View Single Post
  #97   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
Home Guy Home Guy is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,557
Default Wide vs narrow blades (was: New study on wind energy)

harry used improper usenet message composition style by full-quoting:

I can move air with flat blade angled at 45 degrees. The blade
doesn't need a foil-shaped cross section - instead it can be flat.
When a flat blade is angled (any angle other than 0) and rotated,
it is pushing air out of the way as it turns.

Similarly, wind that wants to move past the blade must push it
aside, and in doing so it will rotate the hub. The more surface
area you present to the wind (ie the wider the blade) the more
rotational force you transmit to the hub.

Explain what's wrong with my concept.


The thing you describe is a "plate or thin aerofoil"


Well ****.

If a conventional airplane wing is a foil, and if a flat plate can be a
foil, then ****, everything and anything can be a foil according to
you. So where does that get us?

No matter which way you cut it, you're still left with capturing a
lateral force (ie = wind pressure) and convert it into rotational
energy. A flat blade angled at 45 degrees will probably get you the
most torque and rotational speed out of a given breeze of air (but it's
totally possible that optimal blade angle is a function of RPM), and the
more surface area your blade has, the more of that wind energy it can
convert into rotational energy.