Wind Turbine Design Challenge (Version 2)

This is the second edition of my Wind Turbine Design Challenge project. Students manipulate the properties of the provided Solidworks model to try to optimize the blade for a small scale wind turbine. The designs are then 3d printed and tested. Students then go back and make modifications to their design in order to improve their performance.

I drew the base design up in Solidworks and Label all of the interesting dimensions that Students should investigate. I introduce the project to the class and show them how to manipulate the Solidoworks application to change dimensions.

The students have 1 class period to explore and play with the model and see what happens when they change various dimensions. This gives them a basis for working in Solidworks, and an opportunity to see what difficulties can arise before they start working on the real project.

Students do research and decide what appropriate values for the different dimensions should be. They then create a model that