Design Methodology Windmill Project

This project was completed as part of a design class I took in junior year. Our prompt was to propose a possible application for a windmill, and design a product that would fit that application. The class was my first exposure to designing with a team of mechanical engineers using CAD and properly dimensioned drawings.

We went through a structured design process including brainstorming sessions, Pugh charts, scheduling, report submission, and prototyping. In a normal situation, we would have built and tested the windmill but COVID-19 struck halfway through the semester leaving us with only a prototype of the coupler. However, the full project would have generated enough energy to power a weather station. This would have allowed for data collection in an environment where regular access is not possible.

We used a gearbox and calculated average wind speeds in our expected environment to choose a sensor with appropriate power collection. Below is a drawing of the full windmill and various smaller components such as the gearbox, stand, blade base and coupler. In addition, thereare a few blade designs we prototyped to be used with Knex pieces.