Wind Turbine Project

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Wind Turbine Project

• David Wills
• Kavon Khashe
• Nathan Schellink
• Troy Reyes

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Timeline Week 1-2

• In the first two weeks, we were broken up into
  groups of 4 to build a mini wind turbine
• After the turbines were built, we had a
  competition between every group to see who could
  produce the most energy from their turbine
• At the end of the competition, two of our own,
  Nate and Kavon, both in different groups, made it
  to the final round against each other
• In the end, Kavon and his group beat Nates group

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Timeline Weeks 3-4

• In the third week, we chose our groups that we
  wanted for the rest of the terms construction
• We also decided on which design we wanted to do,
  for which we chose a cylinder design
• In order to do so, we took apart a bicycle to
  obtain the circular shape that the tires allowed
  us to use for the top and bottom of the turbine

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Timeline Weeks 5-6

• We continued to take each part of the turbine
  that we needed in order to put together the
  turbine itself
• We put together the turbine at home
• We then started to weld something that would
  allow us to attach the motor directly onto the
  top of our wind turbine

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Timeline Weeks 7-8

• Our original design for the support beam was a
  long piece of metal that would bend and attach to
  the engine
• The amount of metal we needed, however, was way
  to long to be cut quick enough with the metal
  cutter, so after cutting about 3 feet in 3 days,
  we decided to switch to 2x4 support beams
• During this time, we started soldering all of the
  different components to the circuit board so that
  the charge controller would actually know what to
  do with the energy it receives

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Timeline Week 9

• Finished up the support beams, soldered, and
  finished the base of the turbine
• Unfortunately, this last week was the week we
  realized that the circuit boards we were using
  did not work with the programming we assigned to
  it
• Because of this, we could not completely
  accomplish what we had originally set out to
  finish

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Field Trip

• At around week 8 or so, we went on a field trip
  to visit California ISO and Sacramento City
  College to learn more about wind energy
• At California ISO, they took us into the
  fishbowl room, and they told us everything that
  they did at the facility
• At Sacramento City College, we went on a tour of
  some things they were working on, such as a
  formula car and a baja bug. They also let us see
  their welding room.

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Power in the Wind

• P.5(A)(D)(V3)
• PPower (in watts)
• AArea Swept (in square meters)
• DAir Density (in kilograms per cubic meter)
  Approximately 1.275 kg/m3
• VVelocity of Wind (in meters per second)

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Description of Turbine

• Blades- the blades capture the wind and are what
  allows the turbine to spin
• Base- holds up the entire turbine and allows a
  source to place the support beam
• Support 2x4 beam- holds the entire turbine in
  place to avoid resistance and maximize energy
• Motor- connects to power source (or charge
  controller) to actually make the energy

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Description (continued)

• Diode Bridge (rectifier)- converts alternating
  current (AC) power into the more commonly used
  direct current (DC) power
• Primary Load- the object that is being directly
  powered (radio, lava lamp, etc.)
• Secondary Load- the storage place for all of the
  energy that is not being used by the primary load

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The Charge Controller

• Charge Controller- a sort of traffic cop that
  essentially tells all of the electricity where to
  go
• -The purpose is to control two relays that
  protect the battery and charging circuits.
• -The first relay switches the charge supply to an
  alternate load when the battery is fully charged
  to prevent overcharging.
• -The second relay disconnects the load from the
  battery to prevent 100 exhaustion of the
  battery.

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Davids Highlights

• Davids favorite experience of the wind turbine
  construction was putting everything together and
  watching it all come together like we hoped it
  would.

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Kavons Highlights

• Kavons favorite part of the wind turbine
  construction process was the overall building and
  construction of the turbine, as he has been
  looking into this sort of thing on his own.

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Nathans Highlights

• Nathans favorite experience of the wind turbine
  construction was learning the proper way to
  solder, which he enjoyed very much.

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Troys Highlights

• Troys favorite part of the wind turbine
  construction process was learning how to use many
  different power tools.

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THE END!!!