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Working
With
Wind Energy
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Learning Objectives

Learnabout wind energy

conversion
Design a wind turbine
Construct the wind turbine
Test the wind turbine
Evaluate Performance
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A Wind Turbine

Thewind hits the

blades
WIND
Shaftleads to a
gearbox whose output
leads to a generator to
make electricity
Usually has 2 or 3
blades
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24 - 25 SEP
2010
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5
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Your Challenge
Design,
construct and test
your own wind turbine
design
Lift
weight 15 cm
as quickly as possible > 1ft,
30cm
Maximum 1 minute
No human interaction!
Blowdryer
at least
30cm away from turbine
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Turbine Requirements

Must have a rotor

shaft around which to
wind up given weight
Must be freestanding > 1ft, 30cm
(no human
interaction)
Must
use only
materials provided
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Test Procedure

Blowdryer
at least 30 cm
away from turbine
Nohuman interaction with
turbine
Attach weight around rotor
> 1ft,
Upto 1 minute to wind up 30cm
weight for 15cm
Record time to wind up
weight
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Materials
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Procedure

Teams of two (2)

Develop and sketch your design
Construct initial design
Preliminary test
Modify design, if necessary
Final test
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Evaluate Your Design

Efficiency of design may depend on
Costof materials
Speed (rotations per minute)
Power (time to wind weight)

Possible measure of efficiency:

Eff.= (Cost of materials) / (time [sec]
to lift weight)
Aretwo designs that have the same
rotational speed equally as good?