May 2021 - Present
WILDCAT WIND POWEr MECHANICAL DESIGN
As the mechanical team lead for Wildcat Wind Power, I am tasked with designing a small-scale wind turbine to be used in the yearly Collegiate Wind Competition sponsored by the DOE (Department of Energy) and NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory). The competition changes every year, but at its core, the competition revolves around the creation of a turbine that can produce and regulate power at varying wind speeds. This assembly was almost completely designed by me during the summer of '21 (excluding the blade design) and is still being tweaked by both me and other team members to continually try and improve our turbine's performance. Most of the parts in the assembly are designed to be 3D printed, which allows us the ability to rapidly prototype and change our designs with ease. In my role on the team, I deal with much of the 3D printing. I also teach younger members the correct techniques for print orientation, adjusting printer profiles, and designing to limit the amount of support structures needed to create parts.
Why is This Design Unique?
Because this year's competition involves very high windspeeds (up to 22 m/s), I was tasked with designing an "Active Pitch" system to help regulate RPM and prevent the turbine from self destruction. At its core, active pitch is the ability for a wind turbine to pitch its blades (altering the cross sectional area that comes in contact with the wind) while it is still spinning. By altering the cross sectional area, the resulting coefficient of lift and drag is changed and can be used to regulate RPMs at higher windspeeds (in general, reduction of cross sectional area also results in a reduction of RPM). This design features an active pitch mechanism that is designed to be "printed in place" on an SLA printer. This means that there are joints (pin and roller) with built in tolerances between the interior and exterior faces. When toleranced correctly, print in place mechanisms can allow for the creation of very precise designs that otherwise couldn't be created with any other manufacturing technique.