Development of a Scaled Wind Turbine Test Stand for Turbine Blade Evaluation
Document Type
Oral Presentation
Department
Engineering
Abstract
Sustainable energy sources continue to be a growing interest and the development of technologies for extracting energy from the environment may play a key role in our futures. The field of wind energy is of particular interest to mechanical engineering students at the University of Southern Maine, which blends fundamentals of energy and fluid mechanics. Students would like to explore the design and performance of wind turbine blades within a laboratory setting to better understand and develop wind turbines. The university possesses a laboratory wind tunnel to aid in this research, though currently there exists no instrumentation for evaluating turbine blade performance. This project aims to develop a small-scale wind turbine test stand capable of delivering experimental data to students wishing to design turbine blades and assess their performance. Covered in this Thinking Matters presentation will be an overview of the engineering principles behind the conception of this device, as well as the progress towards its realization as a tool for USM engineering students to learn and possibly contribute to the growing field of wind energy.
Development of a Scaled Wind Turbine Test Stand for Turbine Blade Evaluation
Sustainable energy sources continue to be a growing interest and the development of technologies for extracting energy from the environment may play a key role in our futures. The field of wind energy is of particular interest to mechanical engineering students at the University of Southern Maine, which blends fundamentals of energy and fluid mechanics. Students would like to explore the design and performance of wind turbine blades within a laboratory setting to better understand and develop wind turbines. The university possesses a laboratory wind tunnel to aid in this research, though currently there exists no instrumentation for evaluating turbine blade performance. This project aims to develop a small-scale wind turbine test stand capable of delivering experimental data to students wishing to design turbine blades and assess their performance. Covered in this Thinking Matters presentation will be an overview of the engineering principles behind the conception of this device, as well as the progress towards its realization as a tool for USM engineering students to learn and possibly contribute to the growing field of wind energy.
