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Boat Moves Without an Engine Or Sails

Posted by samzenpus on from the watching-too-much-seaquest dept.

coondoggie writes "Researchers say technology they have developed would let boats or small aquatic robots glide through the water without the need for an engine, sails or paddles. A University of Pittsburgh research team has designed a propulsion system that uses the natural surface tension that is present on the water's surface and an electric pulse to move the boat or robot, researchers said. The Pitt system has no moving parts and the low-energy electrode that emits the pulse could be powered by batteries, radio waves, or solar power, researchers said in a statement."

6 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. Can't MHD already do this? by bistromath007 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sure, MHD drives that I know of are slow and run on superconductors, but that was back in the early 90's, they should be able to gin up something better by now.

  2. Calm water by Joebert · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Can this really work outside of a lab, where the water surface isn't like glass ?

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    1. Re:Calm water by pato101 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      AFAIK, no: the tension surface forces are only strong when the surface is in almost steady state.
      I've forgotten most of these issues, but I recall solving tension surface problems, and there was a condition which meant almost steady state. The idea is that when the surface is in motion, convection and pressure terms become dominant over surface tension (the pressure gradients generated by convection are much larger than the pressure gradient due to surface tension).

    2. Re:Calm water by WindBourne · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I grew up on a lake as a kid. I used to watches similar bugs (and others). The answer is that they CAN go on waves as long as they are not breaking up. Once turbulent (white caps), then I never saw them. Though to be honest, it is possible that the wind simple blew them into shore and I did not notice. Typically, at high winds, I was more interested in sailing rather than swimming or water skiing.

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  3. Never very practical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I few years back a Japanese boat was tested using a magnetic drive. It used the fact water moves in one direction in a magnetic field, air does the same thing and you can even make a fan with no moving parts that way. The problem was it only was able to hit a couple of miles an hours inspite of the massive magnetic field. There was even talk before that of high speed boats using the technique. It's more of a science curiosity than a practical means of propulsion.

  4. Re:Is it the Red October? by Arker · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Err scratch that. Teach me to post in this heat.

    Apparently it relies on surface tension and would not, therefore, be very useful on a submersible vehicle. :((

    Might be nice for whale-watching and the like, at least. Engine noise scares off a lot of creatures that would otherwise be observable. But sailing ships are already quiet enough for that, so I'm not sure I see a real viable purpose for it at the moment.

    Still, just as pure research, it's pretty cool.

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