Wind Turbine Design

Project Overview

This project focused on the development of a passive pitching mechanism for a wind turbine capable of delivering a steady 5kW power output. Conducted as part of a BEng in Mechanical Engineering at City, University of London, the goal was to create a self-regulating system that could adjust blade pitch in response to changing wind speeds passively. While the aerodynamic blade design was handled by the rest of the team, my primary contribution was the design of the passive pitch mechanism. The final product was made to be 3D printable in adddition to some standard components.

Technical Skills

The major focus of this project was the detailed CAD design of the passive pitch mechanism using SolidWorks. The model was developed with 3D printability in mind, ensuring all components could be fabricated with standard tolerances and assembled with minimal post-processing.

Challenges Encountered

One of the primary challenges was designing the pitch mechanism without the opportunity to physically build and test it, since only the blade was meant for wind tunnel testing. Designing for 3D printability added further constraints, particularly in ensuring that small mechanical components could be printed with sufficient strength and precision. Despite these limitations, the design could work, theoretically...