Could Wind Turbines Be Toxic To The Ear?

[dballance]

210. I Wondered Not Only about the Spelling but the Engineering Theory. How do you have a turbine w/ no..

How do you have a turbine without moving parts? You don't. By definition, a turbine has to have mechanical motion to turn and turn a generator (According to Webster's a turbine is : a rotary engine actuated by the reaction or impulse or both of a current of fluid (as water, steam, or air) subject to pressure and usually made with a series of curved vanes on a central rotating spindle). Generally, that motion is induced by a liquid/air/steam directed onto blades. It may not have to have blades though. Nickola Tesla designed one without blades http://www.howstuffworks.com/tesla-turbine.htm

As for the "bladeless turbine" in the EWICON, it's not a turbine at all. I'm not sure what the proper scientific term for it is though. I guess their PR/marketing people felt "bladeless turbine" would be a more relatable term for most people than whatever the real scientific term is.

As for no moving parts. That's also not true - not even of the EWICON. Strictly speaking, the particles in their device are moving parts. But to point that out would be nit-picking. Instead, I'll just link to the Wired article which has a nice video in which there is a quite a distinction made. The narrator of the video clearly states that their device has "no large moving parts." http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/3/bladeless-wind-turbine-ewicon From the article, "The whole system comprises of a battery, inverter, HVDC source, pump and charging system." I have been trying to find information on what this "pump" component in the system is/does but that is not detailed. I am making the brash assumption that it has something to do with this statement "Each tube features several electrodes and nozzles which release positively-charge water into the air, through a process that's been dubbed 'electrospraying'". It leads me to believe the spraying is forced by a pump and not just some naturally occurring force.

I'm just a simple IT guy and the terminology bothered me enough to research this stuff based on the little bit of engineering knowledge I have. It must be making some mechanical engineer's heads explode when they read these things.