AJ Avery

Brittany Hubbard
Kelly Krieger
Design of a Windmill
November 9, 2016
What factors impact the speed of a windmill blade system?
- Radius
-Thickness of fan blade
- Number of fan blades
Experimental Design Template 1:
Research Question:
Dependent Variable:
Independent Variable:
Control Variable:
Testable Hypothesis:
Prediction:
Claim:

What factors impact the speed of a windmill blade system?

Speed of windmill blade
Radius
Thickness of blade, shape of blade, angle of blade (measured with a ruler
for consistency the actual angle was unknown)
As the radius of the windmill blade decreases the angular velocity will be
affected
As the radius decreases, the speed will increase
The angular velocity of the blade increases as the radius length decreases,
our radius of 5.5 cm revealed the fastest angular velocity at an average of
24.316 rad/s as shown in Data Table 2.

Experimental Design Template 2:

Research Question:
Dependent Variable:
Independent Variable:
Control Variable:
Testable Hypothesis:
Prediction:
Claim:

What factors impact the speed of a windmill blade system?

Speed of windmill blade
Thickness of fan blade
Radius (12cm), Number of fan blades (2), angle of blade (measured with a
ruler for consistency the actual angle was unknown), shape of blade
As the thickness of the fan blade increases the angular velocity will be
affected
As the thickness of the fan blade increases the angular velocity will
decrease
The angular velocity of the blade decreases as the thickness increases, this
is shown in Data Table 1, where the fastest angular velocity with one board
was the fastest at 22.111 rad/s and the slowest with 4 boards at 12.631
rad/s.

Experimental Design Template 3:

Research Question:
Dependent Variable:
Independent Variable:
Control Variable:
Testable Hypothesis:
Prediction:
Claim:

What factors impact the speed of a windmill blade system?

Speed of windmill blade
Number of blades
angle of blade (measured with a ruler for consistency the actual angle was
unknown)
The number of blades will affect the angular velocity of the windmill system
As the number of blades increases, the angular velocity will increase.
We found that using 4 blades yielded the highest angular velocity, of 38.6
rad/s as shown in Data Table 3. The data shows that the angular velocity is
lower with less blades and lower with more than 4 blades as well.

Data Table 1: Effect of Blade Thickness on Angular Velocity

Thickness
1 board- 0.45 cm
2 board- 1.024 cm
3 board- 1.615 cm
4 board- 2.306 cm

Angular Velocity rad/s

Mean
Mean
5
Mean
5 seconds seconds
5 seconds
Trial 1
Trial 2
Trial 3
22.691
22.419
21.223
19.741
18.526
18.812
17.058
16.356
15.673
12.461
12.513
12.865

Average
22.111
19.02633
16.36233
12.613

Data Table 2: Effect of Radius on Angular Velocity

Angular Velocity (rad/s)
Radius
5.5
cm
8.5
cm
12cm
16 cm

Mean
5 seconds
Trial 1

Mean
5 seconds
Trial 2

Mean
5 seconds
Trial 3

Rad/s
Average

23.581

24.791

24.576

24.316

16.848
22.691
8.681

16.179
22.419
8.498

18.171
21.223
8.595

17.066
22.111
8.591333

Data Table 3: Effect of Number of Blades on Angular Velocity

Angular Velocity rad/s

Number of Blades

Mean
5 seconds
Trial 1

Mean
5 seconds
Trial 2

Mean
5 seconds
Trial 3

Average

2
3
4
5

23.581
22.628
38.393
27.094

24.791
22.542
38.777
26.026

24.576
23.503
38.656
26.524

24.316
22.891
38.60867
26.548

Lab Setup:

Final Design:
Our final design for our fan blades is one board thickness (Data Table 1), a radius of 5.5 cm (Data Table
2) and four fan blades (Data Table 3) on the rotator. The shape of our blades stayed consistent (not a
tested factor) throughout our experiment as well.
Final Angular Velocity: 30.8 rad/s