Excerpt

Here is an excerpt sent to my adviser via email early on:

"I've been working on assembling a working structure for
myself (turning my proposal into a schedule) as well as some preliminary
research. The design journal is a great idea and soon I will have one. For
now I've been recording information on the computer.

I've found several primary and secondary articles on subjects such as small wind
turbine blade efficiency and gearbox efficiency and recent technological
discoveries. It appears that there are multiple kinds of wind turbines, namely
vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) and horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT).
Each appear to have their own pros and cons depending on the situation, though
for any large scale power source a horizontal axis seems to be the way to go.

My interests in this subject, however, are mainly stemmed from the desire for
sustainable living which may not require a large amount of electrical power in
which case a vertical axis wind turbine may prove to be more suited to the
situation.

Most of the articles on blades are referring to the horizontal axis wind
turbines but further searching may uncover some studies on the blades for
vertical axis turbines. In this case, however, I have procured a sketch for a
vertical axis wind turbine with an easily modified "blade" so as to test the
efficiencies for different blade settings. This could, if built correctly,
turn into an ongoing study paralleling my other research.

Despite the talk about the vertical axis turbine I have not given up on the
horizontal alternative. It is far more efficient, but tends to spin at far
greater velocities as a result. It is also more prone to make unnecessary
noise and to become damaged from poor quality construction. The keywords are
"far more efficient." The reason they are more efficient is because none of
the parts are turning into the wind thus making the rotor able to turn at
speeds greater than the wind speed."