Compact Airflow Energy Generators

There is something strange about the wind hitting a bridge cable. The hum is audible – that low, sustained tone big suspension bridges make in a strong blow. What you cannot hear is the rest of what that cable is doing. Above 20,000 vibrations per second, past the ceiling of human hearing, the cable generates…

In November 1940, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge shook itself apart in a 42 mph wind that would not have troubled a structure half its size. The failure had nothing to do with wind force. As airflow separated around the bridge deck, it shed alternating pressure pulses – one side, then the other – at a…