It was mainly a CS thesis on multi-objective optimization algorithms, and wheels were my chosen application. So me not being a mechanical engineer I didn't exactly push that side of the science any forward.
But my algorithm did end up "inventing" the 3x pattern perfectly, which I think was cool. Both as a confirmation that it's really a good versatile pattern being pareto optimal in multiple objectives, and the algorithm finding it also verified that my approach did have some merit.
I have a conceptual wheel design idea that I feel that only you can accomplish a successful design...
Before I email you some rambling wall of text, would you be open to hearing about some crazy concepts?
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TL;DR:
The idea is to use Toroidal Propellers as 'spokes' in various light-weight, 3d-printable 'turbines', along with wind-shrouds to force vector air current to dynamos... specifically in various scaled applications for objects which already have a rotational input (shaft, wheel, spinny thing, etc)
Open to hearing from the loony bin?
Where read thesis?
Also, I am Norwegian! (but from Ballard, Seattle)
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People tend to think of 'scaled' as in "LARGER" -- but it can also be used to refer to smaller...
Think of toroidal pumps in tiny bio tubes (veins, maybe, distributed heart pumping/nutrients pumping to isolated bio-assets (simulate pumping of heart of external bio-fluids to individually separated muscles connected to a biovascular pump system that can mimic the actual heart pattern of a donor to keep tissue happy) perhaps?)
Anyway -- its the evolution of Davinci's first documenting the importance of eddies, which we later discovered is how pumps work... (We knew pumps, but we didnt understand how they worked (documentedly) in Archemedies time (we also 'know' he did "discover" this, he documented it...) Anyway... (Sorry for the rant)
I want to develop a way to capture the eddies around certain objects.... If we examine Whales (the animal) they have a symbiotic relationship with barnacles... the barnacles attach to the leading edge of their fins. Whales eat off of plankton, small critters...
The barnacles create eddies along the wing surface..
BLAH BLAH BLAH
And the eddies feed both.... And I would like to talk to you about how this impacts flight! (passive extendable props that are fed off eddy wash) and pumps, and fluidic dynamics... and a bunch of cool boring shit.
But my algorithm did end up "inventing" the 3x pattern perfectly, which I think was cool. Both as a confirmation that it's really a good versatile pattern being pareto optimal in multiple objectives, and the algorithm finding it also verified that my approach did have some merit.
Of the "unconventional" ones it found, my favorite I ended up using for the cover: https://i.imgur.com/b1ImCo8.jpg