Plastickmat

I've been quite busy but I see you have grasped the idea of my questions and project and find it very amusing in a positive way.


The outboard motor type of seal is exactly what I think we need I'm just trying to figure out how I could apply this to a 1.5 meter diameter wheel, and since a motor drives itself, it can overcome friction associated with a seal but when you produce energy from movement friction induced by a seal becomes an efficiency factor (in my opinion) I may be wrong and some seals may be quite efficient in their way...

As for the magnets I find it interesting to use a modular approach but how "APPROXIMATELY" does one "estimate" the distance between each magnet, how long it must be how much winding is necessary to produce an X amount of voltage/current at a fixed RPM of (240RPM for now)

Thanks for your valuable inputs :

PS. I looked at the tesla turbine and do not completely understand the concept as I see its a series of lines on a cylinder there doesn't seem to actually be a "blade" onto which a fluid or gas propells from..?
Thanks again

Since the turbine will not have a shaft but on the contrary will bear magnets on its perimeter (in a sealed compartment that I have not yet imagined how I will seal since it is moving) than I also think there are advantages to reducing moving parts.

Any suggestions for the sealing compartment?

Wow Thanks Guys !

In quick reply to plasmahunt3r, I had guessed and did some research concerning the fact it was best to get a low RPM setup, I was looking at what was required to achieve this and it seems that there's proportion with the number of POLES involved to reduce as much as possible the RPM necessary to achieve a specific frequency (and or voltage/current still unsure of some facts) My question would be how would I efficiently size this if I know the approximate water force and speed coming through my turbine.

In reply to your response mikrovolt, I was just thinking about that because our concept is underwater, and we haven'T really found an efficient way to seal the magnet compartment from water infiltration without comprising "zero friction" on the spin of the wheel, would epoxy covered windings resist being exposed to water and does a magnetic field lose effiency under water? Can current still be produced?

Hi guys, currently working on a project with a couple of team mates in college and this is all new stuff to us, we are at the stage of putting together the "generator" part of our water generating mill that uses water current to spin a turbine (something quite classic but the goal is to conceive it from A - Z )

What bums out most of us, is how exactly the magnets need to be positioned (distance from wiring, spacing etc.) , the size and number of them is also unknown. What about how much WIRING we need is there a way to calculate all of these parameters?

its a hypothetical "20-50KW" producing generator (yes quite big but since we are only going to be drawing out the plans and only going conception wise its more of a number crunching scenario as the generator will never actually be made in this project)

What materials are best used considering price is not a problem for now, and how do we determine the speed the generator needs to spin to get a set amount of power (I know car generators can spin anywhere from 500RPM to 7000RPM on most cars and a voltage regulator seems to keep voltages ranging between 11-14V as an average)

Thanks for all your time!

I thank all of you for your time