Project Overview

With this project, we are trying to maximize the efficiency of a wind turbine by mimicking a whale fin as the turbines blades. Unlike normal wind turbines, our whale fin inspired turbines have bumps along the edge of blades which enhance aerodynamic lift and and reduce drag.  There are three components to our design. First, there are the blades; we plan on creating both the whale inspired blades and normal blades in order to compare the electrical output. The blades will be connected to a central hub which will rotate at the same rate as the blades. Connected to the hub will be our electrical generator which will convert the mechanical motion of the blades into electrical energy. Finally, the generator will connect to a voltmeter to produce a numerical reading of the electrical output.The bio-inspired design is a work in progress; however, through trial and error the future of the design is promising.