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HAWT Blades

Challenge

Design a set of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine blades, with varying blade number and design Reynolds number. Hence, for this project I designed and built a two bladed Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine with a tip Reynolds number of 50,000. A NACA 4412 airfoil was chosen as the profile to design around, and optimum rotor theory was used to find the chord and twist distribution. 

Result

A blade length of approximately 11” was chosen to both fit the constraints of the 3D printer and also allow assembly to an existing Kosmos turbine hub. Before 3D printing, the CAD model was structurally analyzed to ensure the model would not fracture during testing. Water soluble support material was used to assist in printing. Lastly, experiments were conducted in order to compare theory vs reality. 

Project Report

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