ZED Powered Gravity Wheel.

[polln8r]

Hello Forum Members and Guests,

I decided to start a new thread for this ZED concept variation.

Attached is a rough diagram of the progression of each Zed unit (not necessarily the number of spokes on the wheel).

Though not represented in the diagram, the risers in each pod are locked together so move as a unit. The gold colored blocks represent  mass affixed to the  risers. Blue is water, White is air.

Thoughts, comments and suggestions are welcome. I think a good discussion should be had before anyone invests any time into a build.

polln8r.

[TinselKoala]

It reminds me of my avatar, with a ping-pong ball inserted into each chamber along with the red liquid (which is not strawberry pop, I'll tell you that much for nothing.)

That is really cool though the way you have your little bubbles and walls just right. I wonder if you could make it work in Algodoo/Phun.

[polln8r]

Yes, your avatar did come to mind. As did the Mondrasek magnet assisted gravity wheel video of yours ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcPuKv9Z-XE&feature=plcp ), which does make me question the whole concept of the ZedWheel ("The fundamental principle by which it was designed is incorrect.")

But, the ZedWheel (mrwayne, I call it this as a way to credit you with the Travis effect aspect of the design... hope this is OK), hopefully overcomes some of the hurdles the Mondrasek wheel could not. Namely, that it wouldn't (in theory) need to be rotating quickly for the bubbles to do their work.

I downloaded the trial demo of Algodoo but I think I'd have an easier time just building a real-world device, rather than trying to figure out that program with 14 hours of work-time. I may poke around in it some, but all I see happening is that I get so far into the design, then time runs out. A frustration I'd rather avoid!

The key question with ZedWheel is: Can the Travis effect elevate more mass than the water it displaces?

Assuming it could, would that be enough to rotate the wheel?

The diagram was made mostly to figure out how to channel the air parcel through a rotation. I imagine a refined design with a lot less water than is currently represented.

Another question: Does the Travis effect work with square angles? Or does it have to be round?

Cheers all,

polln8r

[TinselKoala]

Well, the real problem with all overbalanced wheels that are supposed to run in a "cycle" like the Mond wheel, my avatar, and every Bessler design I have ever looked at, is that they are not actually ever overbalanced. Mondrasek found this out when he analyzed his design rigorously, I think, which he actually did even before I completed my construction of the model, IIRC. I'm sure he'll jump in with the details, it's a fun story.

So before you go much farther it might be a good exercise if you sketched a "maximum" weight shift system, then accurately analyzed the arms, moments and the turning torques produced by them. You might find that, even though it _looks_ like it might be overbalanced and start to turn, it's really not. Imagine a wheel with 49 chambers. What happens is that you will get 25 on the "light" side and 24 on the "heavy" side, and that one extra mass on the "light" side balances out the extra arms on the "heavy" side. The CofM of the entire moving masses is shifted slightly over towards the "heavy" side from the center of the wheel itself, but still balances within itself, and no turning torques are produced on the wheel.

[polln8r]

Thank you for your input TK, it is very appreciated. The math required to figure this stuff out is long forgotten so I built a lego model to test out some of the principles. I think one benefit in the ZedWheel design is the positions of the pods when the weight shift would happen. Being right near the top and bottom it maximizes the total amount of overbalance in the system at any time. The lego model seems to show rotation is possible based on that. The big question (in my mind) is if the Travis effect can affect that much shift. The way I see it  the virtual air in the pod is allowing for more work to be done with less cost to momentum than other Bessler designs. I could be looking at the wrong way, though, please feel free to point out errors in my logic.

Cheers,

polln8r