Mechanical / Mechatronic Engineering Capstone Design Program

Wind Turbine Development and Testing

Sponsor: Charles Grigg

Eric Brown, Anthony Ferreira, Tim Jordon, Andrew Simon, and Donald UptonFaculty Advisor: Gregory Watkins PhD. PE

The purpose of this project was to

optimize the design of the Drive

and Glide Turbine and establish

defendable performance

metrics.

The constraints of the project

included:

• Keep the design within the

confines of the existing patent.

• Maintain the cross-sectional

area of the original wind

turbine.

The objectives of the project

included:

• Increase efficiency

• Reduce noise

• Increase manufacturability

• Increase durability

• Establish defendable

performance metrics

DETERMINING

EFFICENCY

In order to create power curves and determine the

efficiencies of the two wind turbines, they were taken to

the University of Washington Aeronautics Laboratory

and tested in the Kirstin Wind Tunnel. Both wind

turbines have the same cross sectional area allowing for

their power outputs to be compared head to head.

PROJECT

OUTLOOK

Based on theoretical

calculations and power

curves generated at the

University of Washington

Aeronautics Laboratory

further development of

patent US-2010/0181777

is not recommend. The

optimization process for

this prototype has led the

sponsor to seek further

development of airfoil

based turbines.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

COMPARATIVE STUDY

CFD VS WIND TUNNEL

To refine modifications of the

wind turbine a series of discrete

steady-state studies were

conducted using SolidWorks Flow

Simulation. The results of these

studies were checked in a wind

tunnel to verify the model. The

modifications resulting from this

analysis had the following impact

on performance:

• 32% increase in peak efficiency

• Reduction in cut-in wind speed

from 13mph to 8mph