Power generating skin structure and power generation system therefor
AssigneeQuality Research, Development & Consulting, Inc.
InventorDaryoush Allaei
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A skin structure has a skin and a power generation system attached to the skin. The power generation system has a turbine, one or more tubes fluidly coupled to the turbine, and a generator configured to generate electrical power in response to motion of the turbine. The skin structure may form a portion of an outer covering of a stationary structure, such as a building, or an outer covering of a manned or unmanned vehicle, such as a ground or aerial motor vehicle or a marine or submarine motor vehicle.
Claims24
A skin structure, comprising:
- a skin;
- and
- a power generation system attached to the skin, the power generation system, comprising:
- a turbine;
- one or more tubes fluidly coupled to the turbine;
- and
- a generator configured to generate electrical power in response to motion of the turbine.
A skin structure, comprising:
- a skin configured to form a portion of an outer covering of a stationary structure or of a vehicle;
- and
- a power generation system attached to the skin, the power generation system, comprising:
- a turbine having an outlet coupled to an exterior side of the skin;
- a plurality of tubes fluidly coupled to the turbine, the tubes having inlets opening on an interior side of the skin, where a temperature on the interior side of the skin is higher than a temperature on the exterior side of the skin;
- and
- a generator configured to generate electrical power in response to motion of the turbine;
- wherein the inlets of the tubes are configured to capture a fluid-flow driven by a difference between the temperature on the interior side of the skin and the temperature on the exterior side of the skin and to direct the captured fluid-flow to the turbine.
A skin structure, comprising:
- a skin configured to form a portion of an outer covering of a motor vehicle;
- and
- a power generation system attached to the skin, the power generation system, comprising:
- a turbine;
- a plurality of tubes fluidly coupled to the turbine, the tubes having inlets opening on an exterior side of the skin;
- and
- a generator configured to generate electrical power in response to motion of the turbine;
- wherein the inlets of the tubes are configured to capture a portion of a fluid-flow flowing, in response to the motor vehicle moving through the fluid, relative to the skin on the exterior side of the skin, the inlets of the tubes configured to direct the captured portion of the fluid-flow to the turbine.
A method of generating electrical power using a skin structure, the method comprising:
- receiving a fluid-flow at plurality of inlets to a plurality of tubes of the skin structure that are attached to a skin of the skin structure;
- directing the fluid-flow through the plurality of tubes to a turbine of the skin structure that is attached to the skin of the skin structure, wherein the fluid-flow causes the turbine to rotate;
- and
- converting the rotation of the turbine into electrical power using a generator of the skin structure that is attached to the skin of the skin structure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.