Miniature Wind Turbine

The purpose of our project was to design and fabricate a miniature, horizontal axis, single pitch wind turbine that takes measurements of power, thrust, and RPM for use in the University of the Pacific wind tunnel. This project will be used as a teaching aid by the university and as such needed to be easy and safe to use. Safety was maintained by having significant factor of safety for the device and by adding a means of limiting the max speed of the wind tunnel. The turbine was designed to attach to a mounting used for other projects, so installing or removing it would require little effort. The mounting also allows the turbine to be fixed facing different angles, so the effects of wind direction can be measured. The wind turbine has interchangeable hubs which have differing numbers of blades. A generator is used to output power and a strobe tachometer is used to measure revolutions per minute of the device. The generator and a strain gauge are connected to a circuit board which reads out the values for power and thrust while recording them to a computer