Installing Strain Gauges to collect data!
Antonio Ojeda and one of our new interns, Omar Garcia, are installing dime-sized strain gauges on the Model 3.1 blades in the UL “shop” in Texas.
Strain gauges collect data that help validate the frequency response (harmonic resonance), aerodynamic, fatigue life, and structural models that make up our aeroelastic model. The loads and other data we collect from these gauges, pictured below, on Model 3.1 will give us a great deal of confidence in the engineering of our Model 4.0 turbine.
Dr. David Malcolm, our senior engineer, has been key to developing these strain gauges. We first used them on our Model 3.0, where they gathered data for the initial validation of our aeroelastic model.
Contact: Jen Hoover, jhoover@windharvest.com
Wind Harvest International, Inc. is a California-based renewable energy technology company, founded in 2006. The company makes, sells, and develops projects for its Wind Harvester brand of H-type turbines, the only known product designed to harvest the highly energetic, turbulent wind that blows 15-80 feet above the ground. Wind Harvest’s wholly-owned financial subsidiary Wind Harvest Pilot Project Inc. raises funds and loans it to the parent company.
