of generation interface, then you can control the number of units rising and falling independently, as well as the unload and reload phases. That may be one benefit of an "air-lock", that you can separate x-number of B-Units, to reload, without disrupting the main track with upper tank seals. Just pump the water back to the main tank, as necessary.

If the generation interface were to be a continious loop it could be geared like a bicycle-chain, with a clutch that releases during the unload-reload phases, and changes to a larger gear during the "up" phase.

so at any given time, you can have whatever number of up-units, and down-units adding energy to the driveshaft. in theory, you could just store whatever ammount of energy into the mass of the fly-wheel, and generate power at a constant rate via the drive shaft.

[sm0ky2]

Here is an example of how something like this could be done.
a mechanism to engage/disengage the interface with any individual B-Unit can link the units to a belt or chain, possible multiple B-units driving a single chain, but not necessarily.

as the chain goes around the loop, it drives a geared wheel, which in turn rotates a much smaller driveshaft. multiple drive chains exert power onto the driveshaft at any given time, and this is translated to a flywheel.
a cone-belt transmission on the driveshaft, allows power to be taken from the Flywheel at a controllable rate, regardess of the fly-wheels velocity.

so a clutch at the top and bottom of the loop will disengage the slower "up" gear, allow for the horizontal transition, then engage the faster "down gear", B-unit falls, the lower clutch disengages the down-gear, and the B-unit is reloaded, then clutch engages the up-gear again.

this can be done with a notch-type design cut into the upper and lower track, that guide the chains onto and off of a set of 3 gears, up, down and freespin.  i drew a crude picture of some of these possible components...

[sm0ky2]

in the example with the scuba diver, and his emergency lifevest
That little CO2 cartridge is packing approx ~  881.3 Joules of energy

take your boat, out into the ocean, 80-90 feet or so.
strap a bunch of heavy gear to your body, and swim down the the bottom,
Now give your friend your favorite wenching system, loaded with 881.3 Joules of energy.
and you will understand why scuba gear now includes a BCD (bouyancy control device).
dont forget to pull the chord on your CO2 cartridge lifevest, before you drown.

[quantumtangles]

Are you building your machine smoky?

I am waiting for a mathematician's feedback in relation to my own machine before a build attempt. Makes sense to do the maths first don't you think?

[sm0ky2]

Are you building your machine smoky?

I am waiting for a mathematician's feedback in relation to my own machine before a build attempt. Makes sense to do the maths first don't you think?

the B-units i built several years ago flew in air, carrying ther own hydraulic cylinder (not the pump), they work.

Underwater, the bouyancy mathematics are the same, and the logic-chip that controls the B-Unit works in water or air (or any fluid/gas).

there was problems with tensil-strength and outside pressure that collapsed the water unit in on itself, so the unit's casing has to be redesigned to make it stronger. Creating a low-pressure chamber in air is a lot easier than doing it underwater, but it can be done. I have seen floating concrete blocks what were "evacuated" hollow centers, plugged with rubber. the weight of the B-unit is not the problem, and the pressure needed for the hydraulics to expand it is still in range of the pumps we used.
its the casing that needs to withstand the waterpressure, and inner low-pressure.
the math with the energy involved is straight forward.

the math with pressure inside/out and tensil strength of the casing goes far beyond my bachelor's engineering education... thats going to require some professional assistance to do the math on that one. Probably the same guys that design Submarines.
  i found a work-around solution that can withstand far greater pressures than are required, but as for the math on that i dont know enough to even try..

i can do water pressure at depth-X, but when you add in a low pressure chamber it gets far more complicated. because there is not outward pressure on the inner surface of the chamber, like there is with a pressurized-gas chamber.
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In air, we work in terms of Bars, 1 bar for a collapsed B-unit, 2 Bars when it is expanded (maximum bouyant state).
A 0-B state is approx. 1.3 Bars
or in terms of the hydraulic system 130,000 Pa. which is roughly 1/10th of the pressure applied to the brakes on your car when you stop. This is for a low-pressure chamber volume of 0.07 m^3 .
This creates a weightless state, and is (roughly) the starting point of the logic-chip controller when it boots up, or the command is given to return to the 0-B state.

Larger B-units will require more hydraulic pressure to achieve bouyancy. The technology was originally designed for use in a flying craft, but there wasnt enough interest in the device to continue development.

Relating the pressure to actual input energy, in terms of electricity from the battery, is better measured than calculated. because of all the components involved in the electric motor, lever, hydraulic actuator, master-cylinder compression ratio, ect., It can be calculated using standard conversion for pressure, but in practice, the system experiences great losses, and thus the battery consumption is far more than the energy to create said pressure. This, as i noted previously, does not relate directly to bouyant force, created by the device.

the logic system is 5v at very low current, and its energy usage has been completely ignored in terms of "input energy", because the value is somewhat negligible.
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My interest in using this as an energy generation system was derrived from a simple equation:   mgh

once this balances out with the energy of the hydraulic system:

leveraged force x distance of lever depression
                             = (mass of the B-unit) x (9.8 m/s) x (height)

everything else is essentially "free energy".
Bouyancy continues indefinitely, within the limitations of our atmospheric pressure, which is theoretically over a mile high.