The WindMaster

Lee CrevistonBen Peters

Mark RizzitielloLindsey West

The Green Team

Windmill Overview

• Wind enters Windmill and turns blades• Blades drive shaft which is connected

generator• Generator shaft turns magnets inside coil of

wire which creates electricity• Bare ends of wire are connected to light bulb,

which turns on when windmill spins

The WindMaster

Efficiency Calculations

• Power = ½(ρ)(Area)(Velocity3)– ρ: density of air (1.225 kg/m3)– A: rotor swept area exposed to wind (m2)– V: velocity of wind (m/s2)

• Power = ½(1.225)(.01597)(1.73) = 0.0481 W• Actual voltage generated: ≈3.25 V• Actual power generated: ≈0.01 W• Efficiency: 0.01/0.0481 = 0.2079 = 20.79%

Design Issues

• First built generator using cardboard box, which created too much friction on the driveshaft

• The first design was too small• We had to change the direction of the magnets

versus the direction of the coils to properly generate electricity

• We also tried using to K-Nex to build the generator but decided it was not sturdy enough, and ultimately switched to wood

Conclusions

• A large amount of energy has to be put into the windmill just to create a small amount of electricity

• We realized that on this scale the windmill is rather inefficient and would have to be on a very large scale to be useful

• Windmills are still a viable solution for generating electricity, however they must be installed in the proper environment and be much more efficient than ours