Diary Entry - November

After much discussion with Ken Leung and the plastics fabricators the final design for the prototype wind tunnel was agreed. The original design was for wood but the plastic allows us to have a clear mid section where all parts will be visible to the children.

The fan fits beautifully and the next test will be to see if the wind tunnel works to produce the air flow it was designed for. Dave the electrician wired in the speed controller and tested the installation for safety.

There is still a mix up about the tunnel exhaust cover design as the mesh agreed upon could not be sourced by the workshop.

It all looks shiny and exciting and is already receiving interest from the children. The test pylon for the turbines was designed by Ken England and his drawings are with a small engineering company. After seeing Ken’s wind tunnel the team decided that to have a meaningful comparison for how well the different turbines performed, the turbine would need to move a load. The final pylon design has two flywheels that the turbine will have to accelerate. Brisbay plastics have agreed to modify the tunnel to fit the pylon. To think that when I started out I envisaged a simple wooden tunnel with an electric motor as a generator mounted on a wooden stick.

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