Flettner Rotorship - the excitement builds ...

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by rwatson, Feb 23, 2010.

  1. rwatson
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    rwatson Senior Member

    ..... for me anyway, maybe other as well.

    The Flettner Rotor driven E-ship is nearing completion after a rocky financial start.

    I cant wait to see how the rig performs. I have been following Flettner Rotor development for 30 years, and this is the first serious commercial venture in all that time since the early 1900's

    Some good pictures at

    http://www.shipspotting.com/modules/myalbum/photo-1029314-E-SHIP 1
     

    Attached Files:

  2. Boston

    Boston Previous Member

    that is just wild
    cant wait to see how well it works

    B
     
  3. dwicejama
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    dwicejama New Member

    May i know general arrangement about rotorship?
     
  4. rwatson
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    rwatson Senior Member

  5. dwicejama
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    dwicejama New Member

  6. rwatson
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    rwatson Senior Member

  7. dwicejama
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    dwicejama New Member

    can you tell me the system propulsion of rotorship for E-Ship 1
     
  8. rwatson
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    rwatson Senior Member

  9. alan craig
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    alan craig Senior Member

    I've never understood why a Flettner rotor can't have a fairing behind it to reduce drag - like a wing with a rotating leading edge. I can't find any references and yet it seems like an obvious development. It could also allow the ship to point a bit higher.
     
  10. rwatson
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    rwatson Senior Member

    Like this ?



    with a working diagram here

     
  11. SamSam
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    SamSam Senior Member

    I would think it would work better if the stationary vane was free to keep itself downwind.
     
  12. Squidly-Diddly
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    Squidly-Diddly Senior Member

    I still can't figure out how these work on a ship with wind coming from diff directions. I "get" how sails work easily enough because I see the sails put in diff positions relative to wind and boat direction.

    Do the Rotors work on the principal that wind is always gonna be coming from left or right (to some degree) and thus the Rotors will always work (to some degree).

    I'm with Alan Craig, seems like a small fairing (no more than diameter of Rotor) could really help, as well as make it much more directional, and not get in way of cargo since it could be rotated out of the way for those operations.

    NOT like the Japanese design but fairings that would stay in same place relative to ship as long as the ship's direction and wind direction stay the same.
     
  13. rwatson
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    rwatson Senior Member

    Sails and Rotors have some similarities. You know that a curved mainsail works better when it has flow around the forward curved section of the sail. similar to the curved upper section of an aeroplane wing. The turning rotor magnifies that Lift component. I attach a bit of a sketch that might be useful.

    The BIG advantage of the Rotor, is that when the wind is on the Beam, the tendency for the boat to "heel" away from the wind is vastly reduced, as wind pressure is converted to much more forward thrust, rather then pressure to lay over. In a couple of articles, they report that the boat actually heels towards the wind, as the spinning cylinder tries to claw its way up the wind pressure.


    FlettnerFlow.jpg
     
  14. rwatson
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    rwatson Senior Member

    I had similar thoughts like that too, but after looking at simulations, it may be that the turbulence bubble extends way to far back to be affected by a fairing.
    OpenFoamSimulation.png
     

  15. portacruise
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    portacruise Senior Member

    What kind of winds are required to make it more efficient that sails, or is that dependent on the number or design of the towers? Seems like the energy needed to spin the cylinders would increase as more power is supplied by them to the boat....

    PC
     
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