Water wheel with venetian blind slats

cults3d

I'm redesigning a device that transforms discarded plastic Venetian blind slats into a parametric disc for a small water wheel, similar to the Banki-Michell style turbine. The goal is eventually to power an electricity generator. I initially created this concept over a year ago in SketchUp and now I've converted it to OpenScad so you can customize your own slats, adjust the blade orientation, and explore various parameters. I'm particularly interested in seeing how a disc could be cut out or milled from unused CDs or DVDs since landfills are overflowing with them. Although I'm not sure if laser cutting is feasible on the non-reflective side of these discs. Here's a short animation demonstrating some parameter variations: http://vimeo.com/29516070 For reference, you can check out these resources: * Cross-flow turbine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-flow_turbine * Water Power: http://autonopedia.org/renewable_energy/Water/Index_Water_Power.htm