Wind Turbine Blade Design

 

Blade design and engineering is one of the most complicated and important aspects of wind turbine technology.

 

Today engineers are trying to design blades that extract as much energy from the wind as possible throughout a range of wind speeds. Plus these blades need to be durable, quiet and cheap.

 

Helpful Links/Materials for this Lesson

Windpower.org : Blade Test
A great page from Windpower.org on how they do blades tests on commercial wind turbines. Windpower.org is a fantastic site for all sorts of wind energy information. This page http://www.windpower.org/en/tour/wtrb/lift.htm also has nice information about blade design.

AWEA : Projects
The American Wind Energy Association has a great deal of interesting information on wind energy. But this page will tell you if there are any wind turbine projects in your state.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory
At this website you can get tons of really neat wind energy pictures. Do a text search for wind turbines, blades, whatever and you will get lots of images to look at and download.

KidWind : Building Windmills
We have compiled a long list of ideas for building your own wind turbine. We have complete kits and even instructions on how to do it yourself and where to find other types of kits for sale.

LM Glasfiber
This is one of the largest wind turbine blade manufactures in the world. They have a great picture archive and neat info on the testing and development of the latest blade technology. Neat site to poke around on.

Reports, Files and PowerPoint Presentations

Blade Design Report - PDF File
This is a short report examining power output and blades design. The data and analysis was created by a few students at the Tufts University - Center for Engineering Education Outreach using Kidwind Basic and Geared PVC Turbines. This will help you understand how some of the basic variables like pitch, length and number affect power output.

How to Improve your Blades - PDF File
This is a two page tip sheet on how to improve the blade on your turbine. These tips will help you make more efficient blades and increase your power output. Read this if you are stumped.

Hugh Piggott's Wind Blade Design Science - PDF File
This is a semi technical document on blade design that is written by a master home builder of wind turbines. While this is a challenging read it is a must if you want to really understand wind turbine blades.

Power in the Wind - Walt Musial NREL Scientist - Power Point Presentation
This is a great presentation on the power found in the wind and how wind turbines and their blades are designed to extract as much energy as possible. Technical but written so the novice can understand...and it has lots of pictures.

 

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