Conservation of Green House Gases with Wind Turbines

Conservation of Green House Gases with Wind Turbines and a Reusable Energy Source April 30, 2015 Alabama School of Fine Arts Math &Science Department Honors Physics Kimal Honour Djam Eric Cheng (leader), Colin Bamford (co-leader), Azka Aleezada (blade design engineer), Kayla White (base and blade constructor)

Overview of the Project Throughout the entire semester we have done research on the science of wind turbines. We created a small scale model of a sample wind turbine with a 8 to 1 gearbox ratio connected to a generator. After that, we created sample blades to test for efficiency it's mean power. Finally, we wrote a wind turbine report on everything that we did over the entire semester.

Goals of the Project The purpose of this project is to try to preserve what is left of the ozone layer by using natural and reusable resources. A second goal was to find the blade that gave us the most power from the wind.

Theory and Background Wind can be thought of as an indirect source of solar energy. Heat from the sun interacts with the earth, air in areas of high pressure move to areas of low pressure to create wind. High speed propeller or tubular types of windmills have low torque, require less room, and are generally most useful for producing electricity. As air hits the blades or surface of the windmill’s propellers, the air particles are pushed down the slope of the surface, the propeller is moved resulting in rotation. Some blades are designed much like an airplane wing, creating an airfoil effect. As the air passes over the “wing”, it creates an area of low pressure on the other side, forcing the “wing” up.

Theory and Background - Continued There are many hurdles to jump over in making an efficient wind turbine. You have to make them tall to escape air turbulence, make them sturdy and also find a way to get the most power out of the wind. We aimed to do this in our project.

Hypothesis Our hypothesis for torque was, “If our wind turbine blades have more torque then the mean current and potential would increase. ” Our hypothesis for drag was, “If our wind turbine blades have less drag then the mean current and potential would increase. ” To increase torque, you would create multiple number of the same type of blade. To decrease drag, you would create shorter blades or blades that don’t hold as much weight at the front.

Hypothesis - Continued One main problem with the hyptheses is that we are beginners to the science of wind turbines. We had to make guesses on the knowledge we had or that we had gathered. On the other hand, the websites we were suggested to go to provided an almost positive confirmation of parts of our hypotheses.

Useful Principles A wind turbine cannot extract any more than 59% of the energy carried by the wind which is referred to as Betz limit or Betz law. In this project, the power coefficient is considered to be 0. 4 and the air density to be 1. 23 kg/m 3. The fan used in the project is the TPI 30 inch standard industrial fan with pedestal mount. It has mean wind speed of 349. 28 m/s.

Design We created five blade designs, but only chose to make two. This is the first design. Blade #1

Design - Continued Here is the second design. Blade #2

Reasons for Choosing Blades We chose blade #1 because: 1. It had ok torque. 2. There is some Bernoulli effect 3. There is small drag 4. There is ok lift We chose blade #2 because: 1. There is minimum drag 2. There is ok torque 3. The blade would have a good Bernoulli effect.

Design Process 1. We created sketches of our blade designs on a thin piece of cardboard. 2. After that, we cut out the blades with scissors. 3. Next, we hot glued dowls an inch from the bottom of the blade. 4. We covered the bottom of the first blade with masking tape and covered the front of both blades with duct tape. 5. Finally, we tested the blades.

Testing the Blades We tested the blades by connecting the generator to an energy sensor. Then we took the results for each of the blades. Blade #1 Blade #2

Results for Blade #1

Results for Blade #2

Conclusion Our first blade design had superior results compared to our second blade design. Our first blade design had a mean current of 234. 45 m. A and mean potential of 1. 891 V. Our second blade design had a mean current of 139. 0 m. A and a mean potential of 1. 169 V.

Tables Blade 1 Mean Potential Mean Current (V) (m. A) Mean Power (m. W) Efficiency (%) Test 1 1. 891 236. 2 446. 65 21. 89 Test 2 1. 856 232. 7 431. 89 21. 89 Blade 2 Mean Potential Mean Current (V) (m. A) Mean Power (m. W) Efficiency (%) Test 1 0. 9708 115. 7 112. 32 26. 49 Test 2 1. 169 139. 0 162. 49 26. 49

Answer to Hypothesis Our hypothesis was mildly correct, but there were a few flaws. Firstly, the more torque you give your turbine, they more drag it will experience. Secondly, by minimizing drag too much, it will cause the blades to accelerate at a very fast pace causing the turbine to become unstable.

Recommendations for Future Work If we had more time, possible things we would do would be: 1. Test out different blades. 2. Make them out of different materials. (Ex. Balsa) 3. Adding different coverings. (Ex. Fabric) 4. Smoothing the edges of the blades. 5. Test the turbine from different distances from the wind source.

Citations http: //learn. kidwind. org/files/webcompetition/WINDSPEED_ 2012. pdf https: //vimeo. com/51537100 http: //learn. kidwind. org/files/manuals/ADVANCED_BLADE_ DESIGN_MANUAL. pdf

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