F l = 2M | V | | Ω | sin α, where α is the angle between the vectors.

The speed of a body moving on the surface of the globe can be decomposed into two components. One of them lies in a plane tangent to the ball at the point where the body is located, in other words, the horizontal component of the velocity: the second, vertical component is perpendicular to this plane. The Coriolis force acting on a body is proportional to the sine of the geographic latitude of its location. A body moving along a meridian in any direction in the Northern Hemisphere is subject to the Coriolis force directed to the right in its motion. It is this force that causes the right banks of rivers in the Northern Hemisphere to wash away, regardless of whether they flow north or south. In the Southern Hemisphere, the same force is directed to the left in movement and rivers flowing in the meridional direction wash away the left banks. In geography, this phenomenon is called Beer's law. When the river bed does not coincide with the meridional direction, the Coriolis force will be less by the cosine of the angle between the direction of the river flow and the meridian.

Almost all studies devoted to the formation of typhoons, tornadoes, cyclones and all kinds of vortices, as well as their further movement, indicate that it is the Coriolis force that serves as the root cause of their occurrence and that it sets the trajectory of their movement along the surface of the Earth. However, if the Coriolis force were involved in the creation of tornadoes, typhoons and cyclones, then in the Northern Hemisphere they would have a right rotation, clockwise, and in the Southern Hemisphere, a left rotation, that is, counterclockwise. But typhoons, tornadoes and cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere rotate to the left, counterclockwise, and in the Southern Hemisphere - to the right, clockwise. This absolutely does not correspond to the direction of influence of the Coriolis force, moreover, it is directly opposite to it. As already mentioned, the magnitude of the Coriolis force is proportional to the sine of geographic latitude and, therefore, is maximum at the poles and absent at the equator. Consequently, if it contributed to the creation of vortices of different scales, then they would most often appear in polar latitudes, which completely contradicts the available data.

Thus, the above analysis convincingly proves that the Coriolis force has nothing to do with the process of formation of typhoons, tornadoes, cyclones and all kinds of vortices, the formation mechanisms of which were discussed in previous chapters.

It is believed that it is the Coriolis force that determines their trajectories, especially since in the Northern Hemisphere typhoons, as meteorological formations, deviate to the right during their movement, and in the Southern Hemisphere - to the left, which corresponds to the direction of action of the Coriolis force in these hemispheres. It would seem that the reason for the deviation of typhoon trajectories has been found - this is the Coriolis force, but let’s not rush to conclusions. As mentioned above, when a typhoon moves along the surface of the Earth, a Coriolis force will act on it, as a single object, equal to:

F к = 2MVΩ sin θ cos α, (21)

where θ is the geographic latitude of the typhoon; α is the angle between the speed vector of the typhoon as a whole and the meridian.

To find out the true reason for the deviation of typhoon trajectories, let's try to determine the magnitude of the Coriolis force acting on the typhoon and compare it with another, as we will now see, more real force.

THE POWER OF MAGNUS

A typhoon moved by the trade wind will be affected by a force that, to the best of the author’s knowledge, has not yet been considered by any researcher in this context. This is the force of interaction of the typhoon, as a single object, with the air flow that moves this typhoon. If you look at the picture depicting the trajectories of typhoons, it will become clear that they move from east to west under the influence of constantly blowing tropical winds, trade winds, which are formed as a result of the rotation of the globe. At the same time, the trade wind not only carries the typhoon from east to west. The most important thing is that a typhoon located in the trade wind is affected by a force caused by the interaction of the air flows of the typhoon itself with the air flow of the trade wind.

The effect of the emergence of a transverse force acting on a body rotating in a flow of liquid or gas impinging on it was discovered by the German scientist G. Magnus in 1852. It manifests itself in the fact that if a rotating circular cylinder flows around an irrotational (laminar) flow perpendicular to its axis, then in that part of the cylinder where the linear speed of its surface is opposite to the speed of the oncoming flow, an area of ​​​​high pressure appears. And on the opposite side, where the direction of the linear velocity of the surface coincides with the speed of the oncoming flow, there is an area of ​​​​low pressure. The pressure difference on opposite sides of the cylinder gives rise to the Magnus force.

Inventors have attempted to harness Magnus's power. A ship was designed, patented and built, on which, instead of sails, vertical cylinders rotated by engines were installed. The efficiency of such rotating cylindrical “sails” in some cases even exceeded the efficiency of conventional sails. The Magnus effect is also used by football players who know that if, when hitting the ball, they give it a rotational movement, then its flight path will become curvilinear. With such a kick, which is called a “dry sheet”, you can send the ball into the opponent’s goal almost from the corner of the football field, located in line with the goal. Volleyball players, tennis players, and ping-pong players also spin the ball when hit. In all cases, the movement of a curved ball along a complex trajectory creates many problems for the opponent.

However, let's return to the typhoon, moved by the trade wind.

Trade winds, stable air currents (which blow constantly for more than ten months a year) in the tropical latitudes of the oceans, cover 11 percent of their area in the Northern Hemisphere, and up to 20 percent in the Southern Hemisphere. The main direction of the trade winds is from east to west, but at an altitude of 1-2 kilometers they are supplemented by meridional winds blowing towards the equator. As a result, in the Northern Hemisphere the trade winds move southwest, and in the Southern Hemisphere

To the northwest. The trade winds became known to Europeans after Columbus's first expedition (1492-1493), when its participants were amazed at the stability of strong northeastern winds that carried caravels from the coast of Spain through the tropical regions of the Atlantic.

The gigantic mass of the typhoon can be considered as a cylinder rotating in the air flow of the trade wind. As already mentioned, in the Southern Hemisphere they rotate clockwise, and in the Northern Hemisphere they rotate counterclockwise. Therefore, due to interaction with the powerful flow of trade winds, typhoons in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres deviate away from the equator - to the north and south, respectively. This nature of their movement is well confirmed by the observations of meteorologists.

(The ending follows.)

Details for the curious

AMPERE'S LAW

In 1920, French physicist Anre Marie Ampere experimentally discovered a new phenomenon - the interaction of two conductors with current. It turned out that two parallel conductors attract or repel depending on the direction of the current in them. Conductors tend to move closer together if currents flow in the same direction (parallel), and move away from each other if currents flow in opposite directions (antiparallel). Ampere was able to correctly explain this phenomenon: the interaction of magnetic fields of currents occurs, which is determined by the “gimlet rule”. If the gimlet is screwed in in the direction of current I, the movement of its handle will indicate the direction of the magnetic field lines H.

Two charged particles flying in parallel also form an electric current. Therefore, their trajectories will converge or diverge depending on the sign of the particle charge and the direction of their movement.

The interaction of conductors must be taken into account when designing high-current electrical coils (solenoids) - parallel currents flowing through their turns create great forces squeezing the coil. There are known cases when a lightning rod made of a tube, after a lightning strike, turned into a cylinder: it was compressed by the magnetic fields of a lightning discharge current with a force of hundreds of kiloamperes.

Based on Ampere's law, the standard unit of current in SI - ampere (A) - was established. State standard“Units of physical quantities” defines:

“An ampere is equal to the current strength which, when passing through two parallel straight conductors of infinite length and negligibly small cross-sectional area, located in a vacuum at a distance of 1 m from each other, would cause an interaction force equal to 2 on a section of the conductor 1 m long . 10 -7 N.”

Details for the curious

MAGNUS AND CORIOLIS FORCES

Let us compare the effect of the Magnus and Coriolis forces on the typhoon, imagining it to a first approximation in the form of a rotating air cylinder flown by the trade wind. Such a cylinder is acted upon by a Magnus force equal to:

F m = DρHV n V m / 2, (22)

where D is the diameter of the typhoon; ρ - trade wind air density; H is its height; V n > - air speed in the trade wind; V t - linear air speed in a typhoon. By simple transformations we get

Fm = R 2 HρωV n, - (23)

where R is the radius of the typhoon; ω is the angular speed of rotation of the typhoon.

Assuming as a first approximation that the air density of the trade wind is equal to the air density in the typhoon, we obtain

M t = R 2 Hρ, - (24)

where M t is the mass of the typhoon.

Then (19) can be written as

F m = M t ωV p - (25)

or F m = M t V p V t / R. (26)

Dividing the expression for the Magnus force by expression (17) for the Coriolis force, we obtain

F m /F k = M t V p V t /2RMV p Ω sinθ cosα (27)

or F m /F k = V t /2RΩ sinθ cosα (28)

Taking into account that, according to the international classification, a typhoon is considered to be a tropical cyclone in which the wind speed exceeds 34 m/s, we will take this smallest figure in our calculations. Since the geographic latitude most favorable for the formation of typhoons is 16 o, we will take θ = 16 o and, since immediately after their formation typhoons move almost along latitudinal trajectories, we will take α = 80 o. Let's take the radius of a medium-sized typhoon to be 150 kilometers. Substituting all the data into the formula, we get

F m / F k = 205. (29)

In other words, the Magnus force exceeds the Coriolis force by two hundred times! Thus, it is clear that the Coriolis force has nothing to do not only with the process of creating a typhoon, but also with changing its trajectory.

A typhoon in the trade wind will be affected by two forces - the aforementioned Magnus force and the force of the aerodynamic pressure of the trade wind on the typhoon, which can be found from a simple equation

F d = KRHρV 2 p, - (30)

where K is the aerodynamic drag coefficient of the typhoon.

It is easy to see that the movement of the typhoon will be due to the action of the resultant force, which is the sum of the Magnus forces and aerodynamic pressure, which will act at an angle p to the direction of air movement in the trade wind. The tangent of this angle can be found from the equation

tgβ = F m /F d. (31)

Substituting expressions (26) and (30) into (31), after simple transformations we obtain

tgβ = V t /KV p, (32)

It is clear that the resulting force F p acting on the typhoon will be tangent to its trajectory, and if the direction and speed of the trade wind are known, then it will be possible to calculate this force with sufficient accuracy for a specific typhoon, thus determining its further trajectory, which will minimize the damage caused by it. The trajectory of a typhoon can be predicted using a step-by-step method, with the likely direction of the resulting force being calculated at each point in its trajectory.

In vector form, expression (25) looks like this:

F m = M [ωV p ]. (33)

It is easy to see that the formula describing the Magnus force is structurally identical to the formula for the Lorentz force:

F l = q .

Comparing and analyzing these formulas, we notice that the structural similarity of the formulas is quite deep. Thus, the left sides of both vector products (M& #969; and q V) characterize the parameters of objects (typhoon and elementary particle), and the right sides ( V n and B) - environment (trade wind speed and magnetic field induction).

Physical training

CORIOLIS FORCES ON THE PLAYER

In a rotating coordinate system, for example on the surface of the globe, Newton's laws are not satisfied - such a coordinate system is non-inertial. An additional inertial force appears in it, which depends on the linear velocity of the body and the angular velocity of the system. It is perpendicular to the trajectory of the body (and its speed) and is called the Coriolis force, named after the French mechanic Gustav Gaspard Coriolis (1792-1843), who explained and calculated this additional force. The force is directed in such a way that to align with the velocity vector, it must be rotated at a right angle in the direction of rotation of the system.

You can see how the Coriolis force “works” using an electric record player by performing two simple experiments. To carry them out, cut out a circle from thick paper or cardboard and place it on the disk. It will serve as a rotating coordinate system. Let's make a note right away: the player disk rotates clockwise, and the Earth rotates counterclockwise. Therefore, the forces in our model will be directed in the direction opposite to those observed on Earth in our hemisphere.

1. Place two stacks of books next to the player, just above the platter. Place a ruler or straight bar on the books so that one of its edges fits the diameter of the disk. If, with the disk stationary, you draw a line along the bar with a soft pencil, from its center to the edge, then it will naturally be straight. If you now start the player and draw a pencil along the bar, it will draw a curved trajectory going to the left - in full agreement with the law calculated by G. Coriolis.

2. Build a slide from stacks of books and tape to it a thick paper groove oriented along the diameter of the disk. If you roll a small ball down a groove onto a stationary disk, it will roll along the diameter. And on a rotating disk it will move to the left (if, of course, the friction when it rolls is small).

Physical training

THE MAGNUS EFFECT ON THE TABLE AND IN THE AIR

1. Glue together a small cylinder from thick paper. Place a stack of books not far from the edge of the table and connect it to the edge of the table with a plank. When the paper cylinder rolls down the resulting slide, we can expect that it will move along a parabola away from the table. However, instead, the cylinder will sharply bend its trajectory in the other direction and fly under the table!

Its paradoxical behavior is quite understandable if we recall Bernoulli’s law: the internal pressure in a gas or liquid flow becomes lower, the higher the flow speed. It is on the basis of this phenomenon that, for example, a spray gun works: higher atmospheric pressure squeezes liquid into a stream of air with reduced pressure.

It is interesting that human flows also obey Bernoulli’s law to some extent. In the subway, at the entrance to the escalator, where traffic is difficult, people gather in a dense, tightly compressed crowd. And on a fast-moving escalator they stand freely - the “internal pressure” in the flow of passengers drops.

When the cylinder falls and continues to rotate, the speed of its right side is subtracted from the speed of the oncoming air flow, and the speed of the left side is added to it. The relative speed of air flow to the left of the cylinder is greater, and the pressure in it is lower than to the right. The pressure difference causes the cylinder to abruptly change its trajectory and fly under the table.

The laws of Coriolis and Magnus are taken into account when launching rockets, precision shooting over long distances, calculating turbines, gyroscopes, etc.

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 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 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 - 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, a rotary ship was practically not afraid of bad weather and strong side winds; it could easily sail on alternating tacks at an angle of 25º to the headwind (for a conventional 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 the restructuring.

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 at the end of the 1920s it struck The Great Depression. 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 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 turbosail.

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 an aircraft lift. 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: “Halcyone” 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 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 trimaran Searunner 34. 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.

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 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. 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 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 turbosail.

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 lift airplane. 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 prototype turbosail 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.

Blowing in a wind tunnel showed: this driving force can be increased almost 2 times if you cover the top of the cylinder with a disk (in the form of a flat plate), the diameter of which is larger than the diameter of the cylinder itself. In addition, it was important to find the necessary relationships between wind speed and the angular speed of rotation of the rotor. The magnitude of the force caused by rotation depends on this; That’s why the rotors were first tested in a wind tunnel and then on a model ship. The experiment made it possible to establish their optimal dimensions for an experimental vessel, and the name “Flettner rotor” has since been assigned to the unusual propulsion unit.

The battered three-masted schooner “Bukau” with a displacement of 980 tons was used as the first experimental vessel for its testing. In 1924, instead of three masts, two rotor-cylinders with a height of 13.1 m and a diameter of 1.5 m were installed on it (hereinafter, see images of ships on the central spread of the magazine), They were driven by two 220 V DC electric motors. Electricity was generated by a small diesel generator with a capacity of 33 kW (45 hp).

The tests began in the Baltic and ended successfully. In February 1925, the ship left the Free City of Danzig, heading to England. In the North Sea, the Bukau had to contend with strong seas, but the schooner, due to proper reballasting, swayed less than ordinary ships. Fears that heavy rotors would negatively affect the stability of the vessel or would themselves suffer during rolling did not materialize; the wind pressure on their surface did not reach large values. At the same time, the weather was so bad that many ships of the same displacement as the Bukau sought refuge in nearby ports. “Not a single sailing ship could have completed the voyage that a rotary schooner had done,” wrote English newspapers.

The return journey to Cuxhaven was also accompanied by storms. This time

Fig.3. Change in speed (average values) of vessels: 1) s power plants(ES), 2) sailing and 3) with combined (sail and ES) propulsors.

The Bukau was loaded with coal along the waterline, and she once again showed her advantages over other sailing ships. Waves rolled over the deck and broke the lifeguard

body boat, but the rotors themselves did not receive any damage. Subsequently, the schooner was renamed Baden-Baden and she made another difficult voyage - after enduring a severe storm in the Bay of Biscay, she crossed the Atlantic Ocean and arrived safely in New York.

The rotary propulsion system received high praise. It turned out to be easier to maintain than conventional sails required, it quickly entered operating mode, and therefore they decided to continue testing. In 1924 at the shipyard joint stock company"Weser" (Germany) was the first vessel designed specifically for sailing with a rotary propulsion. It was named "Barbara" and was intended to transport fruit from the ports of South America to Germany. With a length of 85, a width of 15.2 and a draft of 5.4 m, the ship had a cargo capacity of about 3000 tons. According to the initial design, it was supposed to install one giant rotor with a height of 90 m and a diameter of 13.1 m, but then, taking into account the experience of the schooner Bukau ", the colossal rotor was replaced by three smaller ones - 17 m high and 4 m in diameter. They were made of aluminum alloys with a wall thickness of slightly more than a millimeter. For each rotor there was one motor with a power of 26 kW (35 hp), developing 150 rpm. With a force 5 wind (8 - 11 m/s) in a favorable direction (heading angle 105 - 110 degrees), the thrust of the rotary propulsors was equivalent to the operation of an engine with a power of 780 kW (1060 hp). In addition, a 750 kW (1,020 hp) single-shaft diesel unit driving the propeller supplemented the rotor thrust, allowing the ship to sail at a speed of 10 knots (18.5 km/h).

At the beginning of 1926, the ship was delivered to the customer, and until the end of the year it transported fruit from Italy 8 to Germany - it was necessary to test the rotors in long-term operation. Since 1927, “Barbara” made regular flights to South America, but three years later preference was given to a diesel engine, replacing the rotors with them.

Being essentially sailing ships, ro

tow ships had enormous advantages over them. There was no longer any need to call the crew on deck to clean and set the sails; only one officer (on the bridge) controlled the movement of the rotors using several handles. These ships sailed close-hauled - up to 30 degrees, whereas most conventional sailboats have an angle between the direction

The wind direction and direction of movement is at least 40 - 50 degrees. The travel speed was regulated by the speed of rotation of the rotors, and maneuvering was controlled by changing the direction of their rotation. Rotary ships could even reverse.

However, the complexity of the design of rotary propulsors, and most importantly the fact that the ships equipped with them continued to remain sailing ships with all the disadvantages, the first of which was complete dependence on the wind, did not lead to their widespread use.

However, despite all the disadvantages, designers returned again and again to the idea of ​​using wind energy.

In the mid-60s. In many maritime countries, special design bureaus were created that dealt with the problem of wind propulsion, that is, the movement of a ship with the help of wind engines and wind propulsors. In the first case, the conversion of wind energy into thrust occurs along the chain: wind engine - transmission (mechanical or electrical) - propeller. By design, wind turbines are distinguished with a horizontal axis of rotation (1-2-3 or multi-blade turbine) and with a vertical axis, for example, a drum-type turbine; in terms of rotation speed - high-speed, having high speed rotation (they go well with electric generators in terms of rotation frequency), and low-speed, creating high torque directly on the propeller. When using a wind engine, the ship is not limited in choosing a course relative to the direction of the wind, however, the wind engine has low efficiency due to repeated energy conversion. The wind turbine is effective at wind speeds of 3 - 4< У, <12-14м/с, причем судно лучше двигается при встречных ветрах, нежели при попутных; при скорости ветра 15 - 20 м/с он должен быть остановлен, поскольку возникает угроза его разрушения,

Experimental wind turbines of various designs have been successfully tested on yachts. However, on large transport ships they are not used even as drives for electric generators, although experiments in this direction are being conducted.

In the second case, the traction force pulling the ship arises directly on the wind propulsion device, but sailing directly against the wind and in a certain range of heading angles near this direction is impossible; the speeds of such vessels depend on the wind speed and are relatively low - 7 - 10 knots (13 - 18.5 km/h). The main types of wind propulsors include the already known Flettner rotor, the wing-sail and the classic sail, which are still being improved, both in the creation of new materials and the implementation of the most effective projects, If on Viking ships, on Russian boats, caravels, barges, clipper ships used canvas sails, and some peoples, for example the Nivkhs living on Sakhalin and along the lower Amur, made sails from fish skin, but now, thanks to advances in chemistry, new materials with amazing properties have been created. Wrinkle-resistant lavsan and heat-resistant nitron appeared, and in 1977, industrial tests of plastics and synthetic fibers, characterized by increased strength and lightness, were carried out. It is these materials that are used for modern ships with sailing propulsion.

The first full-scale studies with wind turbines were carried out in 1960 - 1967. at the Hamburg Institute

TECHNOLOGY-YOUTH 2 9 8

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.

Candidate of Naval Sciences V. DYGALO, professor, rear admiral. Drawings by the author.

The Russian four-masted barque "Kruzenshtern" is the only representative of the "flying line P" that has survived to this day. Built in 1926 in Germany and still serves as a training ship, helping to train new generations of Russian Navy officers.

The champion among sailing ships is the five-masted giant Preussen.

The fastest sailing ship, the tea clipper "Cutty Sark".

Ill. 1. Magnus effect.

The first rotary ship "Bukau".

A ship with a sail-wing wind propulsion.

Cargo ship "Dina-Schiff".

Tanker "Shin Eitoku Maru".

A vessel with rotary-type vertical air turbines.

It is just as impossible to answer the question of when the sail was invented, just as it is impossible to name the author of the famous Paleolithic “Venuses” - primitive female sculptures found by archaeologists in different places of the Eurasian continent. Maybe both of them - the sail and the "Venus" - appeared at the same time, in the Old Stone Age? We can only guess about this. The only thing we can say with certainty is that 6,000 years ago the sail already existed - the Egyptians used a straight sail when sailing along the Nile.

The development of the sail went in parallel with the development of mankind and reached its peak by the middle of the 19th century, when the famous “wind squeezers” - tea clippers - appeared, and by the beginning of the 20th century - the no less famous ships of the "Flyins P" type ("Flying P") of the Hamburg company " Laesh." Her five-masted ship "Preussen" was considered at the beginning of the 20th century the largest sailing ship in the world: register capacity - 5081 tons, displacement - 11,000 tons. The record remained with a 6500-meter area of ​​45 sails (30 of them on five masts were straight). No matter how great the role of the first iron ships driven by a steam engine was, it was the 19th century that can rightfully be called the heyday of wooden sailing cargo ships. Designers continued to work to improve the quality of sailing ships, seeking to increase their speed, which became one of the main factors in the increasing competition of trading companies. Two countries were in the lead in the shipbuilding competition - the USA and England.

The Americans were the first to build very light, slender and fast ships - clippers. But the British did not lag behind, and very soon real competitions between English and American sailing ships began.

The average displacement of the ships was 1000-2000 tons, but some of them had a displacement of up to 3500-4000 tons. Their length was six times greater than their width. Then the well-known principle of shipbuilding appeared - “length runs.” By creating this type of ship, shipbuilders created a real miracle. The clipper hull was composite: the keel and frames were iron, the hull was wooden, covered in the underwater part with copper sheets to prevent algae fouling. Thanks to this, the lightness of the vessel's structure was ensured without compromising its strength.

To reduce the crew size to 23-28 people and facilitate their work at sea on these sailboats, technological achievements of the mid-19th century were used: screw steering drives, hand winches with a gear drive, pumps with a flywheel and other mechanisms. On the “foamers of the sea” everything was subordinated to achieving the highest speed. Long and slender, with a hull as smooth as an eel's body, the clipper ships had gracefully curved, sharp stems that cut through the waves like a knife. “Skyscraper” masts and super-long bowsprits carried such an abundance of sails that it was no longer possible to surpass. The famous tea clippers were considered the fastest: their speed reached 20 knots (37 km/h). More than ten meters per second - that’s how fast the thousand-ton, sharp-nosed ship flew (that’s right, flew!) from wave to wave. Every year, trading companies gave a special bonus to the ship that would be the first to bring new harvest tea from China - hence the name. Compared to the types of sailing rigs of previous centuries, instead of the hitherto usual three or, in exceptional cases, four tiers of straight sails, a fully rigged clipper carried up to seven straight sails on each mast. Their names (starting from the bottom) among English sailors sounded like this: lower sail (foresail or mainsail), lower topsail, upper topsail, top topsail, top topsail, “royal” sail, “sky” sail, “moon” sail (or “sky- scraper"). In addition to the main sails listed on the sides, in case of tailwinds, additional fox sails were installed on thin round “trees”, lisels extending along the yards, and staysails were installed between the masts. The total area of ​​all sails was 3300 m2 or more. When the clipper was sailing under full sail with a favorable wind, it seemed from the side that a white cloud was flying over the surface of the ocean. For their grace, streamlined shapes, abundance of sails and speed, the clipper received another name - “windjammers” (“wind squeezers”).

Tea races have turned into real competition in speed. For example, in 1866, five clippers with a cargo of tea left Fuzhou (China) almost simultaneously. This race of speed was one of the most exhilarating sea voyages halfway around the world. Each of the five ambitious captains dreamed of coming to London first. In racing, everything was at stake. One of the sailing ships, the Ariel, sailed with a large list for many hours in a row during a severe storm in the Atlantic Ocean. Steep waves rolled across the deck of the clipper. But instead of removing at least one sail, the crew tightly battened down the hatches and all other openings with canvas. To avoid being washed overboard, the sailors tied themselves at their workplaces with special ropes. The fight against the elements continued for almost half a day. The ship emerged victorious. On September 6, having spent less than 99 days, "Ariel" arrived in England... After the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, sailing ship flights on the "tea" line became unprofitable. "Ariel" did odd jobs, transporting coal from England to Japan and Australia.

And yet, for a short time, clipper ships came back into fashion. Australia began to produce a lot of wool, which Europe and America needed. There were not enough steam ships capable of sailing such long distances without additional loading of coal, so we had to resort to the services of sailing ships. In October 1885, six clippers set off from the Australian port of Sydney for England, and among them was the Cutty Sark, which was called the “Queen of the Seas” for its beautiful lines, enormous sail capacity and seaworthiness. On the sixty-seventh day of the voyage, the Cutty Sark arrived in London before anyone else. This was an unprecedented record for sailing ships. And not only sailing, but also steam. On the way back, the clipper overtook the fastest passenger ship at that time, the Britannia. They say that the officer of the watch, waking up the captain, said:

Sir! Go out onto the bridge, something extraordinary is happening - a sailboat is overtaking us!

The captain smiled and did not move from his place.

Why go? After all, this is the Cutty Sark, and it is useless to compete with it!

The age of clipper ships ended in 1924, when one of the last beauties, the Hasperus, was scrapped. And only the Cutty Sark sailed until 1949.

However, with the end of the military and transport sailing fleet, the sail did not end. As a propulsion device for sports ships and boats, the sail plays and will continue to play a huge role in the education of sailors for a long time.

Rapid technological progress has been accompanied by the emergence of serious environmental problems, sometimes causing irreparable harm to nature. Disasters with oil tankers and huge fires in offshore fields confirm this. New ideas and solutions must help the world's maritime fleet become environmentally friendly. And the sail can carry novelty.

Fortunately for humanity, there are always people who are able to see what others do not notice, and who have inexhaustible inquisitiveness - this is an integral quality of all inventors.

Such a person was the German engineer Anton Flettner (1885-1961). Once, while sailing on a sailboat, watching the efforts of sailors working in a storm with sails at a height of 40-50 m, he thought: is it possible to replace the classic sail with something, using the same wind force? Reflections forced Flettner to remember his compatriot physicist Heinrich Gustav Magnus (1802-1870), who in 1852 proved that the resulting transverse force acting on a body rotating in a flow of liquid or gas flowing around it is directed in the direction where the flow speed and rotation the bodies match.

Magnus confirmed the presence of such an effect later in an experiment with scales. A cylinder with a motor connected to it was placed horizontally on one of their bowls, and balancing weights were placed on the other. The cylinder was blown with air, but until the motor was turned on, it remained motionless and the balance of the scales was not disturbed. However, you just had to start the motor and thereby make the cylinder rotate, as the bowl where it was located either rose or fell - depending on the direction in which the rotation was going. With this experiment, the scientist established: if a flow of air flows onto a rotating cylinder, then the speeds of flow and rotation on one side of the cylinder are added, and on the other they are subtracted. And since higher speeds correspond to lower pressures, a driving force perpendicular to the flow arises on a rotating cylinder placed in an air flow. It can be increased or decreased if the cylinder is rotated faster or slower. It was Magnus’s experiments that gave Flettner the idea of ​​replacing the sail on the ship with a rotating cylinder. But doubts immediately arose. Indeed, on a large ship such rotors will look like huge towers 20-25 m high, which in a storm will create a colossal danger for the ship. These questions needed to be answered, and Flettner began his research.

In the last days of June 1923, he carried out his first experiments with the model on Lake Wannsee, near Berlin. It was a boat less than a meter long with a paper cylinder with a diameter of about 15 cm and a height of about 1 m. A clock mechanism was used to rotate it. The experiments were successful, but many questions remained, including about the forces arising on the rotor during rotation.

All further studies and related measurements were carried out in the laboratory. Their results were as follows.

If the surface of a rotating rotor is exposed to wind, the speed of the latter changes. Where the surface moves towards the wind, its speed decreases and the pressure increases. On the opposite side of the rotor, the air flow speed, on the contrary, increases and the pressure drops. The resulting pressure difference creates a driving force that can be used to move the vessel.

But the most surprising thing about Flettner’s research was something else. It turned out that the resulting driving force was many times greater than the wind pressure on the stationary rotor. Calculations showed that the wind energy used was approximately 50 times greater than that spent on rotating the rotor, and depended on its rotation frequency and wind speed. Another important circumstance also became clear - the possibility of sailing a rotary vessel against the wind with alternating courses (tacks) close to the wind line. In other words, for such a vessel the natural laws of navigation that ordinary sailing ships used remained valid. But at the same time, its prospects were assessed simply brilliantly, since the area of ​​the rotor in relation to the area of ​​the sails of a conventional sailboat, comparable in displacement to a rotary ship, was only 0.1-0.15 percent, and its (rotor) mass was about 5 times less than the total mass of sailing weapons.

Naturally, one part of the effort obtained due to the rotation of the cylinder is spent on creating drift (displacement of the moving ship from the course line), and the other part is spent on moving the ship forward.

Blowing in a wind tunnel showed: this driving force can be increased almost 2 times if you cover the top of the cylinder with a disk (in the form of a flat plate), the diameter of which is larger than the diameter of the cylinder itself. In addition, it was important to find the necessary relationships between wind speed and the angular speed of rotation of the rotor. The magnitude of the force caused by rotation depends on this; That’s why the rotors were first tested in a wind tunnel and then on a model ship. The experiment made it possible to establish their optimal dimensions for an experimental vessel, and the name “Flettner rotor” has since been assigned to the unusual propulsion unit.

The battered three-masted schooner "Bukau" with a displacement of 980 tons was used as the first experimental vessel for its testing. In 1924, instead of three masts, two cylinder rotors with a height of 13.1 m and a diameter of 1.5 m were installed on it. They were driven by two DC electric motor with a voltage of 220 V. Electricity was generated by a small diesel generator with a capacity of 33 kW (45 hp).

The tests began in the Baltic and ended successfully. In February 1925, the ship left the “free city of Danzig”, heading to England. In the North Sea, the Bukau had to contend with strong seas, but the schooner, due to proper reballasting, swayed less than ordinary ships. Fears that heavy rotors would negatively affect the stability of the vessel or would themselves suffer during rolling did not materialize; the wind pressure on their surface did not reach large values. At the same time, the weather was so bad that many ships of the same displacement as the Bukau sought refuge in nearby ports. “Not a single sailing ship could have completed the voyage that a rotary schooner has done,” wrote English newspapers.

The return journey to Cuxhaven was also accompanied by storms. This time the Bukau was loaded with coal along the waterline, and she once again showed her advantages over other sailing ships. The waves rolled over the deck and smashed the lifeboat, but the rotors themselves did not receive any damage. Subsequently, the schooner was renamed Baden-Baden and she made another difficult voyage: after enduring a severe storm in the Bay of Biscay, she crossed the Atlantic Ocean and arrived safely in New York.

The rotary propulsion system received high praise. It turned out to be easier to maintain than conventional sails and quickly entered operating mode, and therefore they decided to continue testing. In 1924, the first ship designed specifically for sailing with a rotary propulsion was laid down at the shipyard of the Weser joint-stock company (Germany). It was named "Barbara" and was intended to transport fruit from the ports of South America to Germany. With a length of 85, a width of 15.2 and a draft of 5.4 m, the ship had a cargo capacity of about 3000 tons. According to the initial design, it was supposed to be equipped with one giant rotor with a height of 90 m and a diameter of 13.1 m, but then, taking into account the experience of the schooner "Bukau" , the colossal rotor was replaced by three, smaller ones - 17 m high and 4 m in diameter. They were made of aluminum alloys with walls slightly more than a millimeter thick. For each rotor there was one motor with a power of 26 kW (35 hp), developing 150 rpm. With a force 5 wind (8-11 m/s) in a favorable direction (heading angle of 105-110 degrees), the thrust of the rotary propulsors was equivalent to the operation of an engine with a power of 780 kW (1060 hp). In addition, a 750 kW (1,020 hp) single-shaft diesel unit driving the propeller supplemented the rotor thrust, allowing the ship to sail at a speed of 10 knots (18.5 km/h).

Being essentially sailing ships, rotary ships had enormous advantages over them. There was no longer any need to call the crew on deck to clean and set the sails; only one officer (on the bridge) controlled the movement of the rotors using several handles. When close-hauled (against the wind), these ships sailed up to 30 degrees, whereas in most ordinary sailboats the angle between the direction of the wind and the direction of movement is at least 40-50 degrees. The travel speed was regulated by the speed of rotation of the rotors, and maneuvering was controlled by changing the direction of their rotation. Rotary ships could even reverse.

However, the complexity of the design of rotary propulsors, and most importantly the fact that the ships equipped with them continued to remain sailing ships with all the disadvantages, the first of which was complete dependence on the wind, did not lead to their widespread use.

Nevertheless, designers returned again and again to the idea of ​​using wind energy. In the mid-60s of the twentieth century, special design bureaus were created in many maritime countries that dealt with the problem of wind propulsion, that is, the movement of a ship with the help of wind engines and wind propulsors. In the first case, the conversion of wind energy into thrust occurs along the chain: wind engine - transmission (mechanical or electrical) - propeller. By design, wind turbines are distinguished with a horizontal axis of rotation (1-, 2-, 3- or multi-blade turbine) and with a vertical axis, for example a drum-type turbine; in terms of rotation speed - high-speed, having a high rotation speed (combines well with electric generators in terms of rotation frequency), and low-speed, creating a large torque directly on the propeller. When using a wind engine, the ship is not limited in choosing a course relative to the direction of the wind, however, the wind engine has low efficiency due to repeated energy conversion. The wind engine is effective at wind speeds from 3-4 to 12-14 m/s, and the vessel moves better in headwinds than in tailwinds; at a wind speed of 15-20 m/s it must be stopped, since there is a threat of its destruction.

Experimental wind turbines of various designs have been successfully tested on yachts. However, on large transport ships they are not even used as drives for electric generators, although experiments in this direction continue.

In the second case, the traction force pulling the ship arises directly on the wind turbine, but sailing directly against the wind and in a certain range of heading angles near this direction is impossible; the speeds of such vessels depend on the wind speed and are relatively low - 7-10 knots (13-18.5 km/h). The main types of wind propulsors include the Flettner rotor, already known to us, the wing-sail and the classic sail, which are still being improved, and through the creation of new materials. Wrinkle-resistant lavsan and heat-resistant nitron, materials made from plastics and synthetic fibers, characterized by increased strength and lightness, appeared. They are used for modern vessels with sail propulsion.

The first full-scale studies of wind turbines were carried out in 1960-1967 at the Hamburg Institute of Shipbuilding, where the design of a cargo ship with a deadweight of 17,000 tons was developed. The results of subsequent hard work, including blowing more than 50 models in a wind tunnel and testing in an experimental pool, made it possible to build in 1982 the ship "Dina-Schiff", which for a long time had no analogues in the world. It is a sailboat that can carry 16,500 tons of cargo and has impressive dimensions: length - 160.5 m, width - 21 m. Side height - 13 m, draft - 9.1 m. Each of the six rotating masts carries five straight sails, which were stretched on profiled yards without gaps and as a whole made up one effective (high and narrow) giant sail with an area of ​​1200 m2 (the total area of ​​​​all sails reached 7200 m2). The electric motors that raise or retract any of the 30 sails are controlled by the watch officer from the control room where the computer is installed. In addition to the sails, the Din-Schiff was equipped with three 330 kW (448 hp) diesel engines. The ship developed an average speed of 12 knots, and with favorable winds - up to 16.

Further improvement of the Dyna-Schiff project was continued by the Friedrich Weiss Research Society from the German city of Ahrensburg. It created a spectacular sailing cargo ship with automatic retraction of sails, each of which was wound on a shaft located in a profiled yard. The length of the bulk carrier is 65 m; it can take on board 1000 tons of cargo. Each of the three turning masts carries five straight sails; Additionally, in case of calm weather, an auxiliary diesel engine with a power of 350 kW (476 hp) was installed on the ship. Using only sail propulsion, such vessels can reach a speed of 12-14 knots, and with a strong tailwind - up to 20 (37 km/h). This corresponds to the speed of a modern container ship.

"Dina-Schiff" and the bulk carrier from Ahrensburg are not alone on the current sea roads - since June 1990, they have been accompanied by the flagship of the Greenpeace organization, "Rainbow-Urrior", converted in Hamburg in the manner of "Dina-Schiff". When the wind force is 5, the ship develops a speed of more than 12 knots (22 km/h).

Taking into account the good performance of the above-mentioned vessels, dry cargo sailing ships with a carrying capacity of 900 to 2000 tons are now being designed. However, German scientists believe that they are unlikely to be profitable for Europe due to the inconstancy of the winds blowing near its shores, and propose to equip ordinary dry cargo ships and container ships additional sailing equipment, which will lead to fuel savings of 10-25 percent.

The development of wind turbines and wind turbines is taken especially seriously in those countries where natural oil reserves are limited or non-existent. Thus, in Japan, only in the period 1980-1986, 10 vessels were put into operation, having, in addition to mechanical propulsion, wind propulsion. A typical representative of them is the coastal tanker Shin Eitoku Maru with a displacement of 1,600 tons, launched in July 1980 by Imamura Shipbuilding. Its main dimensions are: length - 66, width - 10.6, draft - 4.4 m. Equipped with two sails with an area of ​​97 m 2 each and an engine with a power of 1177 kW (1600 hp). The average speed of the tanker is 12 knots (22 km/h). The time he spends sailing per year is 15 percent of the total.

The highest achievement in the construction of ships using the "mechanical engine plus wind propulsion" scheme was the Japanese ship "Usiki Pioneer". With a displacement of 26 thousand tons, it has a length of 162.4, a beam of 25.2 and a draft of 10.6 m, two main engines with a power of 2427 kW (3300 hp) and two sails of 320 m 2 each. With the combined use of sails and one of the engines, the ship can sail at an average speed of 13.5 knots (25 km/h). The wind propulsion system is controlled by computer commands.

Japanese engineers also developed a design for a sailboat capable of carrying 17 thousand tons of cargo and 250 passengers. All work related to setting and cleaning the sails will be fully mechanized. This will allow one person, using a computer, to handle 1500 m 2 of sails placed on six masts in 20 seconds. The maximum speed of the vessel is about 20 knots (37 km/h). It is able to “catch” the slightest breeze. In case of complete calm, installation of engines is provided.

Multi-purpose and rather expensive tests of sailing options were carried out in 1985 by Polish scientists and designers. On the 50-meter experimental vessel "Oceania" with a displacement of 550 tons, three masts made of durable and light alloy with straight sails with a total area of ​​700 m 2 were installed. They were installed and removed using hydraulic drives and using special gear made of heavy-duty synthetic material - Kevlar. When the wind increased, the area of ​​the sails decreased, and when the wind exceeded 25 m/s, they were folded in the form of boxes around the mast.

This experience allowed the shipbuilders of the Gdansk shipyard to build the cruise ship Gwarek in 1986, the sailing rig of which was almost similar to that installed on the Oceania. "Gwarek" became the property of the Travel Bureau as a floating holiday home, the passengers of which are accommodated in 100 double comfortable cabins. All control of the vessel is carried out from the bridge using a computer and hydraulic systems.

New sails required more modern fastening and cleaning. Several mast designs have been developed, and each has its own “highlights”. Thus, some masts are installed on rotating platforms, and the sails are extended from the yards and retracted inside them, like a movie screen. And the Polish inventor A. Borowsky from Szczecin back in 1977 received a patent for a mast, which consists of many metal tubes connected into one by a thin outer shell made of heavy-duty synthetic material. This design is lighter than the usual one and is not inferior to it in strength.

New types of sails have also been developed for sports vessels. In particular, a new propulsion device - a sail-wing - has already found application. It is made in the form of a rigid sail, similar in design to the wing of a glider or airplane, but having a symmetrical cross-sectional profile. It is installed on ice boats and sailing catamarans that develop high speeds, at which it operates at low angles of attack. Even more effective is a wing-sail, which has a convex-concave profile that varies depending on the angle of attack and the tack of the ship or boat. For example, in the design used on the catamaran Patient Lady U (USA), the sail-wing consists of six parts that are installed automatically using a computer at certain angles to the wind. It is made of plywood, fiberglass, foam and synthetic fabric, its weight with an area of ​​\u200b\u200b28 m 2 is only 46 kg.

Designers involved in wind propulsion and engines are most attracted to those projects that make it possible to increase the speed of ships to 20 knots, that is, to reach the speed of tea clippers. Attempts are being made to revive the sailing fleet on a modern basis, using the principle of hovercraft and hydrofoil propulsion.

There are also positive developments in the development of new types of wind turbines. Thus, German engineers proposed a “carousel-type” engine, in which six polyester planes are located on two vertical axes, turned to each other at an angle of 60 degrees. The wind, acting on such air turbines, causes them to rotate - thereby converting its kinetic energy into mechanical energy of rotation of the ship's propeller shaft.

Today there are quite a lot of different projects of wind turbines and wind turbines, both implemented and at the development stage. There are plenty to choose from, but experts have come to the conclusion that the most appropriate option is to install a wind propulsion on sea and river vessels as an addition to the main mechanical engine. This will give 25-30 percent fuel savings and provide ships with a quite acceptable speed of 16 knots, and in addition, will allow the use of a relatively small one instead of a powerful power plant. And one more mandatory condition: the use of all new types of sailing propulsion requires the widespread introduction of computers. Only high-speed computing technology can take into account all the parameters affecting the movement of the ship, and thereby increase the safety of its navigation.

Captions for illustrations

Ill. 1. As can be seen from the figure, a force transverse to the direction of the air flow begins to act on the rotating cylinder. Thus, it is obvious that the most favorable course for a rotary vessel is when the wind blows directly on board. And the direction of movement depends only on whether the rotor rotates clockwise or counterclockwise.

Ill. 2. A close wind is called full if this angle is more than 66°, and steep if it is less. The forward movement is ensured by that component of wind pressure (a) that coincides with the course of the sailboat, while the action of the lateral component (b) is neutralized by the ship's keel.

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