VERTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINE

With climate change and fossil fuel dependence reaching a critical point, renewable energy resources are becoming paramount in today’s world. Conventional, Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWT's) are less effective in gusty environments, meaning much of the wind energy in places like Salt Lake City is not easily captured. For my Senior Design Capstone Project, we successfully developed and tested a small Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) to explore the efficiency and viability of capturing wind energy in gusty environments. We constructed the turbine assembly from prepreg composites and applied composite theory and finite element analysis to ensure structural integrity under expected operating conditions. One of my responsibilities involved developing a complex internal bladder molding technique to manufacture the hollow composite blades.