Fanboys

Howcanwe,asscientists,findsolutionstoenvironmental
issues?

Period5Physics

Ms.Larson

September26,2014

AlexUribe

DanielRoque,AysiaJohnson,MyaGamble

Abstract

Thepurposeofthisexperimentwastoinvestigatetheenvironmentandhowefficientdevices
producebetterenergy.Ourresearchquestionwas"Whathappenstothepoweroutputofwind
turbinewhenthebladeshapechanges?".Ourspecificchangewasthatofacurvedblade.We
hypothesizedthatacurvedbladewouldbemoreefficientforawindturbine.Weusedbalsa
woodtocreatethebladesandusedapremadeturbinetotestthem.Accordingtoourdatathe
curvedbladesgeneratedthemostpowerat15.802watts,whilethepointedandpetalblades
produced12.797and14.123watts,respectively.Ifeelthatwecouldhavedoneamorethorough
jobifweusedforgenericbladedesignstocomparetoourexperimentalcurveddesign.Our
researchshowshowmuchmoreeffectiveourcurvedbladesarecomparedtothepetalor
pointeddesigns.
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Introduction

Ifweapplycurvedbladestothedesign,thenthepoweroutputoftheturbinewillincrease
basedonwindspeed.Theconstantsofthisexperimentarethewindturbine,windspeed,
andthenumberofblades.Weneedcontrolvariablesbecausethesetypesofvariables
keeptheexperimentmoreaccurateanduniformwhenweplanononlychangingone
aspectoftheexperiment.Thethingthatwearechangingortheindependentvariableisthe
shapeoftheblade.Thethingthatwearemeasuringorthedependentvariableofthe
experimentisthepoweroutputandefficiencyofthewindturbine.Thepurposeofthis
experimentistobetterunderstandhowtheEarthisdirectlylinkedtomanmadeenergyand
usage.

Materials

LabquestMinisoftware
Vernierenergysensor
3setsofbalsawoodblades
Windturbine
roomfan
12woodendowels
ducttape

Procedure

Thefirststepinourexperimentistodraw3designs(curved,petal,andpointed).Whenyou
finishthesedesignsyoumustcutthemouttoscaleingroupsof4,eitherbylasercutteror
anyothermeans.Afteryouhavethe3setsofbladesyoumustuseducttapetoapplyone
woodendoweltoeachblade.Nowthatthewoodendowelsareonthebladeyouneedto
attachonesetatatimetothewindturbinemechanism.Youcannowturnthefanonits
highestsettingandbegincollectingdataassoonastheyreachaconstantspeed.Eachset
ofbladeshasa30secondlongtrial.Oncebothcurrentandvoltagearecollectedyoufind
theproductofboththosevaluestoendupwithPower.Youmaytheninsertintoachartand
convertintoagraph.

RawDataTable

AVERAGE
VOLTAGE(V)
AVERAGE
CURRENT(A)
TIME(s)
BladeArrangement
Trial1 Trial2 Trial3

Trial1 Trial2 Trial3

Forall
trials
Design1(CurvedBlade)
2.454 2.410 2.500

6.462 6.361 6.490 30

Design2(PedalBlade)
2.454 1.839 2.197

5.071 6.155 6.520 30

Design3(PointedBlade)
2.392 1.925 2.328

6.525 6.264 6.339 30

DataProcessingTable

Power
(W)
Time(s) Energy(J)
BladeArrangement
AVERAGE
VOLTAGE(V)

AVERAGE
CURRENT(A)

Blade
Arrangement

Design1(CurvedBlades)
2.455

6.438

Design1
(CurvedBlades)
15.802 30 474.070
Design2(PetalBlades)
2.163

5.915

Design2(Petal
Blades)
12.797 30 383.905
Design3(PointedBlades)
2.215

6.376

Design3
(PointedBlades)
14.123 30 423.685

TocalculatePowerinWattsP=(2.455)(6.438)P=15.802Watts
TocalculateEnergyinJoulesE=(15.802)(30)P=474.070Joules

Graph

Analysis/Conclusion

Afteranalysis,ourhypothesisprovedtobecorrect.Ourdatashowedthecurvedblade
designproducedthemostpowerat15.802watts.Thepointedbladeswerethesecond
mostpowerfulat14.123wattsandthepetalbladesweretheleastpowerfulat12.797
watts.Inoursecondtrialbothourpointedandourpetalshapedbladesfeaturedoutlying
valuesbeingatleast.400voltslessthanthefirsttrial.Otherthantheseoutlyingvaluesmost
ofthetrialswereconsistentlyclosetogether,intermsofresults.Ourbiggestmistakewas
ourconsistencyofthebladesandwindspeed.Asthefanwasbeingheldbyapersonit
wobbledfrequently.Ibelievethattheinconsistencyofthefanpositioniswhatcausedthe
outlyingvaluesintrial2.Ifweweretodoitagainwewouldfocusonthatsameconsistency.
Ourresearchsuggeststootherturbineengineersthatcurvedbladesofferamoreefficient
designwhencomparedtootherdesignsfeaturedinthisexperiment.greatanalysis!

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