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Catello Raffaele Filippo Monaco (Known as Lino)
Inventor of "tower-dome closable" Italian Patent No.
0001417552.
E-mail: [email protected]
E-mail: [email protected]
Web Site: "lino-monaco.com"
Seller of licenses: Gangway SRL
Web Site: "gangway.srl"
Corso Umberto I, 33- 07026 Olbia(OT)
Phone:078922872- 3351706313 Fax: 0789 1965581
America, Europe, Japan and China have factories but they don’t have oil. Oil tankers, oil and
gas pipelines are subject to deterioration and can damage the environment. Refineries, power
stations, heating and car fuels cause pollution.
Wind power produces clean and renewable electric current, day and night directly where you
need it, as everywhere there are windy sites. Investing on wind energy means that oil
reserves could be put to more productive uses.
However, a big wind turbine can generate only 10 MW and we need 100 to produce as much
current as a 1 GW fossil-fuel power station, which means covering the countryside with wind
turbine blades.
The Tower - Dome harnesses wind energy just like a wind turbine, but it can have larger
dimensions and higher power. The Tower - Dome is equipped with rigid blades which are
placed edgewise when going upwind; it is protected from birds; it can be totally or partially
closed to the wind and it can store the current produced in a power station below. Besides, it
could be of small dimensions and suitable for domestic use.
What is it?
It is a cylindrical shaped power plant; in the center there is a generator on which a vertical
rotating shaft producing electrical energy is located. Energy can be accumulated,
transformed and distributed by the power plant.
The shaft is rotated by a vertical axis rotor shaped like a Tower-Dome, which rests and
rotates on the cylindrical plant thanks to the wind pressure and is supported by a swiveling
vertical cradle. The rotor and the cradle rest and rotate on a safety ring arranged on top of
the power plant abovementioned.
The dome is divided into circular segments (cloves) and placed over one or more towers
with vertical blades. Both segments and blades can rotate sideways to open up to the wind
when collecting wind pressure or close.
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The dome can be closed to the wind by closing all its cloves and each tower can be closed to
the wind by closing all its blades (Fig.1.2 to the right).
When the dome or some towers are closed, the Tower-Dome takes in less wind (Fig.1
center). Instead, when the dome and all the towers are closed the tower-dome becomes a
cylinder topped by a ball which is insensitive to the wind, and the shaft does not move.
Fig.1 Plan view of the "Tower-Dome”
.
How does the tower work?
An external vertical cradle (Fig. 1 and 2), coated with a net protecting it from birds and
adjustable to the wind, contains and supports the tower and the dome. This swiveling
cradle, provided with a tiller, remains stationary on the electric plant, and it only rotates to
align itself with the wind direction. It is equipped with two different controls: a windward
one (A) and a downwind one (B).
Fig. 2 Horizontal split of the tower (seen from above)
1. Tower in rotation. Control (A) opens the arriving blade to the wind, Control (B)
closes the arriving blade to the wind.
The wind, whatever its direction, pushes the open blades of the tower located on its
left and slips on the closed blades that it finds on its right: in this way the tower
rotates clockwise. The side of the tower that runs upwind is a semi-cylinder made up
of closed blades which are tangentially oriented. This semi-cylinder stays still to the
right of the wind because, instead of rotating, it gives up the first blade to the wind,
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which opens radially, and it adds a closed blade at the end. In the side of the tower
that runs with the wind the blades act as radially oriented sails. (Fig.2 to the left).
2. Tower closed to the wind. When Control (A) is disabled, all blades close to the wind
and the tower stops to rotate the shaft ( Fig.2 to the right).
Fig.3 Horizontal cutaway of the tower with three rings inside.
It is possible to arrange several rings of concentric vertical blades as in the example shown
here. A ring of fixed blades (2) that cannot rotate is interposed between an external ring of
adjustable blades (1) and an internal cylindrical ring (3).
When the tower rotates, the
fixed blades (2) must go
upwind inside a curved tunnel
consisting of the inner cylinder
and the semi-cylinder of
adjustable blades located at the
right hand of the wind, causing
the rotation of the air inside the
tunnel.
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OPEN 3D
Wind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIqDSGoODzc
Fig. 4 Horizontal cutaway view of the tower when it is closed.
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TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES CONTAINED IN THE
Italian Patent n. 0001417552 called "Closable Tower-Dome"
1.The tower is carousel shaped and it is supported peripherally by VERTICAL FIXED AXES;
around each AXIS a blade hanging on a disk above can rotate. This solution makes it
possible to create solid towers - also with several floors – surmounted by a dome, so as to
produce more energy.
2. An OUTER drum-shaped VERTICAL CRADLE, not moved by the wind, keeps the tower
and the central shaft in a fixed vertical position, ensuring stability even in high-rise towers.
This cradle does not rotate, it is coated with a net which prevents birds from getting into the
tower; it is oriented to the wind so as to keep Control A (that opens the blades to the wind)
windward and Control B (that closes the blades to the wind) leeward. In A and B a shield
protects the rotating blades from the wind.
3. The part of the tower that rotates upwind consists of a HALF CYLINDER made up of
blades placed edgewise without spaces between each other.
4. Below, each blade is fixed to a DISK THAT CANNOT ROTATE, but it can only go
DOWN (to release the blade and let it rotate) and UP (to fix the blade in its new location).
5. Thanks to the dimensions of the Tower-Dome, it is possible to build a POWER PLANT in
the lower part of the tower where the current can be stored and used.
6. Both the tower and the dome are closable to the wind, together or separately.
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SIMPLIFIED MODEL OF THE CLOSABLE TOWER-DOME
In the simplified model of the Tower- Dome all the blades are fixed and they stay open
while going into the wind. The blades going into the wind are protected from the wind by a
modified cradle consisting of a double hollow semi- cylinder (with an internal chamber)
which lies between two circular crowns: one at the bottom and one at the top of the cradle.
Resting on the right side of the wind, the semi-cylinder protects the blades going into the
wind, whereas on the opposite side there is a cylindrical support which is only a few
degrees wide and that lets the wind flow through. The cradle – off balance and exposed to
the wind – is supported by a safety ring made up of balusters extending upwards to a
circular crown surrounding and supporting the upper crown of the cradle which, in its turn,
surrounds and supports the rooftop of the tower.
The safety ring supports the lower circular crown of the cradle as well. The cradle rotates
inside the safety ring to align with the wind direction through a gearing system. A device
detects the direction of the wind and transmits it to a computer that makes the cradle rotate
by means of the motors and pinions located on the ring, which engage a crown wheel
welded together with the lower circular crown of the cradle and located under it; the cradle
rotates until the double semi-cylinder is placed edgeways to the wind. When the wind
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changes direction by more than a few degrees, the cradle starts rotating again until the semicylinder resumes its original position: edgeways to the wind flow.
A cylinder with a smaller
diameter is placed inside
the fixed blades and it
directs the wind against
the blades. As the fixed
blades get into and out of
the curved tunnel made
up of the semi-cylinder of
the
cradle
placed
edgeways to the wind and
the inner cylinder, they
drag the air around in the
same direction as that of
the wind.
The tower can be closed
by means of two half
semi-cylinders placed in
the hollow space of the
double semi-cylinder; they
are moved by rollers and
rotate
in
opposite
directions until they are
inserted in the support of
the cradle placed on the
opposite side, shielding
the blades and closing the
tower to the wind.
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VERSIONS-SIZE TEMPLATE
MAXI
Over 150 meters in diameter.
Full open. Plan view seen from windward.
The blades revolve to open beside the white shields on the center of the drawing
Half open (one tower closed). Plan view seen from windward
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Half open (dome closed, towers open.) Plan view seen from windward.
LARGE
75-150 meters in diameter
Full open. Plan view seen from windward.
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MIDI
25-75 meters in diameter
SMALL
1-25 meters in diameter.
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How does the dome work?
Fig. 5 Open Dome (from above)
The dome has the same shaft as the tower
and contributes to the strength of its rotation.
Being encapsulated into the cradle, it ensures
stability to the shaft thanks to gyroscopic
effect; it consists of curved segments (cloves),
each of them is welded at both ends to its
own oblique axis(1) (2) that can rotate,
together with all the others, opening and
closing the cloves.. When the dome is open
each segment rests sideways on two points
on the axis of the previous segment (3).
Fig. 6 Closed Dome (from above)
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Fig.7 Vertical section view of the Tower-Dome.
As the hollow cylinder of the dome rotates, its cogwheel rotates too and all the oblique axes
rotate to open and close the cloves.
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Fig.8 Exploded drawing
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