I worked with Lauren Hummel and Weihao Huang to design and build a lightweight Lenz wind turbine capable of generating up to four watts of power. In addition to the turbine itself, the project also required us to design gears to transmit power from the turbine to a motor, and find an optimal external resistance for the motor.
To determine the parameters of the smallest turbine that would meet the power requirement, we generated a mathematical model using aerodynamic calculations and small-scale wind tunnel tests. Based on our small-scale analysis, we fabricated a large scale version of our model turbine from birch dowels, laser cut MDF pieces, and plastic sheeting.