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Project 1: Summary and Objectives

The main objective of this project was to research and design a wind turbine blade for a specific design scenario. My group and I were assigned a scenario where we had to design a sustainable wind turbine blade for a wind turbine farm in Sweden. 

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The main objects of blade design in our scenario were:

1) Sustainability 

2) Durability 

3) Efficiency

[1]

Skills Gained

In this project we worked as a team to plan, research and finally design a wind turbine blade. Our design scenario was focused on helping Sweden with reducing net green house gas emissions to zero by 2045. As a coordinator of the group, I maintained a logbook of meeting and lead my group in getting the project milestones completed. First, As a team we created an objective tree to organize the objectives and constrains of the project. After this me and my group members individually performed material selection using various MPI's on ANSYS-Granta. We chose low alloy steel as our final material after using a weighted decision matrix. I did further research ( added in the final report) on the material and justified why it is a good fit for our scenario. To determine the thickness of the blade,  we created a cad model of a turbine blade and performed deflection simulations to determine the optimal thickness of the blade.  I also helped my team come up with a final design of the wind turbine blade, which was similar to a existing design known as "Wind Lens" turbine as seen in our sketch.

Team and Individual Contributions

Reflection 

This project was a wonderful journey of learning. I was able to apply my skills as well as learn new technical skills. I enjoyed learning how to create the wind turbine blade using CAD. This project also helped me gain a lot of knowledge about wind turbines how they operate and what goes behind designing one. It's quite interesting how much difference a simple change in design can make in the efficiency and durability of the turbine. I also learned how important material selection is and how choosing one material over the other can affect the turbine's performance. I was also able to learn the material selection process which is essential before starting the design process.  These fundamental skills will be a great asset for me in the future as an engineer.

[2]

References

[1] Michela Tindera and Jimmy Jenkins/Indiana University, “Tilting at windmills: A closer look at Indiana’s expanding wind power industry,” Investigative Journalism Education Consortium, https://ijec.org/2013/07/24/tilting-at-windmills-a-closer-look-at-indianas-expanding-wind-power-industry/ (accessed Jan. 8, 2024).

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[2] “Website design: Design a website that sets you apart,” Wix.com, https://www.wix.com/website/design (accessed Jan. 8, 2024). 

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