| | Category | EN | P16 | Optimizing Windmill Efficiency Based on Number of Blades |
| | Abstract | It is becoming more and more important to use alternative fuel sources like |
| | wind energy, and to get as much energy from the source as possible. In |
| | this project, I am trying to contribute to that by maximizing the energy |
| | collected from the wind. The goal of this project is to determine which |
| | amount of blades on a windmill will be more effective in generating energy, |
| | therefore optimizing the rotor of the windmill. Factors such as |
| | aerodynamics of the windmill blade are ignored in this project. I am going to |
| | do this by actually building a model windmill, as well as eight sets of rotors |
| | with evenly spaced blades. For wind, I will use a small fan. To test the |
| | efficiency, I will use the equation E= ½I ω ², which is the energy |
| | equation for rotating bodies, to calculate the rotational energy of the |
| | spinning rotor, which will eventually attain a constant speed. The constant |
| | speed is a balance between the force on the blades and the frictional |
| | force on the rotor. The energy contained in the rotor is proportional to the |
| | efficiency, and therefore can be used to compare the efficiency of the |
| | blade sets. Through experimentation, I got that while eight blades will pick |
| | up the most energy, two or three blades will pick up the most energy per |
| | blade. |
| | Bibliography | 1. Introduction to Physical Science by Shipman, Wilson, and Todd- For |
| | Electricity and Physics-based equations |
| | 2.www.copernicusproject.ucr.edu/.../Optimizing%20Windmill%20Blade%2 |
| | 0Efficiency.doc- Optimizing windmill blade efficiency |
| | 3. http://www.energybeta.com/windpower/windmill/windmill-blades/- |
| | Windmill Blades |
| | 4. http://digital.library.okstate.edu/oas/oas_pdf/v56/p121_124.pdf- On the |
| | aerodynamics of windmill blades |
| | 5. http://www.creative-science.org.uk/8blade.html- Starting to explore |
| | wind power. |
| | 6. Gere, J.M., and Timoshenko, S.P., Mechanics of Materials, PWS |
| | publishing company, p. 814-817, 1997 |
| | 7. http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/mi.html |