棒球場更多電力

加入我們科學愛好者的社群!

本文發表於《大眾科學》的前部落格網路,反映了作者的觀點,不一定反映《大眾科學》的觀點


聖路易斯和阿靈頓是美國最後兩個在棒球場周圍不擔心電力短缺的人群。其他所有人都在考慮明年。

像往常一樣,這包括克利夫蘭印第安人隊——但這次他們考慮的是體育場內的電力,而不僅僅是本壘板上的得分能力。到下賽季開始時,他們將在進步球場頂部安裝一個 18 英尺寬的風力渦輪機。該渦輪機是一種有點古怪的螺旋設計,但這並非旨在實現仍然令人沮喪的垂直軸技術突破。相反,它是一種風力放大渦輪機,它在結構的側面凹槽中安裝了一堆微小的風車式葉片。設計師 馬吉德·拉希迪 表示,這些凹槽可以引導風,並使其在經過物體時加速——想想大型建築物如何將城市變成風洞,或者空氣如何使曲線球下墜。嗯,這是為其他球隊的投手準備的。拉希迪預計他的渦輪機將比不靠近圓柱體的渦輪機產生 三到四倍的電力

拉希迪曾說過,該渦輪機基本上利用了伯努利原理。風速在表面周圍加速的方式與在飛機機翼上方加速的方式非常相似。在那裡,它產生升力,在這裡,它有望每年產生約 40,000 千瓦時——足以供幾戶家庭使用。該設計最初於 2009 年進行了測試,當時拉希迪的僱主克利夫蘭州立大學在其一座建築物的頂部安裝了一個試驗性渦輪機。


關於支援科學新聞報道

如果您喜歡這篇文章,請考慮透過以下方式支援我們屢獲殊榮的新聞報道: 訂閱。透過購買訂閱,您將幫助確保有關塑造我們當今世界的發現和想法的具有影響力的故事的未來。


那個渦輪機只有一個桶,風可以繞著它流動。那裡的情況進展順利,以至於下一個版本(經過高度更新,帶有那些凹槽)應該在 2012 年 3 月的某個時候安裝在進步球場頂部。該渦輪機解決了與風相關的兩個問題:首先,它在低風速下發電,其次,它適用於大型螺旋槳式渦輪機無法安裝的城市環境。

儘管如此,拉希迪似乎完全不知道該如何處理印第安人隊的投球問題。

 

Scott Huler was born in 1959 in Cleveland and raised in that city's eastern suburbs. He graduated from Washington University in 1981; he was made a member of Phi Beta Kappa because of the breadth of his studies, and that breadth has been a signature of his writing work. He has written on everything from the death penalty to bikini waxing, from NASCAR racing to the stealth bomber, for such newspapers as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Los Angeles Times and such magazines as ESPN, Backpacker, and Fortune. His award-winning radio work has been heard on "All Things Considered" and "Day to Day" on National Public Radio and on "Marketplace" and "Splendid Table" on American Public Media. He has been a staff writer for the Philadelphia Daily News and the Raleigh News & Observer and a staff reporter and producer for Nashville Public Radio. He was the founding and managing editor of the Nashville City Paper. He has taught at such colleges as Berry College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

His books include Defining the Wind, about the Beaufort Scale of wind force, and No-Man's Lands, about retracing the journey of Odysseus.

His most recent book, On the Grid, was his sixth. His work has been included in such compilations as Appalachian Adventure and in such anthologies as Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont, The Appalachian Trail Reader and Speed: Stories of Survival from Behind the Wheel.

For 2014-2015 Scott is a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, which is funding his work on the Lawson Trek, an effort to retrace the journey of explorer John Lawson through the Carolinas in 1700-1701.

He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife, the writer June Spence, and their two sons.

More by Scott Huler
© .