WIND-ELECTRIC GAS-DYNAMIC POWER UNIT (OPTIONS) Russian patent published in 1998 - IPC

FIELD: direct conversion of natural wind energy into electricity. SUBSTANCE: unit has expanding-section insulating casing incorporating one or more tandem-arranged sets of electrodes and common switching circuit; each section has ionizing electrodes at input producing positive or negative ions during pulsed corona discharges; stabilizing planar or spatial capacitor inside spatial charge that decelerates ions and is surrounded by screen grid; output collector. Inner surface of casing carries crosswise electrodes stabilizing spatial charges: capacitor plate covered with solid conducting coating on outer surface and second, grounded, plate. Unit surface mounts nozzles with ports and clearances between them to pass additional amount of atmospheric air into channel; it is ionized in openings between ports by corona grids placed at potential of crosswise electrodes. Ion-free air is discharged into the atmosphere at slow speed through slits in casing downstream of collector. Some portion of air stream is also passed through slits in plates of spatial capacitor; inner surfaces of slits are coated with insulating varnish. During initial starting, corona is supplied with power from low-power DC voltage source; during operating period, it is fed with self-excited ripple voltage from collector through voltage and pulse changers with corona circuit incorporating stabilizing capacitor. Electrodes, except for ionizing ones and collector, are coated with conducting materials on plastic. EFFECT: improved power capacity of unit, improved efficiency when operating at high and low wind speed, improved operating conditions and safety in operation. 4 cl, 1 dwg