Project One – Renewable technology challenge:

Mechanical design of turbine blades in renewable wind technology

ENGINEER 1P13 – Integrated Cornerstone Design Projects

Tutorial T05

Team Tues 27

Kyle McMaster (McMask2)

Ruoyu Wang (wangr198)

Sebastian Carter (cartes7)

Ryan Howard (howarr2)

Sameer Shakeel (shakes4)

Submitted: November 8, 2020

1P13 DP-1 Final Report Tutorial T05 Team Tues 27

Table of Contents

Academic Integrity Statement ............................................................................................................................. 3

Main Body.............................................................................................................................................................. 5

Finalized Problem Statement .............................................................................................................................. 5

Justification of Technical Objectives and Material Performance Indices ........................................................... 5

Conceptual Design – Justification of Selected Material ..................................................................................... 6

Design Embodiment – Justification of Solid (CAD) Modelling: ........................................................................ 6

Concluding Remarks – Reality Check ................................................................................................................ 7

Appendix A – Peer learning discussion summary: ............................................................................................ 8

Appendix B – References (if necessary): ............................................................................................................. 9

Appendix C – Gantt Chart: ............................................................................................................................... 10

Appendix D – Source Materials Database: ....................................................................................................... 11

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Academic Integrity Statement

The student is responsible for performing the required work in an honest manner, without plagiarism and
cheating. Submitting this work with my name and student number is a statement and understanding that this
work is my own and adheres to the Academic Integrity Policy of McMaster University.

Kyle McMaster 400328819

The student is responsible for performing the required work in an honest manner, without plagiarism and
cheating. Submitting this work with my name and student number is a statement and understanding that this
work is my own and adheres to the Academic Policy of McMaster University.

Sebastian Carter 400315460

X
Sebastian Carter

The student is responsible for performing the required work in an honest manner, without plagiarism and
cheating. Submitting this work with my name and student number is a statement and understanding that this
work is my own and adheres to the Academic Integrity Policy of McMaster University.

Sameer Shakeel 400306710

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1P13 DP-1 Final Report Tutorial T05 Team Tues 27

The student is responsible for performing the required work in an honest manner, without plagiarism and
cheating. Submitting this work with my name and student number is a statement and understanding that this
work is my own and adheres to the Academic Integrity Policy of McMaster University.

Ryan Howard 400272947

The student is responsible for performing the required work in an honest manner, without plagiarism and
cheating. Submitting this work with my name and student number is a statement and understanding that this
work is my own and adheres to the Academic Integrity Policy of McMaster University.

Ruoyu Wang 400305356

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Main Body

Finalized Problem Statement

In Calgary Alberta, strong winds are heavily present, and many residential homeowners want to utilize
them to reduce their electricity bills. A rooftop wind generator is a device that can take advantage of these
strong winds by converting them into energy; and also reduce the long-term cost of living for the average
homeowner by means of a cheaper, renewable alternative. To achieve this transition to rooftop generators,
efficiency and consumer appeal are key objectives that need to be fulfilled, with a small size, minimized cost,
and other design specifics needing to be kept in mind when designing. The overall goal of this project is to
design a compact wind turbine blade that generates sufficient electricity to be a part of an appealing and
economical solution for homeowners in Calgary compared to other energy generation methods.

Justification of Technical Objectives and Material Performance Indices

Figure 1: Objective tree

The residential wind turbine must be appealing to consumers or it will not be purchased. To make the
turbine more appealing, it was determined that it must be low maintenance, easy to install, visually appealing,
economical, and it must generate sufficient electricity. To lower the maintenance required, the blade will be
made with robust materials and simple parts. This will also help simplify the installation process. To increase
the visual appeal of the device, the physical design and the materials must be well chosen. As there is no
flexibility in the physical design, the material is all that must be considered. A desirable material resists
weathering and is inexpensive without looking cheap. Material selection is crucial for the next objective as well,
which is to minimize the operating cost. Ideally, the total cost of the turbine would be cheaper than the cost to
get electricity from the power grid. This means the initial cost and the operation cost must be less than 6.60
cents/kWh, the current cost of electricity in Calgary [1]. The criterion for evaluating an effective material are as
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follows, in order from most important to least important: Resistance to environment, Strength, Cost, Weight,
and Ease of manufacturing. The material must withstand the environment it is in or the blade will fail. It also
must be strong enough to withstand the high windspeeds expected in Calgary. When those two conditions are
met, the next most important factor is the cost of the material. As discussed earlier, minimizing the cost makes
the blade more appealing for consumers. Minimizing the weight of the blade lowers the inertia and can help
increase power output. Lastly, if the material is too difficult to work with, the cost of manufacturing, and the
overall cost will increase. To calculate the material performance index (MPI), the two objectives used were to
minimize to volume and to minimize the cost. This meant that the MPIs used were the Youngs modulus, the
Youngs modulus divided by cost, the Yield strength, and the Yield strength divided by cost.

Conceptual Design – Justification of Selected Material

The initial and the most essential step was to confirm the objectives of design--the wind turbine is
located on the roof and the expense to install and to maintain the turbine should not be too high. Thus, the
primary objective is to minimize volume while the secondary objective is to minimize cost. Subsequently,
before formally calculating the specific MPI, we categorized two main groups of MPI -- stiffness and strength
designs, which provide us four different MPI in total. With ANSYS-Granta, we put the highest five ranked steel
variants as required into material ranking list for each MPI [2]. Considering the rankings and the appearances,
the top three materials were low alloy steel, tungsten alloy and high carbon steel. When it comes to the decision
matrix, we first ranked the criterions for materials which tells us the which of the these is decisive. Then, we
rated three chosen materials on ranked criterions according to their properties from ANSYS-Granta [2].
Eventually, the low alloy steel was selected for this design.

Design Embodiment – Justification of Solid (CAD) Modelling:

The design constraint on the turbine blade is its stiffness. To withstand the forces of nature over its time
in service, a blade needs to be stiff enough to resist a margin of threshold deflection where the turbine will fail.
In this turbine, the maximum allowed threshold deflection was 10mm [3]. Throughout the deflection
calculations and simulations, it is assumed that the maximum pressure endured by the blade is 3000 Pa [3].
According to preliminary calculations, a material thickness between 15mm and 30mm would be appropriate.
This thickness margin was further reduced (see table 1) with a stress simulation on a solid model of the blade in
Autodesk Inventor (see figure 2) [4]. 25mm is the optimal thickness for the blade because it minimizes the
amount of material used while holding the simulated deflection under 10mm.

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Material Thickness (mm) Simulated Deflection (mm)

20 11.96
22 10.48
28 8.62
25 9.43
Table 1: Material Thickness vs. Deflection

Figure 2: Stress Simulation

Concluding Remarks – Reality Check

Above all, the team has learned that delivering the perfect product is nearly impossible without making
some sort of compromises in the design process. In this project specifically, designing a turbine that is attractive
to the average consumer requires many design considerations to meet the needs and desires of the targeted
demographic. Designing the final product began with what we thought was the most important quality of them
all: cost of materials. Since an attractive product generally starts with a low price, designing a product with a
manufacturing process that is as inexpensive as possible was a critical factor in the design process. Along with
inexpensive materials, keeping the turbine low maintenance was also a necessary design consideration in the
interest of the consumer. Although in the end the chosen material wasn’t the most inexpensive option, it was the
most suitable option for the final product as it balanced the need for low maintenance (capable of withstanding
the environment) as well as strength and cost. As maximum energy production was a necessity in the final
product, producing an efficient blade design with our chosen material was another necessity in the interest of a
viable final product. Through the use of Granta [2] and Autodesk Inventor Pro [4], as well as a given list of
physical constraints determined by important mathematical formulas (such as Young’s modulus [5] and
maximum deflection [6]), finding a material and a viable blade design was possible. While traversing the
complexities of any design process is difficult, the team proved capable of managing the tasks to deliver a final
product that served as a viable solution to economical energy production. Although the final result theoretically
accomplishes the challenges outlined in this project, additional testing is necessary to determine effective the
product is in the real-world. Low maintenance, for instance, is an important quality of the final product. Yet,
without employing the product in the real world, the true frequency of maintenance is nearly impossible to
determine. As well, the true economic benefits of implementing the system would need to be tested to ensure
the ability to harness wind energy is greater than the cost of the product itself, installation, and maintenance.
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Appendix A – Peer learning discussion summary:

A Pioneer in clean Energy

The interviewed design team worked on an environmentally conscious wind turbine design in Sweden.
The primary objective of this turbine design was to have net zero emissions in production and minimize the
amount of damage to the environment. The wind turbine also had to be powerful and efficient so a wind farm
could produce enough energy to power city. Secondary objectives were having easily maintainable turbine
blades as well as to maximize the durability of the blades. This meant to further the efficiency of the design.
The team’s chosen material was an Aluminum alloy. This choice won out over the second choice, a carbon fibre
composite. Aluminum alloy was superior to carbon fibre because of its good resistance to environmental
conditions and low density. Carbon fibre was also a low-density material but was harder on the environment in
the manufacturing process and therefore did not meet with the primary objective to minimize environmental
harm. Aluminum Alloy is a compliant material, and so the team used the compliant material blade geometry in
their solid model. With this geometry, the calculated a thickness of 20mm. It is important to note that
minimizing cost was not an objective in the design of the turbine blade, as the project was to be funded by the
Swedish government.

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Appendix B – References (if necessary):

[1] “Current rates and terms and conditions,” Alberta Utilities Commission [Online]. Available:
https://www.auc.ab.ca/Pages/current-rates-electric.aspx [Accessed: November 4, 2020].
[2] Ansys Granta EduPack software, Granta Design Limited, Cambridge, UK, 2020 (www.grantadesign.com).

[3] “1—P1 Project Module,” class notes for ENGINEER 1P13, Department of Engineering, McMaster University,
Fall, 2020.
[4] Autodesk Inventor Pro software, Autodesk Inc., San Rafael, California, USA, 2020 (www.autodesk.com)
[5] “Lecture 7B – Sept 30 – Materials Selection of Mechanical Designs,” class notes for ENGINEER 1P13,
Department of Engineering, McMaster University, Fall, 2020.
[6] “Wk-5 (Fall) P1 Milestone 3B Instructions,” class notes for ENGINEER 1P13, Department of Engineering,
McMaster University, Fall, 2020.

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Appendix C – Project Schedule and Gantt Chart:

Logbook:

November 1, 2020:

Microsoft Teams Meeting (15 Minutes) - Everyone was present

-Discussed roles regarding the final deliverable for Project 1.

-Scheduled next meeting for November 6th at 1:00 PM.

November 6, 2020:

Microsoft Teams Meeting (1 Hour, 18 Minutes) - Everyone was present

-Looked over everyone’s work that was assigned in the previous meeting.

-Got ready for the final submission.

Other Meetings:

Design Studios – Everyone was present at every Design Studio

Group Chats – Reminders, ideas, and other discussions were shared here occasionally

Figure 3: Final Gantt Chart

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Appendix D – Source Materials Database:

[1] D. Chamberland, Wind power. Salem Press Encyclopedia of Science, 2019.

[2] J. Cotrell, The Mechanical Design, Analysis, and Testing of a Two-Bladed Wind Turbine Hub. National
Renewable Energy Laboratory, 2002.
J.M.K.C. Donev et al. “Wind power,” Energy Education [Online]. Available:
https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Wind_power. (2020) [Accessed: September 27, 2020].
[3] “How do Wind Turbines Work”, Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy [Online], Available:
https://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/how-do-wind-turbines-
work#:~:text=Wind%20turbines%20work%20on%20a,a%20generator%2C%20which%20creates%20el
ectricity. [Accessed: September 28, 2020].
[4] “Wind turbine”. Christopher A. Badurek. [Online], Available: https://www.britannica.com/technology/wind-
turbine [Accessed: September 29, 2020].
[5] “Materials Used in Wind Turbines,” Matmatch [Online]. Available:
https://matmatch.com/learn/material/materials-used-in-wind-turbines. [Accessed: September 29, 2020].
[6] “Nacelles | How are they manufactured?”. Nic Sharpley. [Online],
https://www.windpowerengineering.com/how-is-a-nacelle-manufactured/ [Accessed: September 29,
2020].
[7] “How can wind turbine blades be recycled?”. LivingCircular. [Online],
https://www.livingcircular.veolia.com/en/industry/how-can-wind-turbine-blades-be-
recycled#:~:text=Wind%20turbine%20rotor%20blades%20are,recycle%20at%20the%20present%20tim
e. [Accessed: September 29, 2020].
[8] “Wind Energy” Government of Canada [online]. Available: https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy/energy-sources-
distribution/renewables/wind-energy/7299 [Accessed: September 2, 2020].
[9] “SCOTLAND’S WIND COULD POWER EVERY HOME ACROSS SCOTLAND AND NORTH OF
ENGLAND” World Wildlife Fund [online]. Available: https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/scotlands-wind-
could-power-every-home-across-scotland-and-north-england [Accessed: September 28, 2020].
[10]“How Do Wind Turbines Work?” Energy.gov [online]. Available: https://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/how-
do-wind-turbines-work [Accessed: September 25, 2020].
[11]Erich Hau, “Rotor Aerodynamics,” Wind Turbines. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 2013.
[12]Erich Hau, “Mechanical Drive Train and Nacelle,” Wind Turbines. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 2013.

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[13]Chris Martin “Wind Turbine Blades Can’t Be Recycled, So They’re Piling Up in Landfills” Bloomberg Green
[online]. Available: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-
recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfills [Accessed: September 28, 2020].
[14]“Wind Power,” NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC[Online].
Available:https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/wind-power/#close. [Accessed:
September 28, 2020]
[15]Sun Xiaojing, Huang Diangui and Wu Guoqing, “The current state of offshore wind energy technology
development,” Energy, vol.41, no.1, page.298-312, Feb.2012.
[16]Allision Campbell, et al. “Wind Energy,” ENERGY EDUCATION[online]. Available:
https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Wind_power. [Accessed: 28 September 2020]
[17]Michelle Froese, “How are blade materials and manufacturing changing to keep up with larger turbines?”
Windpower[online]. Available: https://www.windpowerengineering.com/blade-materials-manufacturing-
changing-keep-larger-turbines/ [Accessed: 28 September 2020]
[18]“Wind Explained,” U.S. Energy Information Administration [Online]. Available:
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/wind/history-of-wind-power.php. [Accessed: September 28, 2020]
[19]“Wind to be fastest growing power source 2020,” Energy Live News [Online]. Available:
https://www.energylivenews.com/2019/09/21/wind-to-be-fastest-growing-power-source-in-the-us-in-
2020/. [Accessed: September 28, 2020]
[20]“Advantages and Challenges of Wind Energy,” Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy [Online]. Available:
https://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/advantages-and-challenges-wind-energy. [Accessed: September 28,
2020]
[21]“Wind Turbines: How are they Made?,” Azo Clean Tech [Online]. Available:
https://www.azocleantech.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=379. [Accessed: September 28, 2020]
[22]Ansys Granta EduPack software, Granta Design Limited, Cambridge, UK, 2020 (www.grantadesign.com)
[23]“Current rates and terms and conditions,” Alberta Utilities Commission [Online]. Available:
https://www.auc.ab.ca/Pages/current-rates-electric.aspx [Accessed: November 4, 2020].
[24]“1—P1 Project Module,” class notes for ENGINEER 1P13, Department of Engineering, McMaster University,
Fall, 2020.
[25]Autodesk Inventor Pro software, Autodesk Inc., San Rafael, California, USA, 2020 (www.autodesk.com)
[26]“Lecture 7B – Sept 30 – Materials Selection of Mechanical Designs,” class notes for ENGINEER 1P13,
Department of Engineering, McMaster University, Fall, 2020.
[27]“Wk-4 (Fall) – P1 Milestone 2 Instructions,” class notes for ENGINEER 1P13, Department of Engineering,
McMaster University, Fall, 2020.

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[28]“Wk-5 (Fall) P1 Milestone 3B Instructions,” class notes for ENGINEER 1P13, Department of Engineering,
McMaster University, Fall, 2020.
[29]“Wk-6 (Fall) P1 Milestone 4 Instructions,” class notes for ENGINEER 1P13, Department of Engineering,
McMaster University, Fall, 2020.
[30]“Getting Started – Gantt Chart,” class notes for ENGINEER 1P13, Department of Engineering, McMaster
University, Fall, 2020.
[31]“Inventor Blade Deflection Simulation Instruction,” class notes for ENGINEER 1P13, Department of
Engineering, McMaster University, Fall, 2020.
[32]“Inventor Turbine Solid Modelling Instructions,” class notes for ENGINEER 1P13, Department of Engineering,
McMaster University, Fall, 2020.
[33]“Project 1 – Turbine Blade CAD Tutorial," class notes for ENGINEER 1P13, Department of Engineering,
McMaster University, Fall, 2020.
[34]“Project 1 – Deflection Simulation Tutorial,” class notes for ENGINEER 1P13, Department of Engineering,
McMaster University, Fall, 2020.
[35]“Blade Design A – Stiff materials,” class notes for ENGINEER 1P13, Department of Engineering, McMaster
University, Fall, 2020.

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