Nov 1st 2009 Update:

Four teams participated in the competition, with great success.  The winner will be announced this Wednesday at 7pm in RCH301.  Hopefully at some point soon we will be able to post some pictures and video from the event.


Background:

IEEE has approached STEP and asked us to put together an Engineering design competition for the next batch of frosh.  They will provide us with some funding as well as help to advertise the event, so this is a great chance to do something on a larger and therefore awesomer scale.

The competition will start near the end of Frosh week, at which time we'll hold a presentation to introduce the event and sign up the teams.  Each team will then have 2-3 weeks to design and build their entry before testing is held.

We're still in the earlier planning stages, but here's what we're thinking:

Wind Turbine Design Competition

Each team, consisting of 3-5 students (from a variety of disciplines, ideally) will design and build a small scale wind turbine.  Each team will have access to the same building materials (which we will provide), as well as a common base structure and motor/generator which we will provide.  Testing will be performed at the wind tunnel in the E3 fluids lab.  The design will consist of and be graded on three sections:

• Turbine blades (mechanical)
  
• materials:
• PVC pipe (can make good blades if cut correctly)
• light wood ... balsa?
• maximum diameter ?  (depends on size of wind tunnel)
• this section will be graded based on its total power output during multiple tests (at various wind speeds)
  

• Tower (structural)
• materials
• wooden dowel (diameter?)
• wood glue / wood screws
• string?
• required height? (depends on high and size of wind tunnel)
• the structure will be graded based on:
• ability to support the turbine during testing
• if the tower fails, we will provide a backup so that the other sections can be tested
• its performance in a maximum bearing load destructive test (maybe optional, if teams want to keep their tower?)
  

• Electrical load controller (electrical)
• performance is tested using a common load (resistor or water heating element?) 
• we will monitor the voltage and current with a data logger and determine total power produced
  
• we will size the load so that when connected, the electric motor will demand enough torque so that the turbines can't easily start from a standstill
• teams will be required to construct a simple voltage-based on/off control circuit (we will walk them through this)
• how to grade?  maybe no grade, just treat as a learning / lab component?
  

• Teams will be required to submit a brief report explaining and justifying their design decisions.
• the report will also be graded

Section	Material Description	Estimated Cost ($)	Where to buy?
Turbine Blades	PVC pipe (diameter? thickness?)	10.00 per group	Home Depot
	light wood (size? type?)	10.00 per group	Home Depot / Hobby shop (balsa)
	glue?	5.00 per group	Home Depot
Structural Base (shared)	plywood sheet (?)	5.00 once	Home Depot
	bolts & (wing?) nuts	10.00 once	Home Depot
Structural members	wooden dowel (?)	15.00 per group	Home Depot / Hobby shop
	wood glue, string, etc.	7.00 per group	Home Depot
Electric Motor/Generator (shared if big/expensive, else one per group)	Likely a small DC motor, possibly a stepper motor that outputs AC?	30 per group	Allelectronics.com?
	Motor support (if shared)  ?
Electrical Load Controller	Op amp, zener diode, resistors, potentiometer, LEDs, relay driver transistor, relay, battery	30 per group	EE Stores, Digi-key
Electrical load	small power resistor(s)	5 per group	?
Wire	connection from turbine to controller and controller to load	3 per group	?
Monitoring System	National Instruments USB-6008 Student Data Acquisition Kit, Accessories, and software	$225 once	National Instruments, Perhaps IEEE can solicit donation

Over the summer, we would like to build our own entry to the competition in order to test everything out and tweak the rules.  Volunteers are needed for this!  We could also use someone to take this on as a leader, as a few of us will not be around when it takes place.