[ExI] towing an iceberg

spike at rainier66.com spike at rainier66.com
Tue May 25 03:06:13 UTC 2021



-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of
Stuart LaForge via extropy-chat
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2021 7:40 PM
To: extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
Cc: Stuart LaForge <avant at sollegro.com>
Subject: Re: [ExI] towing an iceberg


Quoting Spike:

> The force that could be exerted by the wind is tiny compared to even 
> slight current.  That iceberg is going go wherever the water tells it 
> to.  I don't know if anchoring to the bottom of the sea and pulling it 
> with thousands of cables will exert anywhere near enough force.
>

Ok so we can't use the wind to propel the iceberg, so then can we use it to
steer the iceberg? Apply small but constant force orthogonal to the current
to guide the iceberg to warmer latitudes where we can use the temperature
difference between the water and the iceberg to power a heat engine to
propel the iceberg to the highest bidder?

Stuart LaForge


_______________________________________________


What I had in mind is a scheme which takes advantage of the Von Karman
vortex street:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_vortex_street

If the iceberg is stationary, anchored to the ocean floor at a thousand
points and the natural current forms a vortex street, the flow is
alternately more laminar on one side and more turbulent on the other,
according to that Reynolds number equation shown in the link above.

I have in mind taking advantage of the resulting rocking motion caused by
the von Karman vortex street to rock the ice forward, not so much by pulling
it with cables but by anchoring it with cables on one side as we reel it in
on the other as it naturally rocks that direction, then anchoring that side
when it swings back the other way.

I realize that isn't a good description of the process, but imagine a long
ship in a river where we create a kind of rudder on the front.  We steer it
side to side while it is cable-anchored to the bottom, then continually reel
in slack on the loosest cable.

I don't know if that would work or not, but if so, it takes advantage of
wave action and turbulent vs laminar flow.

I have never seen that idea in a paper or any sane publication, but if the
idea is ever used, remember you saw it first here.

spike



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