Wind Turbine Project

The purpose of today's experiment was to determine the most efficient material(s) to build the blades of the wind turbine. This was done by measuring the average density, power, and flexion measurements of the different blade types. The best blade material could then be determined based on which one had the strongest flexion and the greatest power relative to density.

Table 1.1 - Volume of blades of different materials

Table 1.2 - Mass of blades of different materials

Table 1.3 - Density of blade materials

Table 1.4 - Power generated from blades of different materials at blade angle 15o and the fan ~91.44 cm away from the turbine

Table 1.5 - Flexion distance of blades of different materials at 20 cm over the edge of the surface and 1.6 cm above the surface

The purpose of today's experiment was to determine the most efficient material(s) to build the blades of the wind turbine. This was done by measuring the average density, power, and flexion measurements of the different blade types. The best blade material could then be determined based on which one had the strongest flexion and the greatest power relative to density.In Week 6, the team ran a variety of tests to determine the best material for our windmill blades. The determining factor for the best material in these tests was the average power output of the windmill. In these tests, it was found that using a balsa wood blade resulted in the largest average power of the windmill at 0.0012666 Watts, given that all other conditions were constant. Styrofoam resulted in the second most power output at an average of 0.0004862 Watts. Lastly the cardboard resulted in an average power output of 0.00016053 Watts. The team also ran a variety of other tests and measurements on the materials for the fan blades. These included density, mass, flexion, and volume measurements. For volume, the length (l), width (w), and height (h) of the blades were measured and calculated using the equation v= l × w × h. The average volume of the balsa wood was calculated at 68.9 cm3. The average volume of the styrofoam was calculated at 287.288 cm3. Then, the average volume of the cardboard was calculated at 23.18 cm3. The mass data was given by Dr. Hartup, and was then used to calculate the density of each wing using =mV and obtain the average density for each material. The balsa wood had an average density of 0.1033451571 g/cm3, the styrofoam had an average density of 0.01617620308 g/cm3, and the cardboard had an average density of 0.677164222 g/cm3. To measure the flexion distance of the materials, each blade was held 20 cm over the edge of the table, and the hanging end was pulled up until it broke, with the height the blade reached when it broke was measured and recorded. The average flexion distance was 10.56666667 cm for balsa wood, 11.5 cm for styrofoam, and 18.4 cm for cardboard. From this data, the team can conclude that the best material for the fan blades is balsa wood, which has the smallest flexion distance and a medium density, allowing it to produce the most power. Flexion proved vital to the power output for the fan blade as lower flexion resulted in less wind energy being transferred into bending the wing itself. This means more of the wind energy was transferred into rotational motion, which resulted in an increase in power output. Cardboard winds were the worst material for the wings because they flexed the most, meaning more energy was transferred into the bending of the windmill blades resulting in less power output. If Team 8 could have any material for windmill blades, Carbon fiber would most likely produce the most power. This is because it is both stiff and lightweight. The little flexion allows for greater efficiency when turning wind power into rotational motion, and the light weight allows for a smaller moment of inertia for the flan blades.

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