Electricity Windmill Blade Angles Science Fair Projects

The abstract, electricity windmill balde angels science fair projects begins here...

PROCEDURES

1. Build a windmill out of an erector set, and place it on a piece of wood. The piece of wood acts as the base of the windmill. Attach a motor (1.5 volts) to the erector set with a pulley system connecting the windmill to the motor. The output leads from the motor are hooked to a amp meter to measure the milliamps.
2. Cut out 24 blades from mat board in each of these shapes/sizes: trapezoid, triangle, rectangle, and a square at 24.5cm2, 49cm2, and 98cm2 (eight of each).
3. Place the fan exactly 1 meter from the blades of the windmill.
4. Place eight trapezoid blades each with an area of 98cm2 on windmill hub.
5. Set the angle of the blades on the windmill hub to 75 degrees with 0 degrees being perpendicular to the fan blades.
6. Turn the voltmeter to DC milliamps.
7. Turn the fan on high.
8. Read the voltmeter and record the amount of electricity produced in milliamps.
9. Repeat steps 4-8 using eight of the trapezoid blades each with an area of 12.25cm2 and 49cm2.
10. Repeat steps 4-8 using eight each of the triangle, rectangular, or square blades at 12.25cm2, 49cm2, and at 98cm2.
11. Repeat steps 4-10 setting the angle of the blades on the windmill hub to 45 degrees and 60 degrees.
12. Enter recorded data into a spreadsheet and create graphs.

RESULTS

The purpose of this experiment was to determine which blade sizes, shapes, and angles on a windmill were most efficient at producing an electrical current from a generator.

The results of this experiment were that the all blades with an area of 98cm2 produced the maximum current of electricity at a blade angle of 75 degrees with zero degrees being perpendicular with the fan blades. Of all the blades at 75 degrees and with an area of 98cm2, the trapezoid blade was more efficient at producing an electrical current than the triangular, rectangular, and square blades. As the angle of all the blades declined from 75 degrees to 60 degrees and then to 45 degrees, the production of electricity declined. At the 60 degree angle, the triangular blades with a surface area of 98cm2 produced a greater amount of electricity than the other three blade shapes. However, at the 45 degree angle the square blades with a surface are of 98cm2 produced the most electricity than the other three blade shapes.

Every blade shape with an area of 12.25cm2 did not produce any electricity at any blade angle, because the surface area was not large enough to spin the generator. All the blade shapes with an area of 49cm2 created electricity at all angles except for the trapezoid blades at 75 degrees. It appears that the 49cm2 trapezoid blades did not turn the windmill due to surface area not being big enough. However, at 98cm2 surface area, trapezoid blades produced more electricity than the square, rectangular, or triangular shapes.

CONCLUSION

My hypothesis was that a trapezoid shaped blade at 75 degrees with the largest surface area would generate the greatest amount of electricity compared to the square, triangle, or rectangular shapes. My hypothesis should be accepted because the greatest amount of electricity was produced with the trapezoid blades with an area of 98cm2 at 75 degrees.

My experiment demonstrated, that even though my hypothesis was correct, the other blade angles at blade surface areas greater than 98cm2 may actually be better shapes for a windmill than the trapezoid shape. This would have to be something proven in doing more experimenting with windmills. The windmill that was used in this experiment was not large enough to handle blade areas greater than 98cm2.

With the knowledge I gained from this experiment and if I were to conduct this project again, I would construct a windmill with a larger wind radius so that I could test greater surface area blades. I would also do multiple tests and I would also verify the wind speed. 3rd party contributor

EDU 2018 Electricity Science Kit	OWI-9762 WAO Kranius Robot	OWI-007 Robotic Arm Kit
Ages 8 and up	Ages 10 and up	Ages 10 and up