@M, nice explanation.

The next step would be to find a way to capture the Work Output while in this unbalanced condition?
It is coming.

@Dennis,  very nice.

Regards, Larry

@M - Your anonymous contributor is quite a word-smith. He did a very clear job of expressing something Webby1 and Wayne have both mentioned a few times. I've been trying to design those same control elements into my test bed because I really think that is where a lot of the benefit of this technique comes from. Wayne's hydraulic cylinder and valves is perfect for that type of control but does suffer from friction losses that would probably kill a small model.

Great to have confirmation that I might be planning along some of the right lines.
Dale

Hi All,

I just finished uploading 5 short animations (about 35 seconds each), to my public ZED dropbox.  They are about 3.8 MB each.  A low resolution video can be seen in your browser, but to get a good look, you will have to download them to your machine. 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6vdnbk72ywyckns/zB501rT78P

One shows a zero layer system as a reference.  The other four are for the 1 layer system.  They go along with the simulator PDF description.

I have presented the animations that I thought would be helpful in understanding the simulation.  However, my simulator program is built modular enough that I can change any dimension, add or remove views, do multiple simulations at once, show different internal parameters on the graph, or list different parameters in the table.  I am open to requests for additional views that you think would improve the understanding of how this works.

I can also dial in a simulation for a physical model that someone else has built to compare simulation to real world.  I currently only have 1 layer simulated until it is verified before adding additional layers.  How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.

One private comment I had questioned if because I am not showing an over unity case on 1 layer, does that mean that the ZED can not work?
No, what have done so far does not rule out a working ZED because:

1. My simulation has not been verified to accurately reflect the real world
2. The test case geometry presented is far from an optimum configuration
3. I must include the middle layers to see the contribution for each added one to the overall efficiency.

I plan on making this a friendly and robust process.  Skeptics are welcome to contribute to this effort.

One more thing regarding my simulated test case.  There is no real setup involved.  When in the down state, all air pressures start at zero PSI from atmosphere.  I have the ability in the sim to preset the air PSI in each layer to a different value, but for the sake of a small model, I am running with the idea that the setup should be to add a fixed volume of water to the tank pockets, drop the riser into place, and put a rubber gasket screw into each layer vent hole while the riser is pushed down.  That is all.  All counterbalancing would be with external weights, like sand in a cup.  No rocket science here.

Uh-oh. Looks like somebody has an even better buoyancy drive than MrWayne. Quieter, smaller, and already making lots of electrical energy. And his explanation is simple enough that even Koalas can understand it.

http://www.whec.com/news/stories/s2728359.shtml?cat=565