Wind Turbine

Part 1

Recently in physics we made a wind turbine as a project.

In order to build this turbine, we had to have a basic understanding of the following physics concepts

- Newton's Laws-
          -Newton's first law- An object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by the outside         force. In the turbine, we had to reduce the friction in order to make the blades rotate more easily. If there was a high amount of friction, the fan blades would not rotate.

         -Newton's second Law- According to Newton's second law, acceleration is directly proportional to force and indirectly proportional to mass. If my group were to have out too many magnets on our axel, the blades couldnt have accelerated because of too much mass.

         -Newton's third law- As the fan blades are pushed by the wind, the blades push back with an equal for according to Newton's third law.

-Torque- In order for the blades to rotate, there must be torque. Without the rotation of the blades the magnets wouldnt move and there would be no electricity.

-Friction- Like I stated in my blurb about Newton's first law, there will be friction. In order to build    the turbine, one must know where they should increase friction and where they should decrease friction. For example, when building a turbine, you would want a lot of friction between the wind and the blades but not very much friction on the axel.

-Electromagnetic induction- Electromagnetic induction is the physics principle that the idea for the  turbine is based upon. When a magnet moves around a current carrying wire it changes the                 magnetic fields of the wire which induces a voltage. That voltage causes a current.

-Energy conversion- In a turbine, there is mechanical energy, the rotation of the blades, being turned   in to electric energy.

Part 2

Here is a view of our entire turbine from the side. Our base was made of PVC pipe.

Here is a picture of our coil placement. Our coils of wire were wrapped around a cardboard box and inside the box were the magnets which were being turned as the blades were turned.

Here is a picture of our magnets. They were located between the coils of wire. They were attached to the axel that was attached to the blades of the fan. As the blades turn, the magnets turn inside the wire coils. 

Here is a picture of our overall turbine and blades. The blades would have been better if they were angled to catch more wind. Our blades were made of a plastic bottle and they were attached to a wooden mount and the axel was a metal rod. 

Part 3

- Our turbine produced .002V and .002A. 

-We, sadly, were not able to light a lightbulb. We did not produce anywhere near enough current to light a light bulb.

Part 4

Things that effect the the voltage:

-The size of the magnet- We used really big magnets in our turbine. The large magnets have a larger magnetic field which would create a bigger voltage. However, the magnets were super heavy which weighs down the axel and makes it harder to rotate.

-The rotation of the magnets- The faster that the magnets rotate. If the magnets move faster, the more voltage is produced. However, since our magnets were so heavy they did not rotate quickly.

- Space between the coils and the magnets- If there is a large space between the magnets and the coils of wire, the less voltage will be produced. 

Here is a video of our turbine in action. However, it is likely that the video will not work. I'm working on fixing that and it will be up as soon as possible. 

If  I could redo this project, I would change the blades so that they catch more wind. I would also suggest that you dont use really heavy magnets.