CA2446783C - Bridge converting movement into electrical energy - Google Patents

Abstract

The Subject Matter of this invention is to transform, with the bridge, the loss of energy of weights, vehicles, cars or trucks ('vehicles') going down a hill or decelerating into a rotation and ultimately, in electrical energy. This rotation could be used for generation of electricity or any other useful works. It is possible to do that by adding modules of bridge to existing roads, as you can see in Figures 1, 2 and 3.

Description

Disclosure 1 'X'hc general character of the ela,x oif article or the kind of procesw to which the invention (i.o.
the invsntivc idea) rehetcs 'this invention relates to the rc;cupcration of the loss of energy c>f weights, vehicles, cars or trucks " vehicles " ) going down a hill or decelerating, ixt order to produce rotation and ultimately, generate electricity. This is done with saxtah modules ofhridgc that could be added to eYistin~;
mads.

2 The nature in general terms of the articles ar praces.~s prcviousl~ known or uses which are intended to be irnprovcd or replaced by resort to the invention and of the difficulties and fnconvenicnces wl5ich they a~avohve Wtxan vehicles go down a hill or dcx;Gterate, they Icx~se energy. Today, without my invention, the loss ofenergy is dissipated in the lyrak4s, irt friction, etc... More or less, without my invention, all this energy goes in useless works ( cre:ation of heat :~na dusts from Brakes, etc... ). l3y simply adding modules ox' bridges to existing roads, it is possible to recuperate:
this energy ~d convert ii into something more, uscfal.

3 'lhc inventive idea which the ncvv article or process embodies, and the way in which resort to it o~ereames the difficulties and inconveniences o1'prGVious practices or proposals.
With the bridge, this energy will be taken off the vchicic~, when it goes down a hill or dceclcratca, and converted into useful work ( ch.~ctrical energy, etc... ). To compare: it to hydro generation, just think of a river of vehicles instead of a river of water. In Hydro Ccncration, they take water that goc,Q down a hill and convert the loss ofpotential energy of w9ter into a rotation. With thv rotation, they produce electricity. My invention ups a hridgc to convert the loss of energy of vehicles into a rotation and ultimately, into clertricity. Not only this is environmentally interesting hut it produces electricity where the demand is loeat~ed. Jn other words, it will generate more downtown Montreal than in Bait t'.omeau, because there are more vehicles that goes down a hill in Montrwl than in Buie Comeau. 7hcre are also more vehicles that need to decelerate in Mont~al than in l~aie t;omeau, for example ! This also means that there arc Icss needs for 'Transmission Lines and that the cost of generating electricity is very low compare to other form of ~nerations available today.
So, in order to take advantage ttf this loss of energy, this invention roGUperaic ibis loss o1'energy and use ii to benerate :~ rotation that will lx ultimatciy used to generate electricity. To do that, we give an example where we separate the road in 4 segments in ardor to imitate the functioning of a motor with 4 cylinde.~rs ( this is only an example and we could have done it with a G cylinders, 8 cylinders or f 2 cylinders motor, etc... ). So when vehicles pa.~s an each segment. they pass the piston down in the cylinder of the bridge. So, tech: time they pass on a rcyad segment, it activate the piston in the cylixtder. Obviously, this creates the rotation in discrete steph.
IJltimaiely, this rotation will lx tr-~nslated into electrical energy. Just think that the crankshaft is wupled to a gear like in a mountain bike, for example.

4 .A full d~eriptioa of the best way of using or patting into operation tht inventive ides. If there arc drawings, the description should be preceded by a list of these drawing and should be relatod to them by the use of the numcr~els which appear upon them.
Patent Title : Bridle converting vehicle movement int~~ electrical energy.
In drawings which illustrate embodiment, of the invention:
The number 1 represents moving park of the road.
The number 2 repre_~cnts the fix frame of the bride.
~'he number 3 represenbc the cr~unkshaft with pulleys separated by 90 degrees.
Tb~c number 4 represents tht traffic I mass I vehicles.
The number 5 represents the roller guide.
The number 6 repr~cnts the arm that is connoted between the articulation and the moving part of the road.
The number 7 represents the arnn that ix connected between the articulation and the cranlcshatt.
The number 8 representx the articulation.
The number xX rcpresent~c an AC Generator, at variable frequency The number 12 rcprcgents the AC bus at variable frequency.
The number 13 represea~ts the DC bus.
The num$er I4 represents the AC bus, at fixed frequency.
Figure x is the demonstration that !inter moveraeat can be translated into rotation with the examplt of a motor with 4 cylinders motor, Figure 2 side view of figure x, showing the functioning of the gravitational motor, Figure 3 is a side view of the invention ( with a 4 cylinder motor ), Figure 4 top view of the invention ( with a 4 cylinder motor }, Figure 5 is a " cut " side view oI' the bridge showia~ the details of tbc road scction~s that will be moving, Figure 6 i.~ a top view of oat road .~cgm,ent, Figure 7 ar Etoctr?~cal Diagram 1 is an electrical description of the invention As you may see on the figures 3, 4, 5 and (, the prototype thai has been built is made for slow speed applications with vehicles under 1000 lbs and with tires that would be hard enough to cover Iess than 8 cart of road. l~lso, it is not expected to have vehicles with speed over 7 mpla orx the prototype that will be used to prove the generation technique. One good way to test this device is also to simulate vChiCles by pressing with hands sequentially on the moving part of the bridge. Also. the prototype has been built with used equipment except for the steel frame that has been bought in pre:
cut part.5 that have been welded or bolted, depending on the colt of the partw. You will notice that the gravitational pistons arc scparatc;d by 90 degrees on the crankshaft ( it could have been more or less than 4 pistons ).
So, for any of the applications, the principle is that we can take advantage of the fact that vehicles ntovc and thin it is possible to transform their movement ( lass of energy ) in electrical energy, when they bo down a hill or decelerate.
We ten define a good examples of this Bridge converting movc~ncn~t into elertric~l cnet~v:
'fhe application is with vehicles that go down the hill or decelerate. When we separate the road into multiples parts ( a.5 shown in Figure 1 ), it is possiblo to convert the movement of the automotives vehicles ( or any other type of vehicles ) into a rotation that can be used to gertc.~te electricity. This would have the efl'eet to save the braking systems of the car and generate useful enc;rgy. So, as eve can see in figure l , it is possible to >ec; that the movement of the road parts is similar to the movement of pistons in a motor. From this paint, it is obvious that a rotation Can be generated with a motor made for this application ( see figure 2 ) and then we can convert this rotation into electrical power.
So, when vehicles go down the hill or accelerate, it generates electrical cwrgy with their movements. Sincx~ their speed may vary, we will generate in AC; but we will rectify in DC and inverse at the same freauency as the electrical systc;m that we will connect to ( sec electrical diagram 1 ). 1t will be interesting to use devices such as )~A~TS ( Flexible AC
Transmission Systems ) or 11YUG to regulate the power output of our generation system to the electrical grid and compen~te for the fact that cars do not pass regularly and constantly.

This form of generation could be usc~l in all the countries and in al l applications vchicies go down a hill or dccelcxate :uid we can take advantage of their movement. However, for countries where snow is expected. there hav to he modifications to take into account specific conditions related to winter.
The preferred practice would be in big cities, on huge highrways" with a nice slope ( or near stop signs, at limits between different speed ~oncs ) where vehiclca go down the hill or decelerate. 'fhcn, we can take advantage of their waste of energy dad convert it into electricity. )~or example, we can think of any big city in the planet, but lets state Los Angeles, New York ~~r Montreal. Lets think about the Tunnel LI-I l.afontainc, going out of Montreal. With the traffic in this highway, we can generate a lot of McgaWatis of electrical power.
This farm of electrical generation is mere useful Than other existing alternative forms of generation like wind farms for exarttple ) in the sense that it will have a better availability and predictability because it is dependant upon traffic in urban areas and this is well known and predictable. Alsa, one can easily imaF;inc the quantity ofenergy contained in a trai~c period on Dec~rie Highway or Highway 20 or 'hanncl L.H L.afontaine ! The other fact is that the loss of energy of moving vehicles is firce ! From an environmental peripective. this is a good project since there is no negative impact c>n environment. One can xrx~agine that we have to brake when we go down a hill but with this new system, it will require less brrkixtg than lxfore.
Another advantage, of this invention is that this bridge cdnverier could ba built remotely and have a modular installation. Due to that. it will ea.,sily be moved to other locations and very easy to maintain since we can remove a module and replace it with another one while we do maintenance work !
Ffinally, another advantage cyf this invention is that the generation will take place very close to urban areas. So, the needs for tracL,Smission of electricity will be less important than with hydro electricity or witad generation, for example.

I~inally, you will find that this invention has. been made with modules that can easily be added to an cxistin~ rnad. 'fhe modularity of this invention i5 such that each part is intcrchangoahlc, similar or identical to iL.~ neighbour. So, everyW ing is interc:hangcable and easy to maintain.
It is clear that this invention will have to take advantage oi~th~ trucks that bo down the hills or dc~;eleratc, although cars and bus and subways will be good targets too. The only limitation of this invention would have been the a~ccumulaiion of snow nn the moving pert of the road. Hiowever, as stated bel'ore, we can avoid this problem. My calculations shave that for the application with a 4 cylinders motor, we can obtain an average of at lca,St 14U kW per motor.
However, this will vary for each application { trucks or cars or metro or landing planes ??? ).
Also, one of th,e limitation of this inv~;ntion is the displacement of the piston.. In other words, the more displacement we have, the more bumpier is the road for the vehicles.
FinalEy, the more we roduce the width ol'moving roads parts, the more energy that we produce. It is the inverse for the displacement of the pistons. 'I'hc morn displacement we have, the more energy we wi I l produce.
'fo my knowledge, this system has never been toted under winter climate.
However, a dome covering tEx: installations or road grotection ar any oth~'r goad ideas is supposed to protect our electrical energy generating system against accumulation of snow, and thus' al;ainst mac:hitaes that remove or shuffle snow.
Thcrc arc no patents on this to the best of my knowledge and after I rnadc several searches.
However, the tcrc.~hnidues of ~;cne~ration of electricity are well known artd none looks like this one I have never given away any information about the subjact of ibis invention other than to say to some of my friends that I found a way to gewrste electricity with grtavity and that I was trying to obtain a patent for this idea.

Claims (2)

1. Claim 1 A bridge converting linear movement into rotation, which comprises more than one vertically moving road segments coupled by the mean of pistons to a crankshaft that is parallel to the traffic direction and producing rotation in discrete steps when vehicles pass on the moving road segments of the said bridge.
2. Claim 2 A bridge converting linear movement into electricity, which comprises more than one vertically moving road segments coupled by the mean of pistons to a crankshaft that is parallel to the traffic direction and producing rotation in discrete steps that are converted in electrical energy by the mean of well known technologies.