Wind Turbine Design
Overview
Wind turbines populate the landscape in many parts of the world. These systems harness naturally abundant wind and transform it into electrical energy. Turbine blades efficiently convert wind energy into a force which turns a wind turbine. This energy conversion is an application of aerospace engineering principles. In this project my team researched, designed, created, and tested wind turbine blades.
Equipment
- Computer with Internet connection
- Basic Turbine Building Parts:
- KidWind Hub
- Dowels
- Wind Turbine Generator
- Hook up wires
- Box fan or similar (one per class)
- 1 in. PVC pipe (8 in.)
- 1 in. PVC pipe plug
- 1 in. PVC coupler
- 1 in. PVC 90 degree elbow
- Various materials to build wind turbine blade and attachment mechanism
- Multimeter (one per class)
- Engineering notebook Pencil
- Pencil
- Cardboard
- Popsicle Sticks
Procedure
1. Research wind turbine blade design. How wind turbines transform energy from the wind? basic variables that impact turbine performance
2. Made parts on inventor
3. Cut parts out with lazor
4. Built eac design and the tested with blade at different angles
Design Sketches
Construction
Blade 1-
- Gathered materials needed to design blade
- Glue each popsicle stick half way over the other
- Print and glue clip on the that back of each blade
- Test
- Design blade on inventor
- Cut 3 blades out on inventor
- Wet each side of blade to get the curved surface
- Then attach and glue clip on the back
- Test
- Design blade on inventor
- Cut 3 blades out on inventor
- Wet each side of blade to fold each triangle in half
- Attach all 3 at the center and then glue
- Drill a hole in back so you can attach the clip
- Test
Final Designs and Results
Testing Sheet
Reflection
1.5 Volts at 0 degrees
My team did research and found out which number of blades is most effective. Then looked at other 3-blade wind turbines and then made our own design out of it.The popsicle sticks was light and the way we glued them together gave us the better voltage. This design was better than the other to because it was lighter and the way we build it on an angle made it easier to test. But to improve the final design we could have added longer pegs so it could pick us more wind.
|