Drowned by the Great Depression: diesel-powered sailboat "Barbara". Column Sails: Magnus Effect Rotary Vessel

The famous documentary series “The Underwater Odyssey of the Cousteau Team” was filmed by the great French oceanographer in the 1960s and 1970s. Cousteau's main ship was then converted from a British minesweeper"Calypso". But in one of the subsequent films - "Rediscovery of the World" - another ship appeared, the yacht "Halcyone".

Looking at her, many TV viewers asked themselves the question: what kind of strange pipes are installed on the yacht?.. Maybe these are pipes from boilers or propulsion systems? Imagine your surprise if you find out that these are SAILS... turbosails...

The Cousteau Foundation acquired the yacht Alcyone in 1985, and this ship was considered not so much as a research ship, but as a basis for studying the effectiveness of turbosails - the original ship propulsion system. And when, 11 years later, the legendary Calypso sank, Alkyone took its place as the main ship of the expedition (by the way, today Calypso is raised and in a semi-looted state stands in the port of Concarneau).

Actually, the turbosail was invented by Cousteau. Just like scuba gear, an underwater saucer and many other devices for exploring the depths of the sea and the surface of the World Ocean. The idea was born in the early 1980s and was to create the most environmentally friendly, but at the same time convenient and modern propulsion device for waterfowl. The use of wind power seemed to be the most promising area of ​​research. But here’s the problem: mankind invented the sail several thousand years ago, and what could be simpler and more logical?

Of course, Cousteau and company understood that it was impossible to build a ship propelled solely by sail. More precisely, perhaps, but it ride quality will be very mediocre and dependent on the vagaries of the weather and wind direction. Therefore, it was initially planned that the new “sail” would be only an auxiliary force used to help conventional diesel engines. At the same time, a turbosail would significantly reduce diesel fuel consumption, and in strong winds it could become the only propulsion device of the vessel. And the team of researchers looked to the past - to the invention of the German engineer Anton Flettner, a famous aircraft designer who made a serious contribution to shipbuilding.

The turbosail is a hollow cylinder equipped with a special pump. The pump creates a vacuum on one side of the turbosail, pumping air inside the sail, the outside air begins to flow around the turbosail with at different speeds and the ship begins to move in a direction perpendicular to the air pressure. This is very reminiscent of the lift force acting on the wing of an airplane - the pressure is greater from below the wing and the airplane is pushed upward. The turbosail allows the ship to move against any wind, as long as there is enough pump power. Used as an auxiliary system for a conventional marine engine. Two turbosails installed on the ship of Cousteau’s team “Halcyon” made it possible to save up to 50% of fuel.

Flettner rotor and Magnus effect

On September 16, 1922, Anton Flettner received a German patent for the so-called rotary vessel. And in October 1924, the experimental rotary ship Buckau left the slipways of the Friedrich Krupp shipbuilding company in Kiel. True, the schooner was not built from scratch: before the installation of Flettner rotors, it was an ordinary sailing vessel.

Flettner's idea was to use the so-called Magnus effect, the essence of which is as follows: when an air (or liquid) flow flows around a rotating body, a force is generated perpendicular to the direction of the flow and acts on the body. The fact is that a rotating object creates a vortex motion around itself. On the side of the object where the direction of the vortex coincides with the direction of the liquid or gas flow, the speed of the medium increases, and on the opposite side it decreases. The pressure difference creates a transverse force directed from the side where the direction of rotation and the direction of flow are opposite, to the side where they coincide.

“Flettner’s wind ship is on everyone’s lips thanks to unusually zealous newspaper propaganda,” wrote Louis Prandtl in his article about the development of the German engineer.

This effect was discovered in 1852 by the Berlin physicist Heinrich Magnus.

Magnus effect

German aeronautical engineer and inventor Anton Flettner (1885–1961) went down in maritime history as the man who tried to replace sails. He had the opportunity to travel for a long time on a sailboat across the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Many sails were installed on the masts of sailing ships of that era. Sailing equipment was expensive, complex, and aerodynamically not very efficient. Constant dangers awaited the sailors, who even during a storm had to deal with sails at a height of 40–50 meters.

During the voyage, the young engineer had the idea to replace the sails, which required a lot of effort, with a simpler but effective device, the main propulsion of which would also be the wind. While thinking about this, he remembered the aerodynamic experiments conducted by his compatriot, the physicist Heinrich Gustav Magnus (1802–1870). They found that when the cylinder rotates in the air flow, a transverse force arises with a direction depending on the direction of rotation of the cylinder (Magnus effect).

One of his classic experiments went like this: “A brass cylinder could rotate between two points; rapid rotation was imparted to the cylinder, as in a top, by a cord. The rotating cylinder was placed in a frame, which, in turn, could easily rotate. This system was exposed to a strong stream of air using a small centrifugal pump. The cylinder deviated in a direction perpendicular to the air stream and to the cylinder axis, moreover, in the direction in which the directions of rotation and the stream were the same” (L. Prandtl “The Magnus Effect and the Wind Ship”, 1925).

A. Flettner immediately thought that the sails could be replaced by rotating cylinders installed on the ship.

It turns out that where the surface of the cylinder moves against the air flow, the wind speed decreases and the pressure increases. On the other side of the cylinder, the opposite is true - the air flow speed increases, and the pressure drops. This difference in pressure from different sides cylinder and is the driving force that makes the ship move. This is the basic principle of operation of rotary equipment, which uses the force of the wind to propel the vessel. Everything is very simple, but only A. Flettner “did not pass by,” although the Magnus effect has been known for more than half a century.

He began to implement the plan in 1923 on a lake near Berlin. Actually, Flettner did a rather simple thing. He installed a paper cylinder-rotor about a meter high and 15 cm in diameter on a meter-long test boat, and adapted a clock mechanism to rotate it. And the boat sailed.

The captains of sailing ships mocked A. Flettner's cylinders, which he wanted to replace the sails with. The inventor managed to interest wealthy patrons of the arts in his invention. In 1924, instead of three masts, two rotary cylinders were mounted on the 54-meter schooner Buckau. These cylinders were rotated by a 45 hp diesel generator.

The rotors of the Bukau were driven by electric motors. Actually, there was no difference in design from Magnus’s classical experiments. On the side where the rotor rotated towards the wind, an area of ​​high pressure was created, and on the opposite side, a region of low pressure. The resulting force moved the ship. Moreover, this force was approximately 50 times greater than the force of wind pressure on a stationary rotor!

This opened up enormous prospects for Flettner. Among other things, the area of ​​the rotor and its mass were several times smaller than the area of ​​the sail rig, which would provide equal driving force. The rotor was much easier to control, and it was quite cheap to produce. From above, Flettner covered the rotors with plate-like planes - this approximately doubled the driving force due to the correct orientation of the air flows relative to the rotor. The optimal height and diameter of the rotor for the Bukau were calculated by blowing a model of the future vessel in a wind tunnel.

Cousteau's turbosailer - As of 2011, Alkyone is the only ship in the world with a Cousteau turbosail. The death of the great oceanographer in 1997 put an end to the construction of a second similar ship, Calypso II, and other shipbuilders are wary of the unusual design...

The Flettner rotor performed excellently. Unlike a conventional sailing ship, rotary ship practically not afraid of bad weather and strong side winds, he could easily sail on alternating tacks at an angle of 25º to the headwind (for a regular sail the limit is about 45º). Two cylindrical rotors (height 13.1 m, diameter 1.5 m) made it possible to perfectly balance the vessel - it turned out to be more stable than the sailboat that the Bukau was before perestroika. Tests were carried out in calm conditions, in storms, and with deliberate overload - and no serious deficiencies were identified. The most advantageous direction for the movement of the ship was the direction of the wind exactly perpendicular to the axis of the ship, and the direction of movement (forward or backward) was determined by the direction of rotation of the rotors.

In mid-February 1925, the schooner Buckau, equipped with Flettner rotors instead of sails, left Danzig (now Gdansk) for Scotland. The weather was bad, and most sailing ships did not dare leave the ports. In the North Sea, the Buckau had a serious battle with strong winds and large waves, but the schooner heeled less than other sailing ships encountered.

During this voyage, it was not necessary to call crew members on deck to change sails depending on the strength or direction of the wind. All that was needed was one watch navigator, who, without leaving the wheelhouse, could control the activities of the rotors. Previously, the crew of a three-masted schooner consisted of at least 20 sailors; after it was converted into a rotary ship, 10 people were enough.

In the same year, the shipyard laid down its second rotary ship - the mighty cargo liner Barbara, driven by three 17-meter rotors. At the same time, one small motor with a power of only 35 hp was enough for each rotor. (at maximum speed rotation of each rotor 160 rpm)! The thrust of the rotors was equivalent to the thrust of a screw propeller coupled with a conventional ship diesel engine with a power of about 1000 hp. However, diesel was also present on the ship: in addition to the rotors, it drove the propeller (which remained the only propulsion device in case of calm weather).

Promising experiences prompted the shipping company Rob.M.Sloman from Hamburg to build the Barbara in 1926. It was planned in advance to equip it with turbosails - Flettner rotors. Three rotors with a height of about 17 m were mounted on a vessel with a length of 90 m and a width of 13 m.

"Barbara", as planned, successfully transported fruit from Italy to Hamburg for some time. Approximately 30–40% of the voyage was powered by the wind. With a wind of 4–6 points, “Barbara” developed a speed of 13 knots.

The plan was to test the rotary vessel on longer voyages in the Atlantic Ocean.

But in the late 1920s the Great Depression struck. In 1929, the charter company refused to continue leasing the Barbara and she was sold. New owner removed the rotors and re-equipped the ship according to the traditional scheme. Still, the rotor was inferior to screw propellers in combination with a conventional diesel power plant due to its dependence on the wind and certain limitations on power and speed. Flettner turned to more advanced research, and the Baden-Baden eventually sank during a storm in the Caribbean in 1931. And they forgot about rotor sails for a long time...

The beginning of rotary ships seemed to be quite successful, but they were not developed and were forgotten for a long time. Why? Firstly, the “father” of rotary ships, A. Flettner, plunged into the creation of helicopters and ceased to be interested by sea transport. Secondly, despite all their advantages, rotary ships have remained sailing ships with their inherent disadvantages, the main one of which is dependence on the wind.

Flettner rotors became interested again in the 80s of the twentieth century, when scientists began to propose various measures to mitigate climate warming, reduce pollution, and more rational fuel consumption. One of the first to remember them was the explorer of the depths, the Frenchman Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910–1997). To test the operation of the turbosail system and reduce the consumption of increasingly expensive fuel, the two-masted catamaran “Alcyone” (Alcyone is the daughter of the wind god Aeolus) was converted into a rotary vessel. Having set sail in 1985, he visited Canada and America, rounded Cape Horn, and around Australia and Indonesia, Madagascar and South Africa. He was transferred to the Caspian Sea, where he sailed for three months, doing various research. Alcyone still uses two different propulsion systems - two diesel engines and two turbo sails.

Turbosail Cousteau

Sailboats were also built throughout the 20th century. In modern ships of this type, the sails are furled using electric motors, and new materials make the design significantly lighter. But a sailboat is a sailboat, and the idea of ​​using wind energy in a radically new way has been in the air since the time of Flettner. And it was picked up by the tireless adventurer and explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

On December 23, 1986, after the Halcyone mentioned at the beginning of the article was launched, Cousteau and his colleagues Lucien Malavard and Bertrand Charrier received joint patent No. US4630997 for “a device that creates force through the use of a moving liquid or gas.” general description sounds like this: “The device is placed in a medium moving in a certain direction; in this case, a force arises acting in a direction perpendicular to the first. The device avoids the use of massive sails, in which the driving force is proportional to the sail area.” What is the difference between a Cousteau turbosail and a Flettner rotor sail?

In cross section, the turbosail is something like an elongated drop, rounded at the sharp end. On the sides of the “drop” there are air intake grilles, through one of which (depending on the need to move forward or backward) air is sucked out. To ensure maximum effective suction of wind into the air intake, a small fan driven by an electric motor is installed on the turbo sail.

It artificially increases the speed of air movement on the leeward side of the sail, sucking in the air stream at the moment of its separation from the plane of the turbosail. This creates a vacuum on one side of the turbosail, while simultaneously preventing the formation of turbulent vortices. And then the Magnus effect acts: rarefaction on one side, as a result - a lateral force capable of causing the ship to move. Actually, a turbosail is an aircraft wing placed vertically, at least the principle of creating a driving force is similar to the principle of creating lift airplane. To ensure that the turbosail is always facing the most advantageous side to the wind, it is equipped with special sensors and installed on a turntable. By the way, Cousteau’s patent implies that air can be sucked out from inside the turbosail not only by a fan, but also, for example, by an air pump - thus Cousteau closed the gate for subsequent “inventors.”

In fact, Cousteau first tested a prototype turbosail on the catamaran “Windmill” (Moulin à Vent) in 1981. The catamaran's largest successful voyage was from Tangier (Morocco) to New York under the supervision of a larger expedition ship.

And in April 1985, the Halcyone, the first full-fledged ship equipped with turbosails, was launched in the port of La Rochelle. Now it is still on the move and today is the flagship (and, in fact, the only by large ship) flotilla of Cousteau's team. The turbosails on it do not serve as the only propulsion, but they help the usual coupling of two diesel engines and
several screws (which, by the way, allows you to reduce fuel consumption by about a third). If the great oceanographer had been alive, he would probably have built several more similar ships, but the enthusiasm of his associates noticeably waned after Cousteau left.

Shortly before his death in 1997, Cousteau was actively working on the project of the Calypso II vessel with a turbosail, but did not have time to complete it. According to the latest data, in the winter of 2011, Alkyone was in the port of Kaen and was waiting for a new expedition.

And again Flettner

Today, attempts are being made to revive Flettner's idea and make rotor sails widespread. For example, the famous Hamburg company Blohm + Voss, after the oil crisis of 1973, began active development of a rotary tanker, but by 1986 economic forces closed this project. Then there was a whole series of amateur designs.

In 2007, students at the University of Flensburg built a catamaran propelled by a rotor sail (Uni-cat Flensburg).

In 2010, the third ship in history with rotor sails appeared - the E-Ship1 heavy truck, which was built by order of Enercon, one of largest producers wind generators in the world. On July 6, 2010, the ship was launched for the first time and made a short voyage from Emden to Bremerhaven. And already in August he set off on his first working voyage to Ireland with a load of nine wind generators. The vessel is equipped with four Flettner rotors and, of course, a traditional propulsion system in case of calm weather and for additional power. Still, rotor sails serve only as auxiliary propulsion: for a 130-meter truck, their power is not enough to develop the proper speed. The engines are nine power plants Mitsubishi, and the rotors rotate using steam turbine produced by Siemens, using exhaust gas energy. Rotor sails can save 30 to 40% of fuel at a speed of 16 knots.

But Cousteau’s turbosail still remains in some oblivion: Alkyone is currently the only full-size ship with this type of propulsion. The experience of German shipbuilders will show whether it makes sense to further develop the theme of sails powered by the Magnus effect. The main thing is to find it economic justification and prove effectiveness. And then, you see, all world shipping will switch to the principle that a talented German scientist described more than 150 years ago.

In the North Sea in 2010, a strange ship “E-Ship 1” could be seen. On its upper deck there are four tall round chimneys, but smoke never billows from them. These are the so-called Flettner rotors, which replaced traditional sails.

The world's largest manufacturer of wind power plants, Enercon, launched a 130-meter-long, 22-meter-wide rotary vessel, which was later named E-Ship 1, at the Lindenau shipyard in Kiel on August 2, 2010. Then it was successfully tested in the North and Mediterranean Seas, and is currently transporting wind generators from Germany, where they are produced, to other European countries. It reaches a speed of 17 knots (32 km/h), simultaneously transports more than 9 thousand tons of cargo, its crew is 15 people.

Singapore-based shipbuilding company Wind Again, which creates technologies to reduce fuel consumption and emissions, proposes to install specially designed Flettner rotors (folding) on ​​tankers and cargo ships. They will reduce fuel consumption by 30–40% and will pay for themselves in 3–5 years.

Finnish marine engineering company Wartsila is already planning to install turbosails on cruise ferries. This is due to the desire of the Finnish ferry operator Viking Line to reduce fuel consumption and environmental pollution.

The use of Flettner rotors on pleasure boats is being studied by the University of Flensburg (Germany). Rising oil prices and an alarming warming climate appear to be creating favorable conditions for the return of wind turbines.

The yacht designed by John Marples, Cloudia, is a rebuilt Searunner 34 trimaran. The yacht underwent its first tests in February 2008 in Fort Pierce, Florida, USA, and its creation was financed by the Discovery TV channel. “Claudia” showed itself to be incredibly maneuverable: it stopped and reversed in a matter of seconds, and moved freely at an angle of about 15° to the wind. The noticeable improvement in performance compared to the traditional Flettner rotor is due to the additional transverse discs installed on the front and rear rotors of the trimaran.

motor sailing "Barbara" ( clickable)

After the first, still experimental vessel with rotor sails of the Anton Flettner system "Buckau" showed parameters close to the design ones, German naval sailors ordered another vessel from the industry, but this time a full-fledged transporter, in order to evaluate it in real commercial operation. And in 1926 the ship "Barbara" was launched.

Launching a unique vessel

The initial project involved one rotor 28 (!) high and about seven meters in diameter. But, fortunately, there were no bearings of the required size available. That is, they were there - but only sliding bearings, and they did not match the level of losses. Therefore, we had to proceed from what was available and install as many as three aluminum rotors with a height of 17 meters and a diameter of 4 meters. Each of them was suspended on two bearings, at the base and at 2/3 of the height.

Their rotation was provided by electric motors with a power of 41 hp. each, the rotation speed was 160 rpm. With a wind of 8.5 m/s, the calculated thrust of each rotor was 4 tons. For a vessel with a displacement of 2850 tons, it’s not much, I agree. But this is not a pure sailboat, after all. The main power plant consisted of two Bauart AG-Weser/MAN diesel engines, 530 hp each. every. They worked, in addition to generators, on normal propellers, providing the contracted 10 knots even in complete calm.

rotary sailing ship in the port ( clickable)

The ship was successfully tested, the thrust of the “sails” turned out to be close to the design one - and it was sent on a regular line around Europe to the Mediterranean Sea. Naturally, it caused a sensation in all ports and along the route, but no special studies or races were carried out; the pragmatic Germans studied, as they intended, the technical and economic parameters of the vessel’s operation.

It is clear that the ship rarely sailed under pure “sail” propulsion. Rotors were used either to increase travel speed or to save fuel, which was quite noticeable.

from all sides... ( clickable)

Indeed, 12 tons of thrust in a light breeze at a cost of only 120 hp. - it's a lot. I would even say that this is a LOT. If the wind speed increased, perhaps it would have turned out even more, so it seems from an economic point of view. all was good. The ship had been operating successfully for three years when trouble happened: yes, yes, that’s it. "The Great Depression". Freight volumes have fallen sharply, and most importantly, the price of fuel has also fallen. To completely frivolous amounts. And then something unpleasant became clear:

model of a motor sailer

Yes. Fuel savings are noticeable. But it costs such pennies that the cost of a forty-ton structure of three rotors with all their additional systems (pressure lubrication, gearboxes for electric motors and the electric motors themselves) introduces such additional expense that you no longer want any fuel savings. A simple motor ship without rotors will be cheaper to carry cargo.

That’s why the ship didn’t last even two years during the depression, and in 1931 it was “simplified,” stripped of its rotor sails and converted into a regular cargo ship without pretensions. P.S. And now interest in the topic is being revived. Utilizing wind using simple, easy-to-control rotors is considered a good idea.

Our friends and colleagues from the Hungarian magazine “Ezermester” offered to build this interesting model of a rotary yacht for their readers. Try to do it yourself.

An ordinary sail is familiar to everyone. The wind blows it, creating a driving force. And the rotor sail, which you see in the pictures, transmits force to the propeller, working like an engine. This sail has a drawback: a yacht model equipped with it cannot reach the same speed as with a conventional sail. But there are also advantages: firstly, there is no need to “catch the wind” by changing the position of the sail; secondly, the yacht sails almost the same at any angle to the wind and even directly against the wind.

The rotor is installed vertically on the yacht. Rotating under the pressure of the wind, he through the pole

the crank pair is driven by the propeller shaft.

Choose the design of the yacht hull yourself. The length of the vessel with the indicated rotor dimensions is no more than 700 mm. Do not hollow out the body from a single piece of wood - it will turn out too heavy. Make a light and durable frame and cover it with plywood veneer. Cover the inside of the veneer with paper (it will protect the plywood from cracking) and cover with waterproof varnish.

To prevent the yacht from capsizing, equip it with a weighted centerboard. Install the rudder at the stern - its position should be fixed.

Bend the rotor blades from millimeter balsa or plywood 0.6 mm thick. Make disks from plywood 1-1.5 mm thick. The rotor should rotate freely on a vertically mounted spoke.

After you manage to build and test a yacht with a rotor sail, try experimenting by changing the height and diameter of the rotor, the shape of its blades, and the size of the propeller. Perhaps you will be able to increase the speed of the yacht and improve its stability.

Useful juices

Plastic film can be joined like this: press two pieces of film between metal plates so that the edges protrude slightly, and draw a burning match. The seam is welded.

Your little brother, who is taking his first steps, has difficulty maintaining his balance on the slippery floor. Glue two thin strips of rubber along the foot to the soles of the booties - and the child can safely walk on the polished floor.

Insert a small permanent magnet into the back of the hammer handle. Now it will be easy for you to collect the scattered nails after finishing the work.

The famous documentary series “The Underwater Odyssey of the Cousteau Team” was filmed by the great French oceanographer in the 1960s and 1970s. Cousteau's main ship was then converted from the British minesweeper Calypso. But in one of the subsequent films - “Rediscovery of the World” - another ship appeared, the yacht “Halcyone”. Looking at it, many TV viewers asked themselves the question: what kind of strange pipes are installed on the yacht?.. Maybe these are boiler or engine pipes installations? Imagine your surprise if you find out that these are SAILS... turbosails...

The Cousteau Foundation acquired the yacht Alcyone in? 1985, and this ship was considered not so much as a research ship, but as a base for studying the effectiveness of turbosails? - original ship propulsion system. And when, 11 years later, the legendary “Calypso” sank, “Alcyone” took its place as the main vessel of the expedition (by the way, today “Calypso” is raised and in a semi-looted state in the port of Concarneau). Actually, the turbosail was invented by Cousteau. Just like scuba gear, an underwater saucer and many other devices for exploring the depths of the sea and the surface of the World Ocean. The idea was born back in the early 1980s and consisted of? to create the most environmentally friendly, but at the same time convenient and modern propulsion device for waterfowl. The use of wind power seemed to be the most promising area of ​​research. But here’s the problem: mankind invented the sail several thousand years ago, and what could be simpler and more logical?

Of course, Cousteau and company understood that it was impossible to build a ship propelled solely by sail. More precisely, perhaps, but its driving performance will be very mediocre and dependent on the vagaries of the weather and wind direction. Therefore, it was initially planned that the new “sail” would be only an auxiliary force used to help conventional diesel engines. At the same time, a turbosail would significantly reduce diesel fuel consumption, and in strong winds it could become the only propulsion device of the vessel. And the team of researchers turned their attention to the past - to the invention of the German engineer Anton Flettner, a famous aircraft designer who made a serious contribution to shipbuilding.

The turbosail is a hollow cylinder equipped with a special pump. The pump creates a vacuum on one side of the turbosail, pumping air into the sail, the outside air begins to flow around the turbosail at different speeds and the ship begins to move in a direction perpendicular to the air pressure. This is very reminiscent of the lift force acting on the wing of an airplane - the pressure is greater from below the wing and pushes upward. The turbosail allows the ship to move against any wind, as long as there is enough pump power. Used as an auxiliary system for a conventional marine engine. Two turbosails installed on the ship of Cousteau’s team “Halcyon” made it possible to save up to 50% of fuel.
Flettner rotor and Magnus effect
On September 16, 1922, Anton Flettner received a German patent for the so-called rotary vessel. And in October 1924, the experimental rotary ship Buckau left the slipways of the Friedrich Krupp shipbuilding company in Kiel. True, the schooner was not built from scratch: before the installation of Flettner's rotors, it was an ordinary sailing ship. Flettner's idea was to use the so-called Magnus effect, the essence of which is the following: when an air (or liquid) flow flows around a rotating body, a force is generated perpendicular to the direction of flow and affecting the body. The thing is? that a rotating object creates a vortex motion around itself. On the side of the object where the direction of the vortex coincides with the direction of the flow of liquid or gas, the speed of the medium increases, and on the opposite side it decreases. The pressure difference creates a transverse force directed from the side where the direction of rotation and the direction of flow are opposite, to the side where they coincide.

“Flettner’s wind ship is on everyone’s lips thanks to unusually zealous newspaper propaganda,” wrote Louis Prandtl in his article about the development of the German engineer. This effect was discovered in 1852 by the Berlin physicist Heinrich Magnus.
Magnus effect
German aeronautical engineer and inventor Anton Flettner (1885–1961) went down in maritime history as the man who tried to replace sails. He had the opportunity to travel for a long time on a sailboat across the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Many sails were installed on the masts of sailing ships of that era. Sailing equipment was expensive, complex, and aerodynamically not very efficient. Constant dangers awaited the sailors, who, even during a storm, had to work on sails at a height of 40–50 meters. During the voyage, the young engineer had the idea to replace the sails, which required a lot of effort, with a simpler but effective device, the main propulsion of which would also be the wind . While thinking about this, he remembered the aerodynamic experiments conducted by his compatriot, the physicist Heinrich Gustav Magnus (1802–1870). They found that when the cylinder rotates in the air flow, a transverse force arises with a direction depending on the direction of rotation of the cylinder (Magnus effect).

One of his classic experiments went like this: “A brass cylinder could rotate between two points; rapid rotation was imparted to the cylinder, as in a top, by a cord. The rotating cylinder was placed in a frame, which, in turn, could easily rotate. This system was exposed to a strong stream of air using a small centrifugal pump. The cylinder was deflected in a direction perpendicular to the air stream and? to the axis of the cylinder, moreover, in the direction from which the directions of rotation and the jet were the same" (L. Prandtl, “The Magnus Effect and the Wind Ship,” 1925). A. Flettner immediately thought that the sails could be replaced by rotating cylinders installed on the ship It turns out that where the surface of the cylinder moves against the air flow, the wind speed decreases and the pressure increases. On the other side of the cylinder, the opposite is true - the air flow speed increases, and the pressure drops. This difference in pressure on different sides of the cylinder is the driving force that makes the ship move. This is the basic principle of operation of rotary equipment, which uses the force of the wind to propel the vessel. Everything is very simple, but only A. Flettner “did not pass by,” although the Magnus effect had been known for more than half a century. He began implementing the plan in 1923 on a lake not far from Berlin. Actually, Flettner did a rather simple thing. He installed a paper cylinder-rotor about a meter high and 15 cm in diameter on a meter-long test boat, huh? a clock mechanism was used to rotate it. And the boat sailed. The captains of the sailing ships mocked A. Flettner’s cylinders, which he wanted to replace the sails with. The inventor managed to interest wealthy patrons of the arts in his invention. In 1924, instead of three masts, two rotary cylinders were mounted on the 54-meter schooner Buckau. These cylinders were rotated by a 45 hp diesel generator. The Bukau rotors were driven by electric motors. Actually, there was no difference in design from Magnus’s classical experiments. On the side where the rotor rotated towards the wind, an area of ​​high pressure was created, and on the opposite side - low pressure. The resulting force moved the ship. Moreover, this force was approximately 50 times greater than the force of wind pressure on a stationary rotor! This opened up enormous prospects for Flettner. Among other things, the area of ​​the rotor and its mass were several times smaller than the area of ​​the sail rig, which would provide equal driving force. The rotor was much easier to control, and it was quite cheap to produce. From above, Flettner covered the rotors with plate-like planes - this approximately doubled the driving force due to the correct orientation of the air flows relative to the rotor. The optimal height and diameter of the rotor for the Bukau were calculated by blowing a model of the future vessel in a wind tunnel.

In the same year, the shipyard laid down its second rotary ship - the mighty cargo liner Barbara, driven by three 17-meter rotors. At the same time, one small motor with a power of only 35 hp was enough for each rotor. (at a maximum rotation speed of each rotor of 160 rpm)! The thrust of the rotors was equivalent to the thrust of a screw propeller coupled with a conventional ship diesel engine with a power of about 1000 hp. However, a diesel engine was also present on the ship: in addition to the rotors, it drove the propeller (which remained the only propulsion device in case of calm weather). Promising experiments prompted the shipping company "Rob.M.Sloman" from Hamburg in 1926 to build the ship "Barbara" . It was planned in advance to equip it with turbosails - Flettner rotors. Three rotors with a height of about 17 m were mounted on the vessel, 90 m long and 13 m wide. Barbara, as planned, successfully transported fruit from Italy to Hamburg for some time. Approximately 30–40% of the voyage was powered by the wind. With a wind of 4–6 points, “Barbara” developed a speed of 13 knots. It was planned to test the rotary ship on longer voyages in the Atlantic Ocean. But in the late 1920s, the Great Depression struck. In 1929, the charter company refused to continue leasing the Barbara and she was sold. The new owner removed the rotors and refitted the ship according to the traditional design. Still, the rotor was inferior to screw propellers in combination with a conventional diesel power plant due to its dependence on the wind and certain limitations on power and speed. Flettner turned to more advanced research, and the Baden-Baden eventually sank during a storm in the Caribbean Sea in? 1931. And they forgot about rotor sails for a long time...

The beginning of rotary ships seemed to be quite successful, but they were not developed and were forgotten for a long time. Why? Firstly, the “father” of rotary ships, A. Flettner, plunged into the creation of helicopters and ceased to be interested in maritime transport. Secondly, despite all their advantages, rotary ships remained sailing ships with their inherent disadvantages, the main of which was dependence on the wind. Flettner rotors became interested again in the 80s of the twentieth century, when scientists began to propose various mitigation measures climate warming, reducing pollution, more rational fuel consumption. One of the first to remember them was the explorer of the depths, the Frenchman Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910–1997). To test the operation of the turbosail system and reduce the consumption of increasingly expensive fuel, the two-masted catamaran “Alcyone” (Alcyone is the daughter of the wind god Aeolus) was converted into a rotary vessel. Having set sail in 1985, he visited Canada and America, rounded Cape Horn, and around Australia and Indonesia, Madagascar and South Africa. He was transferred to the Caspian Sea, where he sailed for three months, doing various research. Alcyone still uses two different propulsion systems - two diesel engines and two turbo sails.
Turbosail Cousteau
Sailboats were also built throughout the 20th century. In modern ships of this type, the sails are furled using electric motors, and new materials make the design significantly lighter. But a sailboat is a sailboat, and the idea of ​​using wind energy in a radically new way has been in the air since the time of Flettner. And it was picked up by the tireless adventurer and explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau. On December 23, 1986, after the Halcyone mentioned at the beginning of the article was launched, Cousteau and his colleagues Lucien Malavard and Bertrand Charrier received joint patent No. US4630997 for “a device that produces force through the use of a moving fluid or gas.” The general description is as follows: “The device is placed in?an environment moving in? in some direction; in this case, a force arises acting in a direction perpendicular to the first. The device avoids the use of massive sails, in which the driving force is proportional to the sail area.” How does a Cousteau turbosail differ from a Flettner rotor sail? In cross section, a turbosail is something like an elongated drop, rounded at the sharp end. On the sides of the “drop” there are air intake grilles, through one of which (depending on the need to move forward or backward) air is sucked out. To ensure maximum effective suction of wind into the air intake, a small fan driven by an electric motor is installed on the turbo sail.

It artificially increases the speed of air movement on the leeward side of the sail, sucking in the air stream at the moment of its separation from the plane of the turbosail. This creates a vacuum on one side of the turbosail, while simultaneously preventing the formation of turbulent vortices. And then the Magnus effect acts: rarefaction on one side, as a result - a transverse force that can set the ship in motion. Actually, a turbosail is an aircraft wing placed vertically, at least the principle of creating a driving force is similar to the principle of creating an aircraft lift. In order for the turbosail to always be turned towards? the wind has the most advantageous side; it is equipped with special sensors and installed on a turntable. By the way, Cousteau’s patent implies that air can be sucked out from inside the turbosail not only by a fan, but also, for example, by an air pump? - thus Cousteau closed the gate for subsequent “inventors.”

In fact, Cousteau first tested a turbosail prototype on the catamaran “Windmill” (Moulin Vent) in 1981. The catamaran's largest successful voyage was a trip from Tangier (Morocco) to New York under the supervision of a larger expedition ship. And in April 1985, the Halcyone, the first full-fledged ship equipped with turbosails, was launched in the port of La Rochelle. Now she is still on the move and today is the flagship (and, in fact, the only large ship) of the Cousteau team flotilla. The turbosails on it do not serve as the only propulsion, but they help the usual coupling of two diesel engines and several propellers (which, by the way, allows you to reduce fuel consumption by about a third). If the great oceanographer had been alive, he would probably have built several more similar ships, but the enthusiasm of his associates noticeably waned after Cousteau’s departure. Shortly before his death in 1997, Cousteau was actively working on the project of the Calypso II vessel with a turbosail, but did not have time to complete it. According to the latest data, in the winter of 2011, Alkyone was in the port of Kaen and was waiting for a new expedition.

In 2007, students at the University of Flensburg built a catamaran powered by a rotor sail (Uni-cat Flensburg).

IN? 2010? year, the third ship in history with rotor sails appeared - the heavy truck E-Ship?1, which was built by order of Enercon, one of the largest manufacturers of wind generators in the world. On July 6, 2010, the ship was launched for the first time and made a short voyage from Emden to Bremerhaven. And already in August he set off on his first working voyage to Ireland with a load of nine wind generators. The vessel is equipped with four Flettner rotors and,? of course, a traditional power plant in case of calm and to obtain additional power. Still, rotor sails serve only as auxiliary propulsion: for a 130-meter truck, their power is not enough to develop the proper speed. The engines are powered by nine Mitsubishi power units, and the rotors are driven by a Siemens steam turbine that uses exhaust gas energy. Rotor sails allow you to save from 30 to 40% of fuel at a speed of 16 knots. But Cousteau’s turbosail still remains in some oblivion: Alkyone today is the only full-size ship with this type of propulsion. The experience of German shipbuilders will show whether it makes sense to further develop the theme of sails powered by the Magnus effect. The main thing is to find an economic justification for this and prove its effectiveness. And then, you see, all world shipping will switch to the principle that a talented German scientist described more than 150 years ago.

In the North Sea in 2010, a strange ship “E-Ship 1” could be seen. On its upper deck there are four tall round chimneys, but smoke never billows from them. These are the so-called Flettner rotors, which replaced traditional sails. The world's largest manufacturer of wind power plants, Enercon, launched a 130-meter rotor vessel with a width of 22 m on August 2, 2010 at the Lindenau shipyard in Kiel, which was later named “E- Ship 1". It was then successfully tested in the North and Mediterranean seas, and is currently transporting wind generators from Germany, where they are produced, to other European countries. It reaches a speed of 17 knots (32 km/h), simultaneously transports more than 9 thousand tons of cargo, its crew is 15 people.

Singapore-based shipbuilding company Wind Again, which creates technologies to reduce fuel consumption and emissions, proposes to install specially designed Flettner rotors (folding) on ​​tankers and cargo ships. They will reduce fuel consumption by 30–40% and will pay for themselves in 3–5 years.

Finnish marine engineering company Wartsila is already planning to install turbosails on cruise ferries. This is due to the desire of the Finnish ferry operator Viking Line to reduce fuel consumption and environmental pollution. The use of Flettner rotors on pleasure boats is being studied by the University of Flensburg (Germany). Rising oil prices and an alarming warming climate appear to be creating favorable conditions for the return of wind turbines.

The John Marples-designed yacht Cloudia is a rebuilt Searunner 34 trimaran. The yacht underwent its first tests in February 2008 in Fort Pierce, Florida, USA. its creation was financed by the Discovery channel. “Claudia” showed itself to be incredibly maneuverable: it stopped and reversed in a matter of seconds, and moved freely at an angle of about 15° to the wind. The noticeable improvement in performance compared to the traditional Flettner rotor is due to the additional transverse discs installed on the front and rear rotors of the trimaran.

Schooner "Bukau" with rotor sails

For the first time, rotor turbosails from a German engineer Anton Flettner were successfully tested on a schooner "Bukau" in 1924.

In the 1980s, a more complex form of turbosail was developed by French engineers led by oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau. It was most successfully used on the ship Alsion.

Technical design

Concept

The effectiveness of the system, however, has not yet been thoroughly examined. comparative analysis. The Turbosail system was successfully operated on only two ships, and the Cousteau group is the only organization in the world that has a large amount of data on this device. The page dedicated to Halcion on the Cousteau Team website reports that the Turbosail can provide savings of up to 35% on fuel.

Early development (1981-1982): "Moulin à Vent"

Cousteau and his research team installed their invention on a catamaran called "Moulin à Vent" (with fr.- “windmill”) and tested the system on a voyage from Tangier to New York. The passage was coming to an end when, not far from the American coast, the ship had to encounter winds whose speed exceeded 50 knots. The welds holding the turbosail upright broke and the prototype crashed into the sea.

The prototype system consisted of a single pipe, painted dark blue. The vessel's research program aimed to determine the efficiency of the system's thrust. Although the turbosail provided thrust and energy, it was in smaller quantities than the conventional sails and generators that it replaced. Structural problems with the system led to warping of the structure and the appearance of cracks at the base of the sail (due to metal fatigue). All this significantly reduced the efficiency of the turbosail. Once the basic idea was confirmed, Cousteau and his team stopped working on the prototype, focusing entirely on the larger vessel, the Alcion.

"Alsion"

Cousteau used his acquired experience to build a new ship. Together with shipbuilding engineers, he developed an aluminum hull that was strong and lightweight. A catamaran-like stern gave the vessel stability, and a single bow was incorporated into the design to cut through waves and ease movement in rough seas. Two turbo sails were mounted on deck, and two diesel engines powered the superchargers. The ship was named after Alcyone, daughter of the ancient Greek god of the winds Aeolus.

During the construction of Halcyon (started in 1985), the results of work with Moulin a Vent were taken into account. By using two turbosails with a reduced aspect ratio, the load on the metal surfaces was significantly reduced. Both sails also included axial turbines to generate energy, and the system was controlled by computers, which had become cheaper by that time. Computers coordinated the operation of the turbosails and diesel engines, starting the latter when the wind died down completely and stopping them when the wind speed was sufficient. Only 5 people were enough to operate the ship.

In the 1980s, Cousteau made the Alcion the flagship of his group and the main floating base for research. The ship circumnavigated the world, collecting information about the use of turbosails in various weather conditions, fully confirming the creators' intentions.

home » How to earn » Drowned by the Great Depression: diesel-powered sailboat "Barbara". Column Sails: Magnus Effect Rotary Vessel