User:Sali6089/Wind Turbine

Wind Turbine

Write problem/project Goal
We want to produce a windturbine that is shrouded and we want to see whether that surrounded wind turbine produces more power than normal unsurrounded wind turbines.

My First Task
Brain storm and think about possible ways of making a shrouded windturbine. Also, by watching various Youtube videos on how to make a simple wind turbine.

Summary of actual work over first weekend
For the shrouded windturbine project. I originally planned to use a small fan, like a toy fan and shroud it using a megaphone. Obviously I would disassemble the speaking part of the megaphone and use that small area for the fan. Then I would connect it to a generator, which would have an Arduino in it for power and I would move the propellers of fan using a hair dryer. The hair dryer would act like a wind blower. I thought about generating power of at least 5 volts. My idea was sort of primitive though.

Week1 Narrative
The very first day when I got the project me and my team mates started brain storming. I came up with the idea of using a small toy fan and connecting it to a small generator. But my idea was very primitive and wasn't certain that my idea would work. So then one of my team mates, came up with the idea of using PC fans. The PC fan idea was very cost effective, because we didn't know that we had a bunch processors lying around the tool's area and also megaphones are expensive. If you go to Wal-mart, a megaphone costs around $50-60 and there was no guarantee whether the project would work, so those $60 would just blow off in the air i.e. if the project didn't work. So, then me and one of my team mates went to the engineering tools room, we got out several processors and started dissembling them. My team mate was an expert in disassembling processors, he taught me on how to dissemble them. Finally I got out 3 fans, one of them was shrouded and the other was double shrouded.I believed that the more shrouded the pc fan the greater the power. For the 3rd fan I had to remove the shrouded part of it.The reason I wanted to remove the shrouds was because I wanted to test how much power it produces. So, in order to remove the shrouds, I asked my client whether he had a tool to cut the shrouds off. He did have a tool to cut the shrouds off, it is called a multipurpose tool. A very dangerous tool but very effective. After that I started to check the voltage of each fan using the power supply. The single shrouded fan started moving at a voltage of 5 volts.For the other 2 I didn't have time to test the voltages.

My Second Task
My second task is to test how much voltage the other 2 fans produce. Me and my teammates also want to find a generator that can hook up the fans.So once the fans start moving, it can convert kinetic energy to electrical energy.

Summary of actual work over second weekend
The work which I did was completely different than I actually planned. I wanted to test the 2 voltages of the other 2 fans, but one of my team mates already tested the voltages. He found out that the voltages of the other 2 fans is almost the same as the voltage of the first fan which is 5 volts. I also wanted to find a generator that could hook up the PC fans and basically convert wind energy to electrical energy, but again one of my team mates came up with the idea that PC fans already have a generator in them, they have it at the back of them. A simple idea which anyone could have come up with. The only thing which was the same this time was the idea of using ping pong ball on the PC fan for more aerodynamics.

Week2 Narrative
This weekend we basically worked on the design stage of the wind turbine project.We know how much voltage it produces, now its time for the design stage. My team mate found an excellent video on shrouded wind turbines here is a link, but this video is already on my team mate's page, here is the link to it Physics of WindTamer But again this is NOT MY WORK, its one of my team mates work.This video made us think that the front part of the shrouded wind turbine is important to. I also tried to find a video over this weekend on how to make a small shrouded wind turbine for an engineering class, but unfortunately I wasn't able to come up with any of the videos. I also went to the engineering projects site to find something from the old group that worked on the wind turbine project before but again I wasn't able to find anything that could be useful to us. For the design stage we decided to use PVC pole that could help us in mounting the PC fan w/out the shrouds. For the other 2 my team mate came up with the idea of using a piece of wood that could help hold the PC fan. I thought about using a small aluminium rod that could support the PC fan but my team said that wouldn't work. For the double shrouded fan, my team mate came up with the idea of using the part the in which the single shrouded fan was being taken out, that part would be stuck to the back of the PC fan. I originally planned to not to remove the box in which the PC fan was in and use that as a double shrouded fan. For the front part of PC fan my original idea of the megaphone is still part of the project. I just have find a megaphone that is very cheap. Even though my team is thinking about other ways of producing that front part w/out buying anything.

My Third task
On my third weekend I m planning to go to home depot to buy a perferrated mounting strip that can hold the PC fan on top of the wood, also I' ll try to search a cheap megaphone.I thought about of using a gorilla glue that could hold the PC fan to the piece of wood but my team mate said that wouldn't hold the PC fan and will cause the work to be really messy.

Summary of actual work over third weekend
This weekend was pretty much done according to plan. I was given a task to go to Home Depot to buy a plastic hanger mounting strip, that could hold the PC fan on top of the piece of wood.We also wanted to work on the design stage of the project and we did. But our plan was to finish off the project over the third week, but unfortunately we weren't able to. Hopefully by next week we would be done with our shrouded wind turbine project.

Week3 Narrative
Well as I mentioned earlier. This week I was assigned to go to Home Depot and buy a plastic hanger mounting strip. Before that I had to search for the plastic mounting strip, it took me hrs to find on the Home Depot website. My team mate told me that it is actually a perferrated mounting strip, I typed that on the Home Depot website and that wasn't it. So, it took almost 4 hrs to find the strip and I finally found it because I used the word "hanger" by accident on Home Depot website.Since I don't have a car, I had to ask one of my friends to take me there. I went there and finally found the mounting strip which was almost $2. While I was at Home Depot I found a lamp cover that exactly looked like the front shroud of a shrouded windturbine. I asked the sales person to buy the cover of the lamp, but he said that the cover is included in the lamp. The cost of the lamp was almost $63, one of the most expensive lamps I've seen so far. I then decided to take a photo of it,so that I could document it and my client buys it from the Home Depot. But unfortunately, the camera in my phone didn't work and I was also running late for an appointment so I wasn't able to take the photo of the lamp.

I was trying to upload a photo of the drilling machine but I wasn't able to due to copyright issues. That battery operated drilling machine is an excellent tool. Its safe, light weight, and easy to operate compared to traditional drilling machines.

My Fourth task
This weekend I am given the task of buying metal hangers. Once I buy that then we just have finish off designing the shrouded wind turbine and hopefully by next week we will be done with our project.

Summary of actual work over fourth weekend
This week was also done according to plan. I was given the task of buying metal hangers, and I did. The good thing was I didn't have to buy metal hangers. I asked one of my friends for it and luckily he had it. But unfortunately we didn't use them at all since our client bought a lamp shed for us. So we didn't use metal hangers at all.The rest of the weekend I just kept working on the design stage of the shrouded wind turbine project.

Week4 Narrative
When I started off working on the design stage, 20% of the design stage was already done. My team mate already made a board, the only thing we had to do was to put a piece of wood on top of the board that could hold the PC fan. I already drilled holes onto the piece of wood last week. So I just had to mount the screws onto the piece of wood. But before that, as I mentioned earlier, my client bought a lamp shed. So we had to mount the lamp shed onto a circular piece of wood so it could stick the lamp shed onto the circular piece of wood. In order to make a circular piece of wood,I took a piece of wood, my team mate made a huge circle around it using a marker and a compass.I then used a Mikita jig saw to cut it into a circular piece. While I was cutting it into a circular piece, the blade fell off of the jig saw. It took us almost an hour to figure out how the blade goes it into the Mikita so we used a manual, here is a link to the manual Manual for Jig Saw. I found the link and my team mate helped me in making the jig saw work again. Once we got that out of our way, I finally cut out the circular piece of wood and stuck it to the lamp shed. After that we connected it to the PC fan using hot glue. The hot glue really sticks a material. I just can't upload a photo of it due copyright issues. We then took another piece of wood, stuck the shrouded PC fan on top of it, as I mentioned earlier. I already had put holes into it, so I just had to put the screws in it and I did. For the non shrouded PC fan, I used a PVC pole. My team mate drilled holes into it and stuck the non shrouded PC fan on it using a plastic strip (I don't really know what they call it). After that we just needed wires so that we could hook it up to the voltmeter and measure the current and V. But unfortunately our fans were not generating enough power. We did this process for almost 45 min.We gave up after 45 min. We asked our client that our project was not working and he got pissed. So we started brain storming and trying to identify what was wrong. I came up with the idea that since the lamp shed is not spinning, it does not produce any power. My team mate said that wasn't it. After about 5 min, I realised that since the PC fan generator is not big enough, I needed a bigger generator in order to produce more I and V So we had to dissemble the PC fans again. I removed the rubber magnet in one of them. It almost took us 2 hrs and 30 min. to disassemble and reassemble all the parts together. I don't even remember what I did while I was going through that process. After that we finally tested out the voltages. It turns that double shrouded produced more power compared to the non shrouded PC fan. After that we were basically done with our project. It literally took us almost 12 to 14 hrs finish off this project. I worked 2-3 per week for this project.

Complete Project Page
We are done with our project. I worked 2-3 hrs per week. Our project is working fine hopefully it will work w/out any errors.