1884 A Vortex Turbine In The Making 

WOW... this sure fired up the engineer in me. If this were modified very little it could be a regenerator of energy from the water mains in every village, town or city in the world.

Love your videos sir! Great inspiration to get my butt in gear on projects that have fallen by the wayside. Thank you!

I am working on a similar line Rob, my thought is feeding from a bell syphon rather than directly from the downpipe to provide a greater flow. The syphon barrel fills from the gutters at whatever the rainfall is and then when full dumps the contents over the turbine. This way you don't loose the light rain running ineffectively over the turbine it stores it and releases in a usable burst.

I love the direction you have been going with these the past several videos. You could even make a second one bigger that goes under this one. The water that comes out of the first would spin the second as well.

Good job, Rob. You actually are providing inspiration for thousands. Also, this recent design in the blade and cone of this all in one wind generator and now rainwater generator is developed inspiration. Keep it up. 😊

From little things.. big things grow! Great work matey👍

Rob, it would be interesting to see the effect of laminar flow versus turbulent flow of the incoming water on the overall efficiency of the turbine. To pick up off of another person’s comment, the turbines could be placed in series. How close one turbine is to another would be limited by the turbulence. Another factor that would affect efficiency would be the water exiting the turbine. If one doesn’t give enough space to the exiting water, turbulence will in essence back up and interfere with the rotation of the turbine blades. I am imagining a series of inverted bell shaped housings that give enough room for the water being flung outwards by one turbine to then funnel it into the next. This is cool stuff!!! Keep up the good work and happy exploring!

Robert love it go ahead and if you could make a hubless style insert For a downspout with fins on the inside of the pipe with no impedance of airflow in the center of the pipe. Wind a serpentine out side and spin the magnets

Thank you for bringing the idea to the elctronic and real world! I was thinking of something like this back in the pc fan giveaway video submissions but never got to it. I absolutely love your ideas and work

Eyy Rob, why not make a DUAL generator? Mount that wind collector on top of a rain-gutter pipe so when rain does not flow down it, the air will and...voila! For both rain and wind.... and hey, wile at it.... sun heated air raises right? So make a black canister that heats up air and lets it flow upwards the rain gutter pipe and spin the generator that way as well? 😊 Love your channel, makes my day every day. Keep the ideas flowing mate!👍😀

It's so cool seeing that you're using Tinkercad for at least some of your designs. I've been using it for years and find it super intuitive and quite powerful

One thing I thought of is hooking up a solar water heater, increasing the solar area to push the water to a higher temp and possible expansion into steam through the turbine and recycle back to the heating element. A closed solar steam turbine that works even when there is little to no wind.

Always great to see your wonderful videos

Really got some wonderful ideas you keep running into and exploring their possibilities

Good lad, inspiring stuff!

Thank you Robert. As always your enthusiasm is highly infectious!!😊😊

Also thinking that this would be an interesting thing to try in a wave power system in place of the Wells turbine they used on Isla in Scotland.

I love your explorations. Keep 'em coming.

Brilliant!

Another inspiring video. Thanks. Your foray into hydrodynamic turbine design is similar to a long used turbine called the "Francis runner" design, but in reverse. The Francis runner is surrounded by a structure called the scroll case which directs incoming water in a spiral around the runner to apply equal pressure and flow into the runner blades from the outside, spinning the runner, with the water then discharging down through the center of the runner into a chamber called the draft tube, and then on its merry way. There are various and quite different styles of hydro turbine designs, each specialized to be most efficient for the pressure and velocity of the incoming water, called "head pressure" which, in turn, is usually dependent on the vertical distance the water drops through a pipe or penstock feeding the turbine. Thanks again, and keep inspiring future engineers to continue exploring and inventing.

Your philosophy sets you apart from others: Curiosity is endless; discovery is its own reward; the journey is the point. Thanks for sharing yours!

Rob you should see how this works with the type of stream used in a Pelton. Maybe have a reservoir above to create pressure and feed it down to a small stream set as best you can in the center of the spike. Love the updates! You're in a hurry to explore and I feel lucky having found someone like you. I'm watching your videos everyday. You may not think of yourself as a giant, but you've certainly given me some shoulders to stand on and I'm excited to share what I end up making. Thanks for being who you are as always!

besides these great Devices I love Roberts sometimes almost child like enthusiasm 🤓

Creating and sharing different ideas for all to explore. Well done rob.

Love the video and the concept. Where I live there isn’t much rain and no streams or rivers nearby to tap into. But I’m thinking a pumped water storage system where solar power can pump a tank of water to the roof in daylight and controlled release at night. I only need about 500w per hour over night so it might be feasible. Anxious to see the next step.

Fantastic I love how your mind works good Sir, have a wonderful day!

Noticing the comments.. and thought I’d throw in … A vortex turbine ,in a tower with water and air ..and add into the mix a heavy fly wheel as well , to beef up the torque out put on the flywheel axis to push larger generation load …. Food for thought. !

absolutely fantastic

you could put your coil on the outside of the pipe and the magnets and turbine on the inside. will need a very good high flow filter/screening system as this kind of turbine will be prone to fowling.

If your going to set this up for water, just think if you make funnel or something like it to recapture the water and could put many in succession and get as much as you can out of w/e height the water fell from. Could have a few just in a meter or so of height, like the water coming off the roof of houses. Edit: at the bottom of the fall could also get a trompe hammer going too. to reclaim some of that lost energy or potential, maybe...

Brilliant as always. Ty. :)

Yesss! Exploring is key. ❤ Having fun exploring and enjoying a creative journey is priceless :)

Dr. Smith, consider if you would a 2 serpentine coil system. A coil on the inside and a coil on the outside with the magnets sandwiched in between the 2 coils. Just a thought. Twice the use from the one set of magnets.

There is something i think you'd like exploring - atmospheric vortex engine. There is an idea to use waste heat from traditional (or nuclear) power plants to make o big vortex that would drive some air turbines close to it's base. It would raise the efficiency of these power plants. The vortex mechanic would be analogous to the fire vortex you made in some video. Some people are trying to build a working model for decades now.

Nifty. Go Bob!!

You are amazing. Loving it. Unconditional love respect and gratitude

We are all at the mercy of SI units.the Vorbine changes the wind direction 90 degrees, thats good efficiency. fascinating work.

Just mount the squirrel cage to a windmill generator bolt, as they are made to survive the outdoors & water. I actually have both. Thanks for the idea!!

Fabulous!

Great job as always 👍 what i like about it is it's stackable ❤maybe even just waves or river current would be enough to work

You should try covering all surfaces with golf ball dimples to reduce friction

Seems to me that this could be quite handy on a sailboat. Install it at the top of the mast, and it should get you power anytime you're not completely becalmed, with far less impact on performance than you'd get with the typical water propellor dragging system.

Fabulous subject and loving the videos. In awe of the making. You may have problems if trying to generate from a drainpipe as the water tends to flow along the pipe surface. You will need some method of directing that water from the pipe internal surface to the centre to "fall" on your rotor. Good luck

It's the journey that matters, not the destination, that's a great philosophy Robert, looking forward to seeing the drain pipe generator, looks great 👍👍

Robert you read my mind what I wanted to do with a low elevation thanks hello from Italy Robert you are amazing 👍👍👍👍

AMAZING Mate

Excellent mate: this video has made me realise that a steam turbine is really just a glorified wind turbine!

Create a huge Heron's fountain to power the generator using your turbine and we would be good to go. I really envy your abilities keep up the good work.

I remember seeing plans for this exact style of turbine in Popular Mechanics (et al) back in the 60s. Except it was HOUSE sized, literally. It was a build on addition to existinting structures and took wind from any direction, up through the turbine.

Thank you :)

Down the rabbit hole with Robert Murray-Smith! Love it. Cheers

Love it 👌

A great example of use of a basic program like Tinker CAD to make quite complex geometries well past the initial perception of what tinker CAD is typically used for . Great work Rob.

Love it brother! Keep laughing

If you keep advancing your energy producing projects, eventually you will create a system to rival or better any other air or hydro driven electrical generator systems out there.

excellent

Thank you very much. Please explore toroidal coil rotating blades for your top . You are awesome!!

I'm always shocked. At the beginning how horrible the sound is but how much I dont care by the end because of how good the content is. :) keep it up my friend

great April fool trick Robert.... nearly got me there! (Joking, of course!) Love the reference to the Darwin cage because this project is evolutionary :)

Expanding the base with a taper to match the outboard flow shown at 2:04 would support flow through and give more room for a larger the serpentine coil. The numerous revisions you have been working on have been wonderful

Thanks

If you make the cone for the top of the Darwin wind turbine (1882 0:30) hollow you could probably fix it to a gutter system and have it do duel duty.. especially if you have a shroud to direct the wind and water to flow downward towards the runoff outlet (and/or a secondary turbine at the base)

Thank You. I am thinking about water for this as well

Rob thank you so much for these. One thing I'd love to see is charging stone kind of battery front all of these devices. You've shown volt meters, lights etc. But if you'd charge the same battery every time it might help to compare the various experiments in terms of actual useable output. Just a thought.

It is fun watching this progress. One very important difference between gas and liquid is that water does not compress. This may be a reason to change the shape or angle of the blades. Keep exploring!!!

To borrow from my favourite physicist, it's all about the pleasure of finding things out :) [edit] Actually when i reminded myself about the joy on Feynman's face in that interview when he was talking about physics... That looks quite the same as when Robert talks about things and how they work😁

Very good that it's exciting. I can't wait to put it together around my house at all the downspouts. Wire into the basement to a battery Bank. also put it in the Stream in my backyard in a larger capacity and wire it to the house.

Yes, its about the journey not the destination. But its also fun to arrive from time to time ^^ Cool video.

looking forward

This looks like it would be a good generator for the hot/cold pump in a vacuum that Jeremiah is investigating.

And a venturi above it. With an oval start of the venturi wider then the vacuum pipe for the extra air to come along.

Nice!

I've had a downpipe generator bouncing around for years, in my head, it takes a man like you to make it a reality. Just a thought Rob, if the downpipes diameter was reduced gradually over its length it would create a pressurised jet of water. The downpipe could be glued together with plumbers solvent instead of slotted together to prevent leaks. Keep the vids rollin, they never disappoint.

There is a massive blind spot in the design of the squirrel cage blower except for the Mike Waters turbine. The squirrel cage was developed from earlier simple centrifugal pumps and when it was realised the tips did all the work the squirrel cage was born. But when is a vane a wing? Look at a squirrel cage from the wing perspective and it will be seen that the low pressure above the curve of the wing is on the high pressure side of the pump. It's wings are upside down! The late Peter Rollo filed a NZ provisional patent in 1995 showing an average 50% improvement in performance over three traditional blowers. As far as I can ascertain no full patent was ever filed. In Mike Waters' turbine the airpressure is reversed and is therefore correct. He agrees with me. Robert, there is another factor making the Waters turbine super efficient, the downstream square end causes suction on the vanes. There are a lot of great ideas lurking undeveloped in the patent files, your tinkering Robert is very important. Neil Campbell

put water in a tube over the cone to make it a better generator. thank you for your input. logical isn"t it!

Thank you and thank you!!!

The point of the Water Vortex Turbine generator is that the water vortex is present in the water flow, irrespective of whether you have a turbine inserted in the water flow or not. It's distinctly different from say a water wheel which is also gravity driven by falling water in primarily one direction. A vortex is also driven by gravity as well as the Coriolis effect (a weak force on this scale, and is actually controversial as to whether it determines the direction of the vortex. The direction of large cyclones/hurricanes is determined by the Coriolis effect being different in the northern and southern hemispheres). The flow of water from the bucket onto the turbine in your demonstration actually slows the turbine down the longer it spends in the spinning part of the turbine. That is, the fastest exit for the water when it strikes the top cone will be in a straight line so that it will impart the maximum energy onto the blades as quickly as possible. IT can easily work as you have clearly demonstrated but optimising this turbine set up is very tricky indeed. Cheers Keep up the good work. You engage with your viewers very well.

Since your printing it… incorporate water proof wiring runs to get the power to the outside without issues ;-)

You'll likely be able to change the NACA blades when used with water as it will flow differently, the water will have higher momentum than air, less likely to stall at slow speeds so you could get more aggressive with the profile and/or angle of attack. Bit rusty on flow dynamics, 15 years since I was an engineer... 😪

Amazeng...

this is dope.

A turbine blade like Roberts are available for fairly cheap , clothes dryer blowers have them

I can imagine a series of funnel-shaped units strung together to form an articulated snake powering an off-grid set up on the banks of a small river or creek. The output from one funnel acting as a nozzle to the next in line.

You are a good prototyper.

Rob, have you looked at sand casting some of the 3d prints using zamac alloy . Also I had a brief conversation with a stranger on local bus who mentioned he'd been gasifying plastic scrap using old electric heater elements within a mass of sand along with the scrap , two 250 watt solar panels for the power supply, ,, optional choice,, spoke of subtle differences in range of temperatures from 450° to 600° . Your wind energy exploration convinced me that the best wind generator is a homemade one . Although I prefer not to be in a prevailing wind environment.

Brilliant Rob! That went pretty much as I hoped it would. 😊 I bet these would also go great atop a chimney to extract a bit more energy from the fuel being burnt to warm our homes. PLA might not be the material of choice, but I bet it would produce useable energy levels.

You could make the cone a vortex shape to help the spin before it hits the blades. Not sure it would make it spin faster but surely seems in my mind to be more efficient.

Connecting the turbine to the physical generator will cut down on the turbines ability to turn so freely. I’d be interested in what that loss actually is.

I happen to be trying to design something very similar but for a great energy system using a device no one seems to be thinking about, I've looked a long time. Any how, I'm building that to pipe down one of the 250 to 350 feet wells I have. I'm hoping to compress air going down with the venturi effect and then trap the air rising back in the middle. But also reclaim as much as I use since I'm hoping the upward water pressure will force out water with some of the air each time to equalize the water table below. If all goes well, I'm going to try a submersible, homo-polar motor and see if I can blow the whole damn town away with HHO or at least singe some hair off a few of my cats. I really hope this helps someone because I haven't seen anyone working with water columns, vacuum, water hammer, steam, atmospheric currents, etc., that has thought to use a well and go deep (like us country boys) instead of high (like you city folk).

BTW a 2 stage system - counter rotating coaxial guide vanes opposed to output turbine vanes makes a lot of sense (even "just" a 2 inch feed pipe can generate a lot of power -significant energy just needs a sufficient mass/volume of water from the top pondage.)..

I would suggest having the winding of the coil on the outside of the magnets on the rotor. This will greatly simplify connecting to the load.

fascinating 😊, now could we imagine for a second mini turbines in city water pipes

Would you look at that! As you say, the best way is trying it out yourself. I can also see a version of this being used in a water gravity battery. Yeah, so many great things to explore.

The low-head vortex turbine is clog resistant and doesn't harm fish. Flowing water usually has a lot of things in it, especially leaves and sticks.

You deser e a museum for all the dummies you create. Thank you Robert, showing all these experimental shapes and ways how to create them

Put a snail chamber at the end of one's rain gutter and it would swirl as it enters the port and produce power with pretty much even a relatively light rain.

Ouch. A thought just hit me. On the Vortex Turbines, they could be used to control the speed of the water released at the same time that it's generating more power! Arr arr arr! Just add more coils and increase the load.

Perhaps using an internal spiral or "rifling" mechanism inside a section of the downspout prior to the water engaging the turbine would allow gravity to provide additional torque upon striking the turbine fins. May be worth experimenting with this added design feature to gain extra energy output.

Don't forget the turgo Rob more pipes to one turbine

Is there a way to stack these and use the gravitational pull on the water for taller dams? If so what would be the diminishing returns?