Wind turbine

Section 1

Energy conservation: A wind turbine is a generator that turns mechanical energy into electrical energy by using the force of the wind, to generate the generator. The generator consists of loops of wire, magnets, blades to spin the magnet inside the loops of wire.

 

Electromagnetic induction: In a generator when magnets spin close to the loops of wire, the wire feels a change in the magnetic field which then induces a voltage which causes current to be flowing in the wire.

 

Newton's first law: "An object at rest will stay rest and an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted by an outside force" the blades started out stationary, so they remained that way, and the wind (outside force) blew it caused the turbine to start turning.

 

Newton's second law: "acceleration = force/mass" When my group where setting up the blades and testing on how powerful the fan was, we took the mass of our magnets into account. We wanted to make sure that we had a small mass for the magnets so that our acceleration can be greater, because we had no control in increasing the force, as the fan had an equal force for everyone.

 

Torque: As the wind blows on the blades, it causes a torque on the blade, which causes it to start spinning and therefore spinning the magnets as well and generating electricity.

 

Friction: This step is important to setting up a wind turbine as if you have a lot of friction, most of the energy you are capturing from the wind will not be exerted into spinning magnets, but it will be lost throw friction, therefore efficient and little friction is important

 

Section 2

 

To reproduce the design we used, all you need will be:

 

• 6 pieces of 10cm*8cm thin wood
• 2 rods, one metal one wooden, thin metal one
• gun glue
• 8 small lightweight magnets
• 2 plastic cups
• 3-5 meters of wire

Firs you construct a box from 4 of the wooden pieces and drill a hole in the middle of them and put in the wooden rod, then cut 2 one cm pieces out of the metal rod and sick them on complete opposite sides of the wooden rod, then connect 4 magnets on each side, zip tie the metal rods so that u secure them. Next rap the wire tightly on the outside of the box. Then cut the 2 cups in half and glue two on each side of the rod to pick up wind. Finally elevate the box so that the turbine can spin without the blades hitting the surface it's on. it should look like this :

 

 

 

 

Section 3

Megan and I managed to generate 0.012 amps and 0.012 volts, we managed to get a trickle from the light bulb, but we never got solid light as it take 0.3 volts to light the light bulb, so we where far from close, but we still managed to get the highest reading in our class.

Section 4

This project made me actually be able to say to people I created electricity before. It made me be able to create an efficient generator, which I thought would have been impossible for me to do just a few months ago. I noticed when modifying my turbine, that when I had few big magnets on the turbine, it induced less voltage but when I replaced them with more small magnets, it increased my voltage by nearly more than double. If I was to do this project again, I would also make sure that the wires are tide up tighter around my box so, that it does not get caught by the blades. Also I would make sure to drill my hole for the rod, precisely in the middle and not at a slanted angle.