And, as predicted, the The Kiwis are stepping up along with their more transgressive Aussie cousins:
23rd Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference - 23AFMC
Sydney, Australia Paper No: AFMC2022-178
4 – 8 December 2022
Large Eddy Simulation of Artificially Generated Atmospheric Vortices for Power GenerationAbstract
A numerical simulation of atmospheric buoyancy vortices for power generation is conducted using the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) method. Vanes, for generating a swirl, and a turbine, for extracting torque, are modelled using a body-forcing momentum source and sink method, respectively. Only minor changes in the vortex structure are visible when the turbine is present. Furthermore, the low velocities lead to an insignificantly small torque on the turbine. The so-called vortex wandering effect is observed for all cases simulated. Models without the turbine and changes in heat source location are further investigated to analyse the maximum radius and distribution of the vortex wandering. Overall, the modelling of vanes and the turbine as momentum source and sink leads to a significant reduction in computational time compared to simulations containing solid, resolved geometries.
The simulation was of a small-scale system, which is reasonable when one is dealing with a regime of CFD that needs experimental validation – and vis versa:
The study has been carried out using an anelastic Large Eddy Simulation (LES) model in OpenFOAM. The computational domain is a cylinder with a radius of 25 m and a height of 150 m.
The work discussed in this paper is part of a large research programme focused on understanding how to artificially generate buoyancy vortices using waste heat that is anchored to the location of the waste heat source. The research programme uses a three-pronged attack, combining computational fluid dynamics (CFD), laboratory-based experiments, and theoretical analysis in order to gain an understanding of buoyancy vortices. The outcome of this understanding will be incorporated into the design of a demonstration vortex engine to be built in New Zealand.
If the Kiwis get serious about this and it works near to Louis Michaud’s projections at the large scales, it’s not going to be long before people are looking at the equatorial doldrums as valuable property:
It’s important to keep this in perspective by noticing that natural convective vortices arising from ground-level vorticity, are fundamentally different from tornadoes (upper atmosphere vorticity driven), but they do reach high power levels and high altitudes. This photo is from an Aussie’s business proposal:
