Wind Turbine Blog

This week and last week, we worked in groups to make Wind Turbines.  In order to understand how wind turbines work, there are a few important "physics phacts" to know.

The wind turbine, although powered by wind, required a generator to induce voltage.  A generator consists of either a coil of wire spinning around magnets or magnets spinning around a coil of wire.  We choose to do the latter, as it is technically more simple.

Generators work as a result of Electromagnetic Induction, wherein the magnetic field of a coil of wire is changed as a magnet passes over it.

As far as our design goes, we modeled our generator from this website.  From the website, we knew we needed to purchase ceramic block magnets and a metal rod.  The red of the materials we were able to find in the classroom.

The turbine was not apart of the generator tutorial, so Claire and Holt took charge of the design.  We had initially planed to use wooden boards as the blades, but found that cut-up plastic bottles were also good to use.  In oder to make them spin, we had to tweak the angles of the blades, the directions, and the direction the wind was coming from.

The coils of the wire allow the current to flow.  It was important to note the direction of the wire's current, which is why you can see green arrows marked on the box.

The magnets, shown to the left inside the box, are what causes the change in magnetic field in the wire.  The metal rod is spun by the wind blades, which in turn spins the magnet.  The movement causes the generator to work.

Here is out wind turbine working!

In the end, we generated 0.008A of Current and .005V of Voltage.  Despite this very impressive result, we were unable to light the lightbulb because of the friction from our magnet.

Although significantly less stressful than the mousetrap car, this project did have its challenges.  Specifically, the copper wire.  Somehow, it became tangled, and made our lives very difficult.  In the future, I would work more carefully to ensure it did not become tangled.

As I mentioned above, we also learned the importance of trial and error in relation to the wind turbine blades.  Being able to adjust and readjust them depending on our needs became very important.

A huge lesson would also be to label the poles of the magnets.  Otherwise, you just might have to force two like poles together, which is not an easy task.

From this, I have learned how a generator works! I have also learned just how exact and frictionless it must be to produce a voltage, and not only that, but also a strong enough voltage to light a lightbulb.