Introduction

Do you know that the air you breathe is actually made up of atoms? When you are running down the street or moving fast on a bike, have you felt wind blowing on your face? What you are feeling is the force of many atoms against your skin.

When blades move through the air, they also push against the atoms that make up air. The atoms push back, creating a force that resists or opposes the motion of the turbine blades. The resistance experienced by blades moving through air is called drag.

Blade design engineers try to reduce the amount of drag experienced by blades while maximizing the power output of the turbine. One of the ways they do this is by changing the pitch or angle of a blade. In this experiment, you will explore the relationship between blade pitch and wind turbine output.

Objectives