Thursday, May 3, 2007

Ribs

Dan Stearns from University Theater did a beautiful job welding the rib sections together on Tuesday. These 5 sections will be separated on the turbine shaft by 1.5 feet, which gives us the desired 6 foot total height. Each section will be offset 45 degrees from the previous one, which results in a helix. The ribs will act as a frame to support the lexan scoops. Three of the five rib sections also have horizontal pieces of conduit welded on. These straight pieces will support the airfoils that may or may not get made this year.

Earlier this week I gave a presentation about the turbine to the Society of Physics Students (SPS), an undergraduate student organization that primarily hosts weekly talks about physics. A number of them were very interested in working on the turbine and would like to take care of it next year.


Master welder at work


Delicious ribs

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