DESIGN AND TESTING OF LOW-SPEED WIND TURBINE BLADE

There is a need for clean, cheap, and efficient energy. One potential candidate for a source of this energy is a wind energy. In order to maximize the amount of energy captured, a new, low airspeed wind turbines must be designed. A wind turbine was created using the NACA 4412 foil shape and a decreasing chord length with increasing distance from the center of the turbine. The angle of attack was also varied. The airfoil was analyzed in CFD and tested via wind tunnel model. The turbine was connected to a motor which was connected to a resistor and current and voltage meters. Using the voltage and current data at a prescribed rate of rotation, the power generated was calculated. Despite the shortcomings of the model, decent power output was generated. Since the wind tunnel could only perform up to 5 ft/s (or 3.4 mph), this shows that the turbine is acceptable for low wind speeds. For practical use the turbine would need to be scaled to a greater size and a PID controller that can generate higher resistance would need to be employed.