Momentum - The Magazine for Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering Vol. 2 No. 4 Winter 2017 | Page 12

Wind turbine team now a senior design project
Mechanical engineering students taking part
in the Aerospace and Ocean Engineering-led
Wind Turbine team are using the experience as a
senior design project.
The U.S. Department of Energy Collegiate
Wind Competition challenges undergraduate
students from 12 universities to design a wind
turbine based on market research. The team has
to create a business plan in addition to building
and testing the turbine and demonstrating
knowledge of site constraints and location
challenges for turbine installation.
The competition prepares students from
multiple disciplines to enter the wind energy
workforce.
Last year the team designed a 2 kilowatt
portable wind turbine that was 15-feet tall and
included a 2-meter rotor. The turbine was tested
at the Virginia Tech Stability Wind Tunnel at
Kentland Farms.
MOMENTUM
WINTER'17

The team is made up of 35 students from
mechanical, aerospace and ocean, civil,
electrical, and materials engineering programs
as well as students from the Pamplin College of
Business.
Students work as part of five sub-teams
including blade, drive, power electronics, tower,
and business / implementation.
The team, sponsored by AoE, ME, the Student
Engineering Council, General Electric Renewable
Energy, the National Science Foundation, VT
Stability Wind Tunnel, and Kentland Farms,
is working toward the annual competition at
the American Wind Energy Association Annual
Conference Expo in May.
Mechanical engineering students on the team
are advised by Christian James (BSME '04 and
MSME '06), a founder of Industrial Biodynamics
in Salem, Virginia.
PAGE 12