Gravity and buoyancy power system with 10m water column

Join the discussion
Registration is free. Ask a follow-up in this thread, or start your own.
2 replies · 3K views
tomchacko
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Hello experts,

Please help to verify the attched design of renewable energy system which uses combination of gravity and buoyancy forces for power generation. I am looking use balls of 10c.m radius and water column of 10m height. It will be very helpful some experts could advice me on how effective will be system as it expect some mechnical effort to run the system. Your valuvable advice to fine tune system most welcome.
Thanks & Regards,
Tom Chacko
 

Attachments

Engineering news on Phys.org
This is a perpetual motion machine (impossible). It will never work.
 
I'm afraid so. This is a variant of the ancient and popular buoyancy machine perpetual motion device that people have been trying (and failing, of course) to build for the past several hundred years. The museum of unworkable devices has a section on them: http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/museum/themes/buoyant.htm

A high-level analysis is pretty easy, though. The equation for work due to buoyant force is w=mgh and the equation for work due to dropping an object is also w=mgh. So depending on the particulars of the device, you'll get some variation of mgh-mgh=0 work out of it, for a theoretical maximum of zero efficiency.

What you are no doubt underestimating is the amount of energy your three input devices require. For example, how much work a piston pushing pressurized water does.

Anyway, we don't do 'debunk my perpetual motion machine' threads here, so this thread is locked. I am willing, however, to give you more assistance in learning about these concepts via pm if you wish.