Goal: Thrust
But no wings, no rotor, no propeller, no jet, no rocket...
Vortexrings for thrust, how should that work?
Everybody knows the power of a tornado, but no one has been able to apply it for a n aircraft's main lift/thrust. A vortexring is commonly known as a smoke ring, for its visability, but the unvisable ones ar all around us. Used by birds, fish, insects.. nature knows about it. A vortex ring is like a tornado that bents 360º into a circle. It is pretty efficiënt in keeping the energy within its system and it can travel through a fluid for quite a distance.
The secret of vortexrings for thrust is the center ring of low pressure.
What we want:
- More efficient aerodynamic thrust & lift.
- Low pressure on one side of a solid surface, and normal airpressure (about 10.000 KG per M2) on the other side.
- A pressure difference that has enough thrust force to lift a heavy aircraft.
The problem
It's easy to suck away the air from one side to get lower pressure, but the trouble is that the ambient air (the surrounding atmospheric air) filles in the void (the emptynes) extremely fast; destroying the area of lower pressure. Removing the new air again and again is an option, but a very inefficiënt one. That is how aircraft do it today and why they use so much fuel.
The solution
A vortexring might offer the solution.
A Vortexring is like a tube with no beginning and no end; it's a circle.
Inside this tube is low pressure, that can sustain for a relative long period of time. And because it is a circling system; it is very energy efficient.
How to harvest this low pressure?
Well; we need half a vortexring on top of a surface, giving two low pressure contacts in the same direction!
This is NOT about the same as reducing the pressure in a closed tube, that would not work. Inside, the walls have about the same airpressure as outside. It's the vortex that's keeping the low pressure captured.
Options
- A vortexring can be split at one point and bent to one half, or split at two points resulting in two halfs.
- Continually creating new half vortexrings, ones that don't last.
- Build and maintain one lasting vortexring, feed it to become extremely powerful.
Non-lasting vortexrings are easy to create. A rapidly pumping tube will create one vortexring at each cycle, using the ambient fluid as medium. This does also create thrust. Search for "synthetic jet propulsion" on the internet.
A stationary vortex is fed in two ways:
- Sucking air out of the core
- Directing the new air in at high speed and at the right angle.
More force
The bigger and faster spinning a vortexring is, the stronger the pressure difference.
Is a curved vortex possible? Yes! They are out there:
sources: unknown or in/under the picture (I'll place a link if you let me know who)
The experiment (2006-11-24)
The very first experiment of its kind I did wasn't a great success. I couldn't tell how much thrust it was creating, if any at all. What are the options?
A- I got it all wrong, it will never work.
B- It will work, but the experiment wasn't done right.
It is hard for me to do experiments, for I can only move my head. Can you help?
Movies:
1- No motion, only while turning off
2- Motion, but not much, and what is it causing it? (the hose?)
(do you have the newest QuickTime?)
It might seem the same as the Coanda Effect, but theres a difference: The vortex's lower pressure center, giving more thrust. If this is an energy efficient thrust creating method, an array of vortex rings cannons could be placed on top of a surface. The next goal is to make a stationary "free" (not enclosed) 1/5 vortex ring on top of a surface.
Words to search for, on the internet:
- Vortex Ring, or Vortexring.
- Smoke ring (a vortexring of smoky gas)
- Horseshoe Vortex (a natural type of turbulence, halfe a vortexring!)
- Synthetic Jet (pulsating vortexrings generating micro thrust thingy)
- Vortex Tube (turns pressured air into hot ánd cold air)
- Leading Edge Vortex (LEV) (so thát is how small birds and delta wings do generate lift!)
- Toroidal Vortex (the fancy word for donut)
- Pulse jet (creates vortex rings)
