Wide faced propeller / turbine blade assembly

Abstract

An improved propeller/turbine blade assembly with wide faced blades in order to more efficiently convert a moving fluid's kinetic energy into mechanical rotational energy by optimizing the bladed assembly's frontal surface interaction with the swept blade area of a moving fluid. This improved blade surface interaction is accomplished through new and novel design features of the assembly's blades. These design features include the following; that the designed assembly has a much larger total blade footprint than prior bladed assemblies, that the assembly's blades overlap each other with the leading edge of the following blade overlapping the trailing edge of the preceding blade, that the assembly has multiple designed blade twist angles that occur within each blade and at segmented lengths along each blade and that the assembly's blades are dimensionally segmented with width to length ratios as a percentage of overall length.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A wide faced propeller/turbine blade assembly is disclosed for the conversion of a moving fluid's kinetic energy into mechanical rotational torque energy in which the assembly will;
 be located and aligned within a moving fluid in such a manner that the assembly will be made to rotate as the result of being subjected to the kinetic energy contained within said moving fluid,   be constructed with a plurality of wide faced propeller/turbine blades, which will be placed in a symmetrical fan type configuration, circumferentially and in an angular equidistantly spaced manner on to the assembly's rotational hub,   the assembly's rotational hub will be located coaxially about a longitudinal centerline axis and be connected to a rotational horizontal shaft along the longitudinal centerline axis, wherein the horizontal shaft will convey the rotating assembly's produced mechanical rotational energy.   
     
     
         2 . The propeller/turbine blade assembly of  claim 1  wherein each blade has:
 a blade root that is joinable to the assembly hub, 
 a blade tip, 
 a blade leading edge extending from said root to said tip, 
 a blade trailing edge extending from said root to said tip, 
 a blade frontal facing surface extending from said blade root to said blade tip and extending between the blade leading edge and the blade trailing edge, 
 a blade rearward facing surface extending from said blade root to said, blade tip and extending between the blade leading edge and the blade trailing edge. 
 
     
     
         3 . The propeller/turbine blade assembly of  claim 1  where each blade has contained within it's body an internal center spine support;
 and that the internal center spine support runs from the blade root hub connection plate, in a radial direction from the hub, to the internal tip spine curve support plate, 
 and that the internal center spine support adds the required structural support, blade thickness and rigidity to the areas of the blade occurring along the internal spine curvature separation line, as seen on the frontal facing surface of the blade, and thus the internal center spine support creates the internal spine curvature separation line on the frontal surface of the blade, 
 and that the internal spine curvature separation line starts at the root section of the blade on an almost straight radial line, at the hub and becomes curved towards the trailing edge of the blade as it reaches the blade tip's internal spine curve support plate, 
 and that the separation line between the frontal facing surface's leading edge blade area and the frontal facing surface's trailing edge blade area is created by and lies generally over the internal center spine support, 
 and that the separation line between the rearward facing surface's leading edge blade area and the rearward facing surface's trailing edge blade area is created by and lies generally over the internal center spine support. 
 
     
     
         4 . The propeller/turbine blade assembly of  claim 1  wherein each blade has contained within its body a series of internal rib supports;
 and that these internal rib supports are attached to the internal center spine support contained within each blade, 
 and that these internal rib supports run internally from each side of the internal center spine support outwardly towards the leading and trailing edges of the blade, 
 and that these multiple sets of internal ribs begin above the root hub support plate and continue repetitively until ending at the tip spine curve support plate, 
 and that these internal rib supports add the required structural support, rigidity and complex convex/concave designed curvatures to the frontal facing and rearward facing surfaces of the blade. 
 
     
     
         5 . The propeller/turbine blade assembly of  claim 1  wherein each blade may have a layer of expanded metal mesh, woven metal fabric, alternating directional strips of metal forming a metal weave, or another form of the internal structural metal mesh type layer,
 and that this structural metal mesh layer may be attached to the internal center spine supports and or the internal rib supports, 
 and that this structural metal mesh layer may be attached to the internal center spine supports and or the internal rib supports with either mechanical fasteners, welding, heat fusion of the materials, or the use of glue like substances and or a combination of these methods to attach the structural mesh layer to the other internal structural components of the blades. 
 
     
     
         6 . The propeller/turbine blade assembly of  claim 1  wherein each blade may have the interior of each blade being comprised of and consist of any number of commonly known closed cell insulation materials,
 and that the closed cell insulation material may be chosen from the available insulation types commonly known based on standard design properties such as the material weight, the structural integrity of the material, the cohesion factors of the material, the expansion or contraction factors of the material and the material's resistance to water intrusion, especially under pressure. 
 
     
     
         7 . The propeller/turbine blade assembly of  claim 1  wherein each blade will have a designed leading edge convex curve in the blade's direction of rotation
 and also have a designed dissimilar trailing edge convex curve which is opposite from the direction of rotation. 
 
     
     
         8 . The propeller/turbine blade assembly of  claim 1  wherein each blade is designed so that between 30 to 45% of the blade's volume lies in the direction of rotation, forward of the internal center spine support
 and that between 55 to 70% of each blade's volume lies rearward of the internal center spine support. 
 
     
     
         9 . The propeller/turbine blade assembly of  claim 1  wherein each blade is;
 rotationally twisted about the blade's internal center spine support 
 and that the internal center spine support of each blade is generally located perpendicular to the longitudinal centerline axis of the blade's assembly hub. 
 
     
     
         10 . The propeller/turbine blade assembly of  claim 1  wherein each blade has a range of segmented blade lengths that occur along the blade, from the blade root towards the blade tip,
 and that occurring at those segmented blade lengths along the blade are a corresponding range of segmented blade widths, 
 and that both the segmented blade lengths and blade widths are a designed percentage of each blade's overall length. 
 
     
     
         11 . The propeller/turbine blade assembly of  claim 1  wherein each blade's horizontal rotational twist around it's internal center support spine creates a range of blade twist angles occurring at the noted range of segmented blade lengths along the blade,
 and that these range of blade twist angles are relative to the assembly's longitudinal centerline axis, which is also perpendicular to the blade's assembly hub, 
 and that these blade twist angles are clockwise in nature. 
 
     
     
         12 . The propeller/turbine blade assembly of  claim 1  wherein each blade has a designed complex concave and convex blade cross section that results from a combination of: the range of segmented blade lengths,
 the range of segmented blade widths, 
 the rotational twist about the internal center spine support at the segmented blade lengths 
 the design of the internal rib supports 
 the internal structural metal mesh applied to both the frontal facing and rearward facing sub surfaces of the blade 
 and the internal structural metal mesh's attachment to the blade's internal rib supports and/or the blade's internal center spine support. 
 
     
     
         13 . The propeller/turbine blade assembly of  claim 1  wherein each blade's trailing edge and leading edge protrudes generally perpendicular to and in front of and to the rear of the blade's assembly hub, when the blade is viewed from the tip looking towards the blade's root and the assembly hub,
 and that these designed leading and trailing blade protrusions are the result of the combination of the following design factors: 
 the range of the segmented blade lengths, 
 the range of the segmented blade widths, 
 the rotational twist angles about the internal center spine support at the corresponding segmented blade lengths, 
 the design of the internal rib supports which occur at the corresponding segmented blade lengths. 
 and the internal structural metal mesh applied to both the frontal facing and rearward facing sub surfaces of the blade. 
 
     
     
         14 . The propeller/turbine blade assembly of  claim 1  wherein the values for:
 the segmented blade lengths of: (L 1 , L 2 , L 3 , L 4 , and L 5 ) are: 10-15%, 20-30%, 25-35%, 20-30% and 10-15% of the overall blade length (L), respectfully, 
 the segmented blade widths of: (WA, WB, WC and WD) are: 24-29%, 60-70%, 63-72% and 40-47% of the overall blade length (L), respectfully, 
 the blade twist angles of: ( 21 ,  22 ,  23 ,  24  and  25 ) are: 30-40 degrees, 30-40 degrees, 60-70 degrees, 70-80 degrees and 80-90 degrees, respectfully, relative to the longitudinal axis of 0 degrees, 
 and that these blade twist angles occur in a clockwise manner. 
 
     
     
         15 . The propeller/turbine blade assembly of  claim 1 , wherein each of the following blade's leading edge partially overlaps each of the preceding blade's trailing edge, when the bladed assembly is viewed from the front; 
     
     
         16 . The propeller/turbine blade assembly of  claim 1 , wherein adjoining overlapping blades have a designed space between their corresponding rearward facing surfaces and the overlapped blade's frontal facing surface,
 and that the space between the adjoining overlapped blades is designed to channel the moving fluid between the adjoining blades as the assembly rotates.   
     
     
         17 . The propeller/turbine blade assembly of  claim 1 , wherein the designed overlap of the adjoining blades occurs as combination of the following design factors:
 the number of blades in the assembly,   the diameter of the completed assembly   and the percentage of swept blade area coverage required of the assembly.   
     
     
         18 . The propeller/turbine blade assembly of  claim 1 , wherein the assembly shall be comprised of multiple blades
 and that an assembly of 8 blades has been disclosed.   
     
     
         19 . The propeller/turbine blade assembly of  claim 1 , in which the assembly may be changed to a clockwise rotational assembly and that in that case;
 the design of the blades,   and all other required assembly components   shall be altered in order to accomplish the new rotational direction.   
     
     
         20 . The propeller/turbine blade assembly of  claim 1 , in which a further embodiment to the bladed assembly disclosed may include the addition of a common component to such a propeller/turbine blade assembly which is known in the art as a nose cone or spinner.