This project aims to design and create an affordable yet efficient small-scale wind turbine to provide people in diverse environments with the opportunity to harness wind energy. We decided on a design with a three-bladed horizontal axis wind turbine placed inside of a converging-diverging nozzle, in order to maximize wind speeds, and furthermore, maximize power output. We also made our design accessible to others by 3D printing our wind turbine. Our initial wind turbine design was unsuccessful and as a result, we re-designed our turbine. This re-designed wind turbine required a minimum wind speed of 4.7 m/s to self-start within the converging-diverging nozzle. From the tests conducted on our re-designed turbine, we found that our wind turbine was able to produce 1 Watt of power.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Sanchez, Isabella
• Sandoval, Eduardo P
• Sandoval, Stacey Chaves

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-042816-130308

Advisor

• Rahbar, Nima

Year

• 2016

Date created

• 2016-04-28

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Mechanical Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright