Windmill Generator Project Tyler Bowland Travis Childress Stephen Fly Andrew Hinson

Objectives Build from scratch a wind-powered generator Generate enough current to power a LED (approximately 1.5 V 25 mA) Spend less than $40 Create a report explaining construction and cataloguing the building process

Materials Fan Blade Magnet Electromagnetic Wire Blade Spindle Bearings & Balancing Hardware Supporting Base Plexi glass holding cage A pre-construction list Brainstormed to see what was reasonable Group Trips to ace & Lowe's for accurate pricing The plexi glass-

Why Does It Work? Placing magnets correctly oriented on a rotating shaft inside a coil of wire creates a usable electromagnetic field.

Calculations Magnetic Flux & Ohm’s Law Equations

Team R&D – Trial and Error Blade size and material type Magnet orientation Wire placement Support design Run times Correcting for low power output Preserving continuity across several wires Blade design – time constraints and lack of knowledge of airflow made us decide to use a prefab blade Orientation – this is why with multiple initial magnets we created no current (we solved this by placing a magnet to see if a oscillating field was being formed when the shaft spun) Wire placement – initially we canceled out the field and therefore the electric current we created by crossing the wire wraps in opposite directions (we broke the perpendicular rule) Support design – using scraps helped our cost stay low, and facilitated support for a much larger fan blade Run times – this is where we made sure our project was durable, adding lubricant for the shaft, and running the apparatus for extended periods of time even with no bulb attached Correcting power – adding more wire, and therefore increasing the surface area, and number of turn the rotating magnets were coming in contact with, boosted total electrical output Preserving continuity across several wire – stripping and sanding where we joined wires, then soldering them and covering with electrical tape preserved this. After every connection we made sure to use our supplied voltmeter to check for continuity

Output & Efficiency Testing methods Proximity of wire to magnets Wind speed required to generate power Average resistance of 1222 Ohms – when generating 4.4V and 36 mA Testing methods – used small fans out of lab to ensure a sustainable electrical output and proper mechanical functioning of the turbine assembly Proximity of wire to magnets – we used cardboard sleeves to place the wire at various distances to magnets and checked for voltage before finalizing our housing Average – not extremely efficient, given the small amount of power produced, the relative cost, and bulk of the materials

Conclusion Final power output maintained a maximum of 4.4 Volts and 36 mA This amount blew the bulb quickly Early trials and planning allowed for thorough testing and completion of objectives by the deadline Trials and planning – testing, testing, testing – continual voltage checks, and observations gave adequate time to create the project and fix problems