Wind Power Harnesses the Energy of Galloping

Whenever you think of wind power, you usually think of giant turbines, graceful sailboats, or even high-altitude kites. But breezes can turn into complete destruction when it comes to bridges and other structures.

But now, Hyung-Jo Jung and Seung-Woo Lee at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejeon, South Korea, plan to harness even the most destructive of winds and turn it into energy.

They have already built the prototype that produces the energy using a specific type of airflow called wake galloping, an unstable sort of wind flow.

Wake galloping can be described as a form of vigorous vibrations that affect the cylinder-like parts of structures, for example, the cables of suspension bridges.

Wake galloping is the wind that creates constant and repetitive moving up and down of the cables.

This is the movement that they hope to capture and create energy out of.

The device that they will use to do this contains evenly spaced rods, a copper coil, a magnet, and a cylinder.

They found out that wind speeds between 2.5 and 4.5 meters per second create nearly a half watt of electricity.

Most win turbines are inefficient when it comes to these types of winds, but their device turns out to be successful where other machines fail.

They feel that the machine could become better if the magnets and coils were optimized for this type of wind.

If enough of these generators are created and are working together, they could possibly power a bridge’s street lighting with the electricity.

Before Jung and Lee commercialize the product, they would like to find the ideal size of the device.

They hope that this new device will bring more interest into the field of wind energy and then they can create even more of their generators.

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