Hi Folks,
I think it's very likely that centrifugal force is an avenue to OU. I've done some research & calcs.
These are Industrial Vibration Motors, designed to provide large centrifugal forces. They're used in vibration testing, moving stuff around, lots of uses:
http://www.venanzettivibrazioni.it/cataloghi/manuale_uso_standard.pdfFor example, model code V2017 from the above pdf:
- 3000 PM (50 RPS) @ 50Hz
- Centrifugal Force: 520Kg
- Power Rating: 430Watts
The attached diagram (sorry it's badly drawn), shows two of the above motors, facing each other - to give a purely up & down motion. They're mounted on a base plate, which is attached to springs suspending it from something - not shown. Below the base is a big magnet, and a coil. As the motors rotate the magnet goes in and out of the coil - generating electricity.
- The input power is 2 x 430 Watts - i.e. 860 Watts.
- The output force is 1040Kg max.
The coil, under load, reacts against the magnet producing an opposing field - as per Faraday's law. This means you have to push the magnet hard into the coil. The force required can be (roughly) calculated from the simple solenoid equation:
Force in Newtons = AmpTurns * CoreFaceArea / CoilLength
I've done some rough calcs for a generator coil - aiming to produce over 10,000 Watts from this arrangement - and this is what I came up with. It is totally impractical - as the current would burn out the wire on the first swing, (it'd need to be broken up into many smaller coils) but I think it's true to say that it's a fair indication of how much power you could get out - for how much force in:
- Coil Length: 50mm
- Inside Diam: 75mm
- 1650 Turns of 2mm copper
- 4.8 Ohms DC resistance
Moving a 1 Tesla permanent magnet in and out (i.e. 50mm movement), at 50 cycles per second, gives the following values, by Faraday's law:
- 364 Volts
- 75 Amps
- 27,000 Watts
The max force required, by the solenoid equation above, is 560Kg. About half of what our two motors can produce.
So, by these figures, this setup would have a COP of about 30. A more practical arrangement might be to connect the sprung motors / baseplate directly to a standard generator via a crank... Also, the spring tension would really need to be tuned to the running frequency. Maybe springs aren't even necessary...
Calculating output power a slightly more standard / obvious way:
If we assume an average force of 500Kg from the 2 motors, and a crank of 25mm, the Torque is:
500 * GRAVITY * 0.025
= 122 Newton / Meter
Power at 50 Hz = TORQUE * TWOPI * 50
= 38,000 Watts
The big assumption here is that the motor can provide 50mm of movement. I'm guessing that 50mm is at the outside range of what it might do at 50Hz - and it'd depend on how it was attached I guess. Maybe the springs (tuned for resonance), would give us any extra throw required.
Maybe - to make it really easy - you could just mount the motor(s) on the crank itself? If the motor was attached so it stayed horizontal, I think the forces on the crank would be the same as if it was connected via a con-rod. But I'm not sure... Also - the rotary motion of the eccentrics in the motors is exactly the same as the crank - so the power transfer should be close to 100%?
Update: Here's a design which I think should work. Attached below. The eccentric motor is mounted on a plate, attached to a connecting rod - connected to the generator crank. The con-rod can move up & down & side to side - and it transmits the power from the eccentric to the crank.
Note - I drew the eccentric mass in the wrong position - it should be down in that position. The eccentric leads the crank by 90 degrees - thus providing force tangentially to the crank - which is just what you want to maximise power transfer.
It's more fun than watching telly.
