Team Members & Role:

• JAY SANT – TEAM LEAD
• THOMAS HALEY – ANALYSIS LEAD
• RYAN SULLIVAN – DESIGN LE AD
• JACK DRUMMOND – EVALUATION LEAD
• BENNETT MACGREGOR – FABRICATION LE AD

Abstract:
Primus Wind Power sells small wind turbines that generate power passively. They are commonly used for small cabins or sheds, on boats, or any other small-scale system that requires power. Sponsored by Jim Lagrant, who is backed by REpowering Schools (REpS) and FedEx, this research opportunity was offered to introduce fundamentals of wind turbine testing, evaluation, and validation. Team 1508’s scope is to determine parameters that should be monitored to evaluate the turbine, incorporate only commercial off the shelf components to generate data, evaluate, and select a cloudbased data storage system, install components and connect to the cloud, commission turbine and collect data automatically, and demonstrate data retrieval for future analysis. The parameters chosen to be measured are wind speed, rpm of the rotor, vibrations within the tower in the x and y direction, and current. The 24V Primus Wind Power Air Silent X turbine is connected to the control panel, which measures current, power, and energy. Next, the battery is connected after the control panel and powers the PLC and 5 sensors. These five sensors include an anemometer for wind speed, accelerometer for vibrations, photelectric sensor for rpm, a voltage transducer, and a current transducer. Data from these sensors feed into the click plus PLC, which performs calculations and then sends the data to the Stridelinx VPN router. Visualization neatly shows the data from the Stridelinx app and can be seen in real time anywhere with cellular data. With this system, anyone can view and evaluate how their turbine is running at any time and anywhere.