Albert Betz

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Albert Betz
Born(1885-12-25)25 December 1885
Schweinfurt, Lower Franconia, Bavaria, German Empire
Died16 April 1968(1968-04-16) (aged 82)
Göttingen, Lower Saxony, West Germany
NationalityGerman
OccupationPhysicist

Albert Betz (25 December 1885 – 16 April 1968) was a German physicist and a pioneer of wind turbine technology.

Education and career

Betz' law

Betz was born in

PhD
in 1919 for his work on 'ship propellers with minimum loss of energy'. In his 1920 paper "Das Maximum der theoretisch möglichen Ausnutzung des Windes durch Windmotoren" ("Theoretical Limit for Best Utilization of Wind by Wind Motors") was published. His work was based on earlier studies by
Frederick Lanchester that included the first full description of lift and drag. The formulation was somewhat complex and had to wait for Ludwig Prandtl's version before becoming generally useful. Betz's law
states that, independent of the design of a wind turbine, only 16/27 (or 59%) of the kinetic energy of the wind can be converted to mechanical energy. His book "Wind-Energie und ihre Ausnutzung durch Windmühlen" ("Wind Energy and its Use by Windmills"), published in 1926, gives a good account of the understanding of wind energy and wind turbines at that period.

In 1926 he was appointed professor at Göttingen. In 1936 he succeeded Ludwig Prandtl as director of the Aerodynamische Versuchsanstalt (AVA, aerodynamics laboratory), a position he held until 1956.[1][2]

During World War II he developed the Messerschmitt swept wing, as well as other war devices for the Luftwaffe.[3][4] There are also sources tying him to the development of wind turbines, in a plan to establish a German rural population in the east, replacing the Slavic population[citation needed]. In early 1945 he participated in the attempt to evacuate the Z4 (computer) to the AVA under his supervision.[5]

From 1947 to 1956 he also headed research into

Max Planck Institute.[6]

He was the great uncle of the author Alfred J. Betz from

Vladimir Alekseyevich Betz the discoverer of the pyramidal cell
.

Betz died in Göttingen, aged 82.

Recognition

Betz received the

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt
(German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics) for "outstanding contribution in the field of aerospace engineering" in 1958.

Betz was awarded the Carl Friedrich Gauss medal of the West German Academy of Science in 1965.[7]

A street is named after him in Munich and in Hamburg. His original house in Göttingen is noted as a town monument.

See also

References

  1. ^ Betz "Manager from 1937 to 1957" Archived 2018-05-29 at the Wayback Machine (on the AVA website)
  2. ^ The Dawn of Fluid Dynamics, Michael Echert, Wiley, pp 180-181, describes Prandtl's promotion by the Nazi regime, and replacement by Betz in 1936, under the Luftwaffe command.
  3. The Encyclopedia of Earth
    website. Includes an image of his face.
  4. ^ Prandtl, Fluid dynamics and National Socialism, in The Dawn of Fluid Dynamics, pp 180-182, describes the AVA and its role in the Nazi regime
  5. ^ The Z4 evacuation Archived 2013-07-02 at the Wayback Machine (The Konrad Zuse website)
  6. ^ Experimenting Close to the Wind Archived 2021-01-26 at the Wayback Machine about the advent of the wind tunnel (English, Max Planck Institute website)
  7. ^ Prize winners Archived 2013-06-04 at the Wayback Machine (German, Brunswick Scientific Society website)

External links

Preceded by Director of Aerodynamic Laboratory, University of Göttingen
1936—1956 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Albert_Betz&oldid=1192954177"