Introduction

The present invention concerns a hybrid (i.e. it works partly as an action turbine and partly as a reaction turbine) mixed-flow turbine able to operate with a fluid flow in the liquid phase, gaseous, and even multi-phase, without involving chemical reactions or combustion processes. This turbine can lead to an improvement in the environmental conditions of both the entire transport and electricity production systems.

Technical features

The construction of high performance turbines necessarily involves the increase of the values of the input flow rate or the average velocity of the oncoming flow, or both of these quantities. This implies the need to build large industrial plants dimensions, with consequent high production, installation and management costs. The hybrid character of the present turbine impeller allows to extract power from the machine using both the typical methods of the internal flows (thrusts discharged on the constituent elements of the impeller), and those related to the development of the forces around the wing profiles that are arranged inside the same elements of the impeller (the so-called thrust ducts). Then, depending on the power of the final machine to be assembled, the impellers of the present invention can be mounted on the support tower one above the other in the desired number, thus configuring a wind turbine with the desired power using multiple impellers all equal to each other. Laboratory tests carried out on a prototype of a small-scale impeller exposed to the air flow of a wind tunnel, were conducted up to a speed of 170 km/h without any particular negative consequences.

 

Possible Applications

• Residential environments:
  • The scalable size, reduced noise and vibrations allow the turbine to be placed on roofs or balconies;
  • It has a capacity of 2kW, and can provide up to 50% of a family home’s energy needs;
• In the aeolic field it can be applied in the presence of (multi-direction) strong winds to which traditional turbines cannot resist;
• As a “range extender” in electric electric vehicle to increase its autonomy or in hybrid vehicles to operate in electric mode at speeds even considerably higher than those currently allowed.

Advantages

• Modular characteristics;
• Desired power configuration of an aeolic turbine;
• Great advantages in terms of costs, robustness, simplicity of manufacture and assembly;
• It can be used with any type of fluid (water, air, multiphase, etc.) and in the presence of omnidirectional or one-way flow.