A tornado can be an awe-inspiring sight, but it can also flip your car, trash your house, and otherwise injure you with flying debris. If you’d like to look at swirling air currents in a safer context, you might appreciate this tornado tower build from [Gary Boyd].
[Gary]’s build was inspired by museum demonstrations and the tornado machine designs of [Harald Edens]. His build generates a vortex that spans 1 meter tall in a semi-open cylindrical chamber. A fan in the top of the device sucks in air from the chamber, and exhausts it through a vertical column of holes in the wall of the cylinder. This creates a vortex in the air, though it’s not something you can see on its own. To visualize the flow, the cylindrical chamber is also fitted with an ultrasonic mist generator in the base. The vortex in the chamber is able to pick up this mist, and it can be seen swirling upwards as it is sucked towards the fan at the top.
It’s a nice educational build, and one that’s as nice to look at as it is to study. It produces a thick white vortex that we’re sure someone could turn into an admirable lamp or clock or something, this being Hackaday, after all. In any case, vortexes are well worth your study. If you’re cooking up neat projects with this physical principle, you should absolutely let us know!
NO video, who cares
Tech Ingredients made one last https://youtu.be/Kx91NXhQfyw
CLEARLY commented without following link to write up, which is both a very good write up and includes a video!
…The Southern Observatory displays are a real thing?!
Who wants it as fume extractor in your soldering area ?
Makes me want to hit the flux!
Needs more fire! https://youtu.be/R719S5cn9zc
I saw a Laurie Anderson performance back in the 90s and part of it involved something like this on the stage in one part of the show. It was distinctly underwhelming in that context, especially since it was particularly highlighted. Not as bad as the Stonehenge in Spinal Tap but along those lines.
Not a bad show overall, though, if you’re into that kind of thing.
In the early 90s, for a geography class I built one of these, and as I was in to lasers at the time, added a laser scanner to show a cross-section of the vortex. Very cool holographic-looking visual. It was before digital cameras were widely available, so sadly I never got a record of it.
“toss in a bay leaf to impress those stupid judges”
Toss in a Lego cow for a better effect.
How much energy requires to maintain the vortex? Can this be used with wind power generators for a cheap electricity farm?
Well, considering that the blowers to make this tornado use energy, I’d say no? I’m not sure what kind of apparatus you’re thinking of here.