How to steal energy from hurricanes?

Speaking of the most destructive natural disasters, hurricanes are well deserved. After the hurricane landed, strong winds overturned the roof, heavy rains caused floods, and everywhere it went, it would become ruins. For example, Katrina, the most catastrophic and deadly hurricane in American history, although it landed with the intensity of a small hurricane, it still caused at least 75 billion US dollars in economic losses. 1836 people died and 705 people were missing.

Although the destructive power of hurricanes is amazing, they can be called "demons". But this "devil" will not only cause trouble, because hurricanes are also a huge "energy pool". According to calculations, a hurricane can generate 600 trillion watts of energy, which is equivalent to 200 times of the total energy that can be generated in a year in the world. Therefore, as long as human beings make good use of it, the "devil" will also benefit human beings. So, how do scientists use these tropical cyclones with great destructive power and strange whereabouts?

Most hurricane energy is stored in the form of heat energy, and water vapor is evaporated and condensed into rain and released. At present, with the level of human science and technology, it is impossible to use the heat energy of hurricanes.

Another part of the energy generated by hurricanes is wind energy, which only accounts for 1% of the energy generated by hurricanes, but researchers predict that hurricanes can create wind speeds of about 24 1km/h, which is also a considerable potential clean energy. Now, there are some new inventions that can use the wind energy of hurricanes.

Improved wind power generator

One way is to improve the wind turbine. Traditional wind turbines are composed of giant blades fixed in three directions. Wind power drives the windmill blades to rotate, and then the speed is increased by the speed increaser to drive the generator to generate electricity. However, in hurricane days, too fast speed and unpredictable wind direction will make the blades easily break. Therefore, when a hurricane or typhoon comes, in order to reduce losses, the turbine will be locked and stop generating electricity. Even so, the damage of typhoon to traditional wind turbines is devastating. In 20 13, a typhoon destroyed the 16 wind turbine off the coast of Japan. When Typhoon Tiantu landed in Honghai Bay, Shanwei, Guangdong, eight turbines of the local wind farm collapsed and eight others were damaged.

Now, a Japanese entrepreneur has improved the traditional blade turbine, eliminated its vulnerability and invented the world's first typhoon turbine.

The turbine generator is shaped like a huge coiled board used to fly kites. The main body is three cylinders with two ends fixed by Y-shaped frames, and the middle is connected with the vertical shaft on the ground. This can not only adapt to the wind in any direction, but also make full use of Magnus effect. Magnus effect says that when a rotating body is placed in a fluid, with the friction with the rotating body, the flow on one side of the fluid accelerates, while the flow on the other side slows down. This difference in flow velocity will produce a pressure difference, which will produce a force in the direction perpendicular to the fluid flow. With the help of the thrust generated by Magnus effect, the blades of the typhoon turbine are driven to rotate, and the three blades rotate together, which will eventually drive the vertical axis to rotate to generate electricity.

At the same time, the vertical axis can also control the speed of the blade. No matter how strong the external force is, as long as the vertical shaft tightens the blade, the rotation speed of the blade will slow down or completely stop, which can avoid the rotation speed of the blade from getting out of control in typhoon weather. Generally speaking, the efficiency of this kind of typhoon turbine can reach about 30%. Although the traditional wind turbine can reach 40%, it can't run normally in typhoon weather.

20 1 1 Before the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in March, Japan planned to achieve nuclear power accounting for 60% of primary energy utilization in 2020. After the accident, about 84% of Japan's energy had to be imported. The inventor believes that when such a typhoon generator is put into use, only one typhoon is needed to generate the electricity needed by Japan for 50 years. In 20 16, the world's first typhoon turbine generator was installed in Okinawa, Japan.

Hurricane "shield"

In the International Research Center of Florida International University, there is a hurricane wind laboratory. When you walk into the laboratory, you will see the world's largest hurricane simulation equipment-the windshield. The wind wall is very high and consists of two fans, each with a diameter of about 1.6m and one with a diameter of *** 12. Each fan is driven by a 700 horsepower engine. The maximum wind speed pumped by this 8400 horsepower system can reach about 256 kilometers per hour, which is equivalent to a category 5 hurricane.

At first, researchers at Florida International University just wanted to improve the design and materials of buildings that collapsed in the hurricane through experiments, including many details, such as nails, roof panels and air conditioning devices on the roof. Recently, however, researchers don't want to stop there. They designed a new invention: they can generate electricity while fighting against hurricanes.

When a hurricane blows towards a building, the wind will flow upward and form a vortex when it is blocked by a building. The vortex moves quickly when it rotates, tearing tiles and roof panels. Moreover, the air vortex that quickly blows over the roof and the air in the house will produce a pressure difference, forming an upward lift and overturning the whole roof. The device invented by scientists is as long as a propeller turbine and can be installed on the eaves or drainage troughs of the whole building, so that when a hurricane hits the building, it can use the powerful air vortex generated by it to weaken its destructive power.

In addition to reducing the impact of wind on buildings, turbines can also accumulate electric energy. When a family encounters a storm with a power outage level, the electricity generated by the turbine can maintain the power supply of the family for several days. Now, this equipment is still in the testing stage. If it is successfully developed in the future, it can not only use the wind energy of hurricanes, but also use the "breeze" with the speed exceeding 10 km per hour. In the future, with the help of this technology, it will be possible for every family to achieve self-sufficiency in electric energy without waiting for the power supply of the urban power grid.

Buoy can also generate electricity.

Hurricanes not only wreak havoc on land, but also set off huge waves in the ocean. 20 1 1 On August 27, 2008, Hurricane Irene arrived on the east coast of the United States, and the US government had already ordered millions of residents to evacuate. Compared with the hasty evacuation of human beings, a piece of equipment was placed in advance in the sea area where the hurricane will pass. Facing the huge waves, it is the PB3 energy buoy.

PB3 energy buoy is as high as14.3m and weighs10000t. It can be placed in the ocean with a depth of 20m ~ 1km, and consists of thick steel plates, single-column platforms, floats and other accessories.

Ordinary water buoys are used as navigation marks to mark the range of navigation channels and indicate shoals. When the hurricane passes by, scientists will study and track the hurricane through buoys equipped with sensors and determine its speed. So, how does PB3 generate electricity?

PB3 power generation mechanism makes full use of mechanical kinetic energy. Under the action of waves, the float will float up and down along the single-column platform to drive the motor in the single-column platform to generate electricity. At the same time, the thick steel plate anchored at the base of the distribution station will ensure that PB3 will not be blown away by wind and waves, and provide electric energy for the surrounding offshore equipment through underwater cables, which can also be stored in the storage battery carried by the single-column platform. These batteries can store 44 ~ 150 kwh of electric energy. When the battery is fully charged, the excess energy will be automatically released in the form of heat energy.

When Hurricane Irene passed by, PB3, which was at the forefront of the storm, not only withstood the waves of more than ten meters, but also maintained normal operation, sending reports of its own power and other data to the land laboratory every hour.

At present, PB3 energy buoy can only generate electricity for offshore equipment, such as oil drilling platforms, ships or seabed monitoring equipment. In 20 10, the R&D company of PB3 and the US Navy demonstrated in Hawaii that PB3 was directly connected to the land power grid to transmit electricity to the power grid. However, the technology of supplying power to the power grid is still immature.

This article comes from the third issue of Great Science and Technology 20 17.