Design and Production of a Wind Turbine for Commercial Use

Task

In this team project, we were required to design and construct an efficient wind turbine for the use of a specific market.

Solution

Our wind turbine was designed with the downdraught effect in mind to maximise the wind flow through the turbine blades. The turbine blades are made of flexiply panels as this allowed us to easily bend them into shape without requiring specifically shaped parts. To hold these blades in place we used laser cut pieces of MDF, consisting of a solid backing piece and a piece with slots for the blades to fit into. Combining these parts together gives a central component consisting of three curved blades enclosed at either side. This part is screwed onto a metal axle that sits between two larger MDF supports fitted with ball bearings. It is a horizontal axis wind turbine with the addition of a second support which allows the blades to be significantly larger to catch more airflow.