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Renewable Energy Science Fair Project

Wind Turbine Blade Angle and Voltage Output

Hard
Wind Turbine Blade Angle and Voltage Output | Science Fair Projects | STEM Projects
Does the angle of a wind turbine's blades change how much electricity it produces? Blade angle controls how much wind each blade catches. Too little angle and the blades barely spin. Too much and they stall. You cut zinc-sheet blades and mount them into wooden blocks with slots cut at seven angles, from 0 to 90 degrees. Each block attaches to a DC motor. You place the turbine one meter from an industrial fan and read the voltage on a digital voltmeter. The results show voltage rises steadily as the angle increases up to 75 degrees. At 75 degrees the turbine produces 0.95 volts. Beyond that angle the output drops back to zero.

Hypothesis

The hypothesis is that the power generated by the wind turbine will vary depending on the angle at which the blades are positioned.

Method & Materials

You will build a wind turbine with blades at different angles, measure the voltage generated, and observe how the angle affects the power output.
You will need a DC motor, a zinc sheet, scissors, wooden blocks, an electric hand drill, needle files, a protractor, screws, a screw driver, a digital voltmeter, and an industrial fan.

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Results

The results show that increasing the angle of the wind turbine blades up to 75° will increase the output voltage. Beyond 75° the output voltage will decrease. This proves that the power generated by the wind turbine does vary depending on the angle at which the blades are positioned.

Why do this project?

This science project is interesting because it explores how to generate electricity from the wind in an environmentally friendly way.

Also Consider

Experiment variations include using blades of different sizes and varying the wind speed to observe any differences in the results.

Full project details

Additional information and source material for this project are available below.

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