DIY Wind Turbine

I. Introduction
Have you ever felt a really strong wind ? How does it feel? Have you ever felt blown around by
the wind? Wind can do work for us by moving things around. Sometimes we do not want the
wind to move things, like when it blows our papers around and we have to pick them up. But
sometimes we want the wind to move things around for us . For examples, when the wind
moves the blades of the wind turbine (a machine that converts the moving energy of wind
energy of wind into mechanical energy and electrical energy, the turbine produces some useful
energy (in the form of electricity).

Abtract

Alternative energy sources are a big deal these days. One such source is the wind . This study
presents a DIY wind turbine project designed to educate students about renewable energy
technologies. The project involves constructing a simple wind turbine using readily available
materials, measuring its efficiency, and analyzing the factors affecting its performance. The
findings demonstrate the feasibility of small-scale wind turbines in generating electricity and
highlight the importance of renewable energy sources in addressing environmental challenges.

Background of the Study

The increasing reliance on fossil fuels has led to significant environmental issues, including air
pollution and climate change. Wind energy offers a clean alternative that can be harnessed
without depleting natural resources. Understanding how wind turbines work is essential for
promoting renewable energy solutions. This study explores the basic principles of aerodynamics,
electrical generation, and mechanical engineering involved in designing a functional wind
turbine.

Statement of the Problem

This study aims to answer the following questions:

 How does a wind turbine make energy from wind?

 Why does a wind turbine need to have a good aerodynamic design
 Why is a demonstration of work ( hauling weight) the same thing as generating electricity?

Hypothesis
Its is hypothesized that a good and sturdy wind turbine can capture greater amount of wind and
could generate more electricity. Monitoring the turbine’s power output over time provides
insights into its performance relative to its design capacity> Capacity factor measures the actual
energy produced compared to maximum potential output. Availability assesses the percentage
of time the turbine is operational.

Significance of the Study

This study is Significant to the following:

1. Students- A wind turbine school project is significant beacause it provides students with
a hands-on learning experience about renewable energy, specifically wind power,
allowing them to understand how wind turbines generate electricity, promoting
environmental awareness, and potentially even contributing to the school energy needs
while fostering critical thinking and SIP skill through design and construction processes;
essentially bridging classroom learning with real world applicatios of sustainable
technology.
 2. Engineers- To be able to design and contruct turbines to work in severe weather
conditions as well as typical windy days. Sometimes the force of the wind can be steady
and sometimes it can cause a powerful repetitive force on the wind turbine, similar to
flag flapping in the wind.
3. Farmers- Wind turbines are significant to farmers primarily because they can provide a
consistent source of income through land lease payments, allowing farmers to
supplement their income during years when crop prices are low, while still being able to
use most of their land for farming operations; additionally, some research suggests wind
turbines may even slightly benefit crop growth by increasing air circulation around the
fields
4. Government- Wind turbines are significant to the environment because they are a
clean, renewable, and cost-effective energy source that can help the government
reduce its carbon footprint and combat climate change. They could come up with aplan
and budget to develop more wind turbines.

II. Materials And Method

1L water bottle 500 ml water bottle scissors Marbles ( about 50)

Paper cut into 8 cm x 10 cm ruler tape straw marker

Thread or string small washer glue needle nose pliers

Large paper clips ( about 20) mini fan

 Method:
Building the Wind Turbine Assembly

1. Make sure that both water bottles are dry. Familiarize yourself with the names of each part of
the turbine because those terms will be used in this procedure.
2. The 1-L water bottle will be the wind turbine's tower and foundation. Cut off the neck of the
bottle. Then cut a sort of holder out of the top so that it can hold the smaller water bottle when
it is laid horizontally by cutting off two "sides" and leaving two "sides." See Figure 1, below, for
an example of how to cut the bottle—leaving two side panels is not the only way to hold the
other bottle. Can you come up with another way?

This is the water bottle tower, cut to hold the smaller water bottle, the nacelle, horizontally. The
marbles are used as weight to hold the bottle in place.

3. Now that you've cut the top off of the 1-L bottle, fill it with your marbles. This makes the tower
very heavy on the bottom so that the fan doesn't blow it over later when you test the rotors.
Also, this way the bottle is both the tower and the foundation because it holds the rest of the
turbine up, and it stays firmly on the ground.
4. Now for the nacelle, which will be made from the short water bottle. First, set the cap aside.
Then you need to drill two holes in this bottle, so have an adult help you. You need one hole in
the middle of the cap and one hole in the middle of the bottom, and both need to be big enough
so that a straw can fit through them and be able to move around easily. Use a ¼-inch drill bit.
Later, you'll be fitting straws through both holes, and they will need to be able to spin easily in
the holes.
5. After drilling the holes, set the nacelle in the tower—see Figure 2. Note: The cap is off in the
picture, but you will need the cap later.
 The nacelle is mounted horizontally on the tower.

Building the Rotor Assembly

In this experiment, you will test different types of rotors on the turbine. You will have two rotors for
each design instead of three, like on a real turbine, since the latter is far more difficult to make. You will,
of course, want to create some basic designs, such as flat rotors, both rotors curved in the same
direction, each rotor curved in opposite directions, etc. Try to come up with some other ideas as well,
such as rotors cut into a rounded, serrated, or triangular style. See Figure 3 for examples of different
rotors designs.

Three different rotor designs.

1. Your rotors should all be made from identically sized pieces of paper. This way, you will be able
to control the differences between each rotor design and know which differences make the
rotor spin the most. A recommended size is 8 cm x 10 cm. For each design, you will need two of
those sized pieces of paper. Cut out as many pairs of paper as you have designs to test; for
example, if you have eight designs, cut out eight pairs of paper (16 squares total).
2. You need to make the rotors look like wings. To make one, gently bend the paper so that you
can tape the two 10-cm edges together without creasing the paper. You will have a small wing
that looks like a teardrop from the side. Do this for all of your cut pieces of paper, and make
sure to organize the rotors in pairs.
3. If you have rotor designs that are supposed to be cut (such as the top design in Figure 3), cut
them before taping the ends together, then tape them when you have the right shape. If you
taped them before you cut them, then you'd be cutting off the taped edges.
4. Now you will build the axle, which will be made of straws and will spin when the wind is caught
in the rotor wings. You will need a doubly long straw, so you'll put the ends of two straws
together. This is done by pinching the end of one of the straws and then pushing the pinched
end into an end of the other straw. When you do this, the first straw will open back up inside
the second straw and be stuck inside. Make sure that the double-straw is long enough to go all
the way through the nacelle, and that it won't easily come apart.
5. Measure 10 cm in from each end of the double-straw and make a mark there with your
permanent marker. You should only have two marks. These marks show where the rotor wings
will go on the double-straw.
6. Carefully put a line of glue on one end of the double-straw, between the end and one of the 10-
cm marks you made. This glue will keep the rotor wing on the straw. Carefully run this straw end
through one of the rotor wings and make sure that it touches the glue. Hold the rotor wing on
the straw and let it dry for a few minutes.
7. When the first rotor wing is dry, repeat step 5 for the other end of the double-straw. Make sure
that the second rotor wing's taped endpoints are facing the same direction as the taped end of
the first rotor wing. See Figure 3—even though the rotor wings are folded, they are all still
pointing in the same direction.
8. Now you will attach another straw to the rotor assembly. This is the straw that is pointing down
on all of the rotors in Figure 3, and it will serve as part of the axle, which hauls the weight up
when the wind is blowing. This straw is attached using tape and a paper clip.
a. Carefully using the needle-nose pliers (with adult help), unbend one of the paper clips
and then re-bend it into a "T" shape. See Figure 4, below. Make sure that the bottom of
the "T" is thin enough to fit into a straw.
b. Now, tape this "T" paper clip to the middle of the double-straw with the rotor wings on
it. Make sure that the arms of the "T" are taped to the double-straw, and that the
bottom of the "T" points down, in the exact same direction as the taped ends of the
rotor wings.
c.
d. Now fit a straw onto the bottom of the "T" paper clip and then tape the straw to the
double-straw. Make sure that all of the taped parts of this rotor assembly are strong—
don't put too much tape, but be sure to use enough that the parts are secure. Your rotor
assembly should now look like the ones in Figure 3.

The bottom of the T-shape will be inserted into the double-straw axle, and the top of the T-
shape will be taped to the rotor.

9. Repeat steps 1-8 for each pair of rotors you have. It might seem like a lot of work at first, but it
goes smoothly and quickly after you have done it a few times.
10. Finally, the rotor assemblies need to be bent for testing. Right now they shouldn't look very
different (except for those you have cut into different shapes). To make the rotor function
 properly, you need to bend the rotor wings in opposite directions. This is done by wrapping one
rotor wing clockwise and the other rotor wing counterclockwise around the straw. Be careful
here—make sure that you are looking straight down the straw when deciding which way is
clockwise or counterclockwise. You have to imagine a clock face on each end of the straw in
order to bend the rotor wings in the proper directions. As you wrap each rotor wing around the
straw, hold it there for a minute, then release it. It will unfold, but it will be bent into a curve. Be
careful when bending! Do not wrap the rotor wings around their straws so hard that you tear
them off of their glue!
11. Make sure that you have a different design for each rotor assembly—in other words, make sure
that no two rotor assemblies are exactly the same. For example, in Figure 3, all three wings are
bent in the same way but the designs are different—one has normally sized rotor wings, one has
larger rotor wings, and one has cut rotor wings. If you wish to have larger rotor wings, see the
Variations section below these instructions.

Building the Axle and Completing the Nacelle

In order to demonstrate the efficiency of your rotor designs, the turbine needs an axle, which will spin
with the rotor assembly and haul a weight up the tower. You already have half of the axle built—the
bottom of the "T" of each rotor assembly. Each assembly will be inserted into the nacelle through the
hole in the bottle cap, and will connect to another straw, which is inserted into the nacelle through the
hole in the other side.

1. To make the other half of the axle, bend the outer loop of the paper clip so that it looks like the
paper clip in Figure 5. Make a small cut close to the end of the straw so that you can insert the
paper clip—the cut must be a small slit, no larger. Insert the extended end of the paper clip and
then tape it to the straw so that it is well-attached and won't move easily. You need to have the
extra stability that the slit provides because you will be hanging weights from it, and tape by
itself is not strong enough to keep the clip attached to the axle.

The hauling assembly of the wind turbine.

2. Next, cut a length of string about equal to the height of the tower and tie it to the paper clip
using a double knot, as shown in Figure 5. Take the washer and double-knot it to the other end
 of the string. You've finished the back half of the axle—this will be used in every test, while the
rotor assemblies will be changed to test each design.
3. You will now connect the axle, which completes building the wind turbine.
a. Take the straw to which you just taped the paper clip, and pinch the other end of it, like
you did in step 4 of Building the Rotor Assembly. Hold it closed for a minute or so to
make it bend this way and not open too quickly.
b. Next, insert this end into the hole in the bottom of the small water bottle (nacelle). At
the same time, insert the "T" end of one of your rotor assemblies into the bottle cap
hole at the front of the nacelle. Now, carefully insert the straw at the bottom of the
nacelle into the rotor straw, just like with the straws from step 4 of Building the Rotor
Assembly. This step might be tricky because you're trying to connect them inside the
nacelle. Keep trying until you get it right. If you need to, take the straw from the bottom
of the water bottle out and flatten its end some more to make it fit into the rotor straw.
c. Note: You will be disconnecting the rotor assembly and reconnecting with your other
rotor assemblies as you test each design, so make sure you know how to connect the
two straws inside the nacelle!

4. You have now built the entire wind turbine. It should look like the example in Figure 6, below.
There are a few things to double-check:
a. Make sure that you can easily spin the axle (the two straws connected inside the
nacelle). Do this by twirling the rotor gently with your finger. If the axle does not turn
well, then you may need to take the straws out and have an adult widen the drilled
holes in both ends of the nacelle.
b. Also, make sure that the washer hangs from the nacelle and does not rest on the
ground. If it does, you can place the entire turbine on top of a book in order to make it
taller.
c. Make sure that the washer isn't so heavy that it pulls too much on the paper clip, or
pulls the axle apart within the nacelle.

The fully assembled wind turbine model.

Testing the Rotor Designs

1. Clear a space on a table or counter. Make sure that there is nothing around that can be blown
away by the small fan. Set up the fan so that it is directly facing the wind turbine. Pretend it is
the wind, and make sure that the wind blows directly into the rotor. If the turbine is not tall
enough, set it on top of a few short books until the fan can blow straight into it.
 2. When you have the fan and the turbine set up, turn the fan on to its lowest speed. If the rotor
assembly begins turning, it works! If not, you might need more wind speed. Try each of the
speeds on the fan until you find one that works. If the turbine still does not work, try to
reposition the fan to make sure it's blowing directly on the rotor. Also, check all the parts on the
turbine—does the axle spin easily in the nacelle? Is the washer too heavy?
3. When you've figured out the best speed for the fan and you've got it set at the appropriate
height to blow directly into the rotor, write down all the setting details in your lab notebook and
use the same settings for each trial.
4. Your goal for each test is to determine how much weight each rotor design can haul all the way
up the tower. For each design, start out with only one washer. See Figure 7 to see a hauled
washer—the string should wrap around the paper clip and bring the washer up to the axle. Next,
tie the second washer onto the string and see if the rotor can haul that. If so, tie the third
washer, and so on, if you need more washers.
5. When your turbine cannot haul any more washers, you should continue your trials with paper
clips instead. Take off only the last washer you added (which made it too heavy) and keep the
other washers tied to the string. Then, add paper clips, five at a time, to the string, and test
again. Keep adding paper clips until the turbine cannot haul any more weight. Record the
maximum number of washers and paper clips your turbine can haul.
6. Repeat steps 4-5 two more times—make sure you keep adding weight until you max out the
turbine! For each rotor design, you will need three trials of the maximum amount to prove that
it is really the maximum at the given wind speed. Test this each time by adding more paper clips
and making sure that it cannot haul them. When you are convinced that the rotor design has
performed the same way for the three maximum-weight tests, record the average maximum
weight in your lab notebook.

When the rotor spins, it turns the paper clip and winds up the string, which hauls the washer to
the top of the tower.

7. You will now test a new rotor design. Take the rotor assembly out of the nacelle and insert a
new one, carefully making sure that you insert the axle-straw into the rotor-straw. Repeat steps
4-6 to find the maximum amount of washers and paper clips this second rotor design can haul,
and then test the maximum amount two more times to make sure, finally, calculating the
average. Repeat these tests with all of your rotor designs.
8. Which design hauled the greatest amount of paper clips and washers? If you have a tie, test
each by adding paper clips one at a time instead of five at a time. Which design is the best
design for a real wind turbine? Why do you think it is the best?

III. Result and Discussion

Using Different rotors in a wind turbine Project can significantly impact the amout of electricity
generated, with larger rotors generally producing more power due to their ability to capture
more wind over a wider swept area, while factors like blade design and number of blades can
also affect efficiency depending on wind conditions and desired power output.
 Key points about different rotors in wind turbines:

Rotor Size:

 Larger rotor diameter: Captures more wind, generates more power, particularly
beneficial in low wind areas.
 Small rotor diameter: May be more suitable for smaller scale applications or locations
with high wind speeds.

Blade Design

 Blade airfoil shape: Optimizing the airfoil profile can improve lift and efficiency.
 Blade pitch control: Allows adjustment of blade angle to maximize power capture in
varying wind speeds.

Number of blades:

 Three blades: Most common design, offering a balance between power capture and
structure stability.
 Two baldes: May be used in specific applications where low torque desired.
 More than three blades: Can potentially improve torque at lower wind speed but may
introduce additional complexity.

IV. Conclusion

In conclusion, larger rotor diameters allow wind turbines to sweep more area, capture more
wind, and produce more electricity. A turbine with longer blades will be able to capture more of
the available wind than shorter blades--- even in areas with relatively less wind. People in the
field of engineering and constructing wind turbines may apply this experiment to produce
quality outputs and be a greater help to the people and to the environment.

V. Recommendations

Further studies and analysis are needed to construct wind turbines and create energy that could
help the community and make the environment less polluted.
 Group 4
Science
DIY WIND TURBINE

Jamela Mae Porqueza

Cris Asher Jorque
Mateo Ismael Yusay
Jhon Ryan Mandal
Alexa Dionne Doronila
Luke Gabrielle Rodriguez
Johannes Bensuelo
Mary Jazzy Benedicto

Ma’am Alumbro
( Science Teacher)