Small Scale Wind Turbine
Background
Maintaining lines of communication is vital in emergency situations. One major concern for those living in rural areas is being cut off from the electrical grid during natural disasters. The small-scale wind turbine project aims to design a scaled down wind turbine sized for a single household's personal use, in case of an emergency.
Inspiration
Renewable energy has become increasingly popular as global warming becomes more and more of a concern in our everyday lives. Many are looking for cleaner alternatives, whenever the opportunity arises. We wanted to take on the challenge of designing an effective and efficient alternative to a back up generator that uses fossil fuel. With enough research and dedication, we believe we can build a cleaner, more reliable source of power for emergency situations.
Goal and Objectives
The specific turbine selected for this design project is a H-Darrieus vertical axis wind turbine. This specific design was selected for its ability to be adequately scaled down and sized for use on a residential property. Since this wind turbine is designed to be easily assembled for a single household's use, it is important to minimize the size and weight, while being able to produce an adequate amount of power to charge household devices needed in emergency situations, such as radios, lightbulbs and cellphones.This project encompasses the designing, optimization and a fully developed manufacturing plan for the assembly of the wind turbine, as well as each of its constituent components.
- Week 1: Project selection
- Week 2: Establish organizational chart and background
- Week 3: Quantify mission statement and create preliminary designs
- Week 4: Preliminary design and optimization
- Week 5: Midterm presentation
- Week 6: Detailing the design by building the 3D model (Solidworks) and electrical model.
- Week 7: Planning the manufacturing phase.
- Week 8: Design review
- Week 9: Final presentation
Team Contact(s)
Elaine Wong (elainemw@uci.edu)
Adam Zorko (zorkoa@uci.edu)
Tom Lee (eonhol@uci.edu)
Shuhao Zhang (shuhaoz2@uci.edu)
Shiming Xu (shiminx1@uci.edu)
Sponsor/Advisor
Moatasem Fouda (mafouda@uci.edu)
