Wind Turbine Documentation
Conceptual Model
Identify the problem:
Your Civilization is looking for another source of power, you have exhausted its fossil fuel resources and must now look towards an alternative energy source. \. Create a fan made of recycled materials which can generate certain amounts of voltage from a gigantic fan.
Generate Ideas
A fork like fan which would have curves for my speed and agility. These forks would be plastic and cleaned before using.
A triangular like sail, similar to the caravel ship used during the age of exploration. We would shape the paper into a triangular form.
crumbled skinny paper used as propellers. The papers would extremely skinny and folded there would be at least 10 of them around the motor.
A triangular like sail, similar to the caravel ship used during the age of exploration. We would shape the paper into a triangular form.
crumbled skinny paper used as propellers. The papers would extremely skinny and folded there would be at least 10 of them around the motor.
Constraints
We can only use recycled materials
It must be able to move through the wind by itself
we can't use certain objects like pin with in the fan.
It must be able to move through the wind by itself
we can't use certain objects like pin with in the fan.
Criteria
For our project we created three different models for our fan. Our first model was a pinwheel, we folded papers by following instructions and were able to complete the model. We are also going to test or fork fan as well. We will also test the triangular fans. What we are looking for when it comes to characteristics is if it is durable, efficient, and effective. We will create a chart to measure all of these attributes.
Research
Theoretical: After searching through various sources, we were believe that a pinwheel fan will be the most effective turbine. We have already tested it and although at first it didn't work we will keep innovating it. We have watched tutorials about how to build these turbines, and we also added our own implementations within the model.
Empirical: We also learned through testing that the turbine should be made of a more dense material so that it would absorb more of the wind. We also learned that when the tower was taller it generate more voltage
Empirical: We also learned through testing that the turbine should be made of a more dense material so that it would absorb more of the wind. We also learned that when the tower was taller it generate more voltage
Possible Solutions
Of all the solutions we were thinking of, the pinwheel appears to be the only reliable machine that can perform the task. It received the most points when we created our idea matrix and while it was being tested it performed the best.
Idea Matrix
Summary
Our turbine overall, worked very efficiently and we plan on innovating it and making it work even better than before.
Graphical Model
For our graphical model we created a technical sketch of the pinwheel turbine
PinWheel Turbine
Mathematical Model
based on this information, the closer the turbine the more power that gets generatedbased on this information, the less weight there is, the more power gets generated |
based on this information, the more blades there are the more power generatedbased on this information, the taller the fan, the more power generated. |
based on this information, the larger areas can generate more power.
Working Model
Once we inputted our data, we realized that in many areas we were above the majority. We still want to improve our model and make it more efficient so it could generate even more power. We are currently designing a new model for our turbine, which will be made from cardboard and have "sharper" blades.
Results
Although we couldn't get an exact reading during the final test, we at least know that our turbine generate somewhere in the .3 range, and we are very happy with our results. From the previous results of the google form we placed 2nd in our class for power generation. We ranked 6th in all of the classes for power generation.