http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Fi1VcbpAI
this is the tacoma norrows bridge and it was an engineering failure of monumental proportions. Also it shows the power of properly timed "pushes" can result in HUGE amounts of energy. this did not happen in gail force wins or hurricanes. it was a persistant 25-40 mile an hour wind properly channeled through the valley and hit the bridge just right. now imagine if you could use that energy to drive a crankshaft or something. but it was a mistake in engineering that allowed this bridge to fall. trust me they thought it was going to be up for more than a month. there is another walkway some where in the world that oscillates the same way and some people can walk over it, a little akward but others get severe motion sickness for the sway is about 5 feet side to side. all of this energy is coming from a steady breeze. more energy is coming out of these two examples than any windmill out there. i think that a properly timed pulse can give out extremely more power than what it takes to push it ,like pushing my daughters on the swing, but i also believe that if the power is being tapped into to early than the assembly cant achieve the most power. Like if they had tie rods hooked up to the bridge and tried to get power out of it right away it would not have swayed at all. although it would be hard to attach them after the bridge is swaying 20 feet up and down but i think you know what i am saying.
also on a side note i am a tool maker with a full shop available to me so if you feel you have a great design but it needs to be cleaned up a bit to work properly(i.e. proper bearings, ground and balanced shafts and whatnot) send me a print or sketch or whatever i got 3-D cad software to clean up the bar napkins i am sure to recieve. i am not making parts for free but if the design really and truly seems reasonable i can work out something where you buy the material and i can give you some free labor or something.
email:dsmer1991@comcast.net
getting 4-cylinder cars to run 7's in the quarter mile was a huge step so much power out of something so small. we can do it again.
The following device shows a means of tapping this very energy.
http://www.overunity.com/index.php?topic=5641.0
that is pretty cool using the rubber tensioning belt. not really the same as 300 tonnes of concrete and steel but same physics. i am just thinking along the lines of bigger badder and whatever. i saw he was powering a few led's and that is awesome but i could not even imagine the amount of calculations you would have to figure out to get that movement out of a bridge.
Build one or two big belts or use thousands of little belts.
In either case I see one type of setup would be to use a single mast erected into the air,
and then run the belts out from there to ground anchors.
8)
That footage of the bridge brings back memories of my physics class in high school. If you notice the car on the bridge just prior to the collapse, that belonged to Professor Farkinson, who was on the bridge studying the wind effects up close and personal. In the original film we saw in the class, you could see the brave Professor jump into his car and depart just seconds before the collapse. If I am not mistaken, he also had his dog with him in the car. Great example of resonance for sure.
Bill