Temporary Wind Turbine Project

Mechanical Design

We designed an adjustable tower with an Overturning Safety Factor (OSF) of 1.5 in response to a 70 miles per hour wind gust at our tower's maximum height along with a wind wheel diameter of 52 inches. The mechanical system will be held down by 500lbs of ballast, evenly distributed over the 3-foot diameter circular base. Additionally, the structure will be placed on a rubber mat for protecting the roof's surface which has a deadload of 75 pounds per square foot and a composite material. The drawing located below right shows the various features of the tower from the connections like the hole for the wiring, water drainage, and the bolt allowing for adjustable heights. The maximum height of the generator's hub is 10 feet where the tipping velocity is 84 miles per hour.

Blade Design

The team designed the blades by using the blade element momentum theory is a theory that combines both blade element theory and momentum theory through software such as qBlades and xFoil. Then, I used their exported stereolithography (STL) file for designing a mold in CAD which we printed and used a wet layup process for manufacturing carbon fiber blades since a third of a blade can be printed at a time with our non-commercial 3d printer available. We selected Carbon Fiber due to the cost and strength in comparison to fiber glass.

Electrical Design

We improved our electrical system's design from last year by reducing the size and wiring required to connect the generators to a battery with methods for consuming energy for various devices. The team virtually collaborated on a printed circuit board (PCB) for integrating every component and port required in one centralized system. The designed PCB is seen on the bottom left along with the schematic on the bottom right. The board is controlled by a Raspberry Pi and Arduino microcontroller, where the wind charge controller enters the board and outputs a connection to the battery.