The DesignProcess

Early wind power

Wind Power has been used as long as humans have put sails into the wind. For more than two thousand years wind powered machines have ground grain and pumped water. Wind power was widely available and not confined to the banks of fast-flowing streams, or later, requiring sources of fuel. Wind-powered pumps drained the polders of the Netherlands. In arid regions such as the American mid-west or the Australian outback, water pumps provided water for live stock and steam engines

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_wind_power

source

With the development of electric power, wind power found new applications in lighting buildings remote from centrally-generated power. Throughout the 20th century parallel paths developed distributed small wind plants suitable for farms or residences, and larger utility-scale wind generators that could be connected to electricity grids for remote use of power. Today wind powered generators operate at every size between tiny plants for battery charging at isolated residences, up to multi-megawatt wind farms that provide electricity to national electrical networks.

Modern

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Sailboats have been using wind power for at least 5,500 years, and architects have used wind-driven ventilation in buildings since similarly ancient times. Although the use of wind to provide mechanical power came later.

http://fineartamerica.com/images-medium/old-wind-mill-skip-hunt.jpg

Producing Electricity

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Design Challenge Part 1.

Design and build a wind turbine that can be used to turn the biggest mass of plasticine. It should have a span of less than or equal to 10cm. The turbine will be driven by a standard sized hair dryer mounted 1-2m away

plastic tube or straw

BBQ stick spindle

cork hub

turbine blades (your design)

Blobs of Plasticine to act as a load

Model turbine side view

A simple Pin Wheel

http://www.janbrett.com/piggybacks/piggybacks_the_hat_pinact.htm

Year 7 Sustainable Energy Wind Power

How to make a pinwheel:1. Print the pinwheel pattern. Be sure to cut the construction paper to 81/2 in. by 11 in. If you are working at home, print the pinwheel pattern. Cut the solid lines. Lay it on top of the construction paper lightly paste the corners down.2. Cut-out the pinwheel on the solid lines only.3. Decorate both sides of the construction paper pinwheel.4. Cut the dotted lines from the four corners to the centre circle. Try not to cut into the centre circle.5. Use the sharpened pencil to poke a hole through the four tiny dark circles. The pencil point also works well to poke a hole into the straw. Carefully push the pencil point through the straw about 1/2 inch from the top.6. Make the tiny holes on the four points meet at the centre circle.7. Push the ends of the paper fastener through the holes on the pinwheel. then push the fastener through the centre circle.8. Place the straw on the back side of your pinwheel and push the ends of the fastener through the hole in the straw. Open-up the fastener by flattening the ends in opposite directions.

The Outline

Help to improve the design?

The DesignProcess

Design and build a wind turbine that can be used to turn the biggest mass of plasticine. It should have a span of less than or equal to 10cm. The turbine will be driven by a standard sized hair dryer mounted 1-2m away

Please use the green circle to highlight various stages.

Brainstorm

Research

Design

BuildTest

Improve

The Design Process is a sequence which follows the colours of the rainbow. It is also a cyclic process. Improvements never end!