LEGO WIND TURBINE PROJECT

Transcription

1 12/4/2013 GREEN ENERGY MANUFACTURING LEGO WIND TURBINE PROJECT IE/MFG 5390 Green Manufacturing Instructor Dr. Bill Tseng Team Members Oscar Alfaro Ricardo Espinoza Alejandra Mendez Diana Servin Rocio Vazquez

2 Contents Abstract... 5 Introduction... 6 Project Problem Statement... 7 Project Goal... 7 Existing base-line Model... 7 The Lego Wind Turbine Experiment PFMEA GaBi Model Development Processes created for LCA of LEGO Wind Turbine System Balances Results System Balances: Input and Output Elementary Flows in I/O separate tables Weak Point Analysis Summary and Project Conclusions Appendix References

3 Figures and Tables FIGURE 1: LEGO WIND TURBINE STRUCTURE... 7 FIGURE 2: LEGO WIND TURBINE... 8 FIGURE 3: BASELINE TIME FOR ASSEMBLY AND DISASSEMBLY ONE BY ONE COMPONENT... 9 FIGURE 4: THREE PIECE MODULARITY FIGURE 5: FOUR PIECES MODULARITY FIGURE 6: FIVE PIECES MODULARITY FIGURE 7: OPTIMAL SOLUTION FIGURE 8: WIND TURBINE COMPONENTS FIGURE 9: BILL OF MATERIALS FIGURE 10: LCD DIGITAL WIND SPEED GAUGE MEASURE ANEMOMETER NTC THERMOMETER GM FIGURE 11: LEGO WIND TURBINE FIGURE 12: MASSEY 9 INCH HIGH VELOCITY FAN FIGURE 13: VELOCITY SPEED FIGURE 14: VELOCITY SPEED FIGURE 15: VELOCITY SPEED FIGURE 16: SPEED AND DISTANCE FIGURE 17: LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT MODEL IN GABI FIGURE 18: LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT MODEL IN GABI WITH FLOWS QUANTITIES AND AMOUNTS AND TRACKED INPUTS AND OUTPUTS FIGURE 19: GABI LEGO PIECES FIGURE 20: GABI TURBINE TOWER FIGURE 21: GABI TURBINE BLADES FIGURE 22: GABI SERVO MOTOR FIGURE 23: GABI SENSOR FIGURE 24: GABI CABLE PRODUCTION FIGURE 25: GABI NEXT BRICK FIGURE 26: GABI WIND TURBINE ASSEMBLY FIGURE 27: GABI USE PHASE FIGURE 28: GABI END LIFE CYCLE FIGURE 29: GABI BALANCES RESULTS FIGURE 30: GABI SYSTEM BALANCES FIGURE 31: GABI WEAK POINT ANALYSIS I FIGURE 32: GABI WEAK POINT ANALYSIS II FIGURE 33: GABI WEAK POINT ANALYSIS III FIGURE 34: GABI WEAK POINT ANALYSIS IV TABLE 1: THE MAIN COMPONENTS OF THE WIND TURBINE LEGO SYSTEM... 8 TABLE 2 : TIME FOR ASSEMBLY AND DISASSEMBLY WITH MODULARITY TABLE 3: TABLE 4 OF USABILITY TABLE 4: AIR VELOCITY AND TEMPERATURE TABLE 5: TURBINE AND FAN SPECIFICATIONS TABLE 6: FAN VELOCITY TABLE 7: ANEMOMETER DATA

4 TABLE 8: DISTANCE AND LENGTH TABLE 9: MATRIX FOR EXPERIMENTS TABLE 10: NUMBER OF BLADES MATRIX TABLE 11: THREE BLADES EXPERIMENT

5 Abstract The renewable energy technology goal is to find an economical source of energy for electricity that is clean and efficient in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by fossil fuels. The renewable energy demand has been increased worldwide because of government regulations mandates and financial incentives. Renewable energy generation is growing exponentially and replacing fuel energy and nuclear energy generation. From the renewable energy sources, the wind power generation is one of the most popular ones and has an increasing demand worldwide growing up to 300 Gigawatts of installed capacity this year. Although this represents today only the 3.5 % of the world s electricity demand it is crucial to understand the functionality of the wind power generation in order to continue the technology development through more knowledgeable Engineers. Increasing the knowledge for Engineers is one of the goals of this Lego wind turbine project that is focusing on the areas of manufacturing, design and its manufacturing environmental impact analysis. 5

6 Introduction In United States over the years, incentives and mandates for renewable energy have been used to advance different energy policies, such as ensuring energy security or promoting environmentally benign energy sources. Renewable energy has beneficial attributes, such as low emissions and replenishing energy supply. Accordingly, US governments have used a variety of programs to promote renewable energy resources, technologies, and renewable-based transportation fuels. Wind energy is US has been increasing above 20% for the past years with an installed capacity of 60 MW in This project is focused on wind turbine manufacturing, design and its manufacturing environmental impact analysis. The Design for Manufacture (DFMA) focuses on directions and methods for attaching and joining the parts of a product simpler and one of the tools focusing in this project is to create modules. The goal of DFMA is to balance between ease of making & assembly and by improving quality; it will reduced waste, and thus does indirectly impact the environment. The following areas will be covered in this project. 1. Wind Turbine Manufacturing a. Design for Manufacture (DFMA) and Design for Disassembly (DFD) b. Process optimization. c. Failure Mode and effect Analysis (FMEA) 2. Wind turbine design a. Lego wind turbine experiment b. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) 6

7 Project Problem Statement Formulate models for optimizing the design and manufacture while reducing the environmental impact of wind turbines using simulation with the Lego wind turbine tool. The project will be completed as a team effort in order to use the combining knowledge, innovation and experience of the team members. Project Goal The goal of the project is to familiarize with operations in green energy manufacturing systems, particularly in assembly, disassembly and LCA processes. The team will find the best solutions assuming that the Lego tool provides real data in terms of assembly and power output. Existing base-line Model The Lego model is the basic replicate of a real wind power with the following main parts: D C Figure 1: Lego Wind Turbine Structure 7

8 Part Description A Support Structure Supports the tower B Tower Main structure C Turbine Contains the generator D Rotor Blades Mounted to the hub E Output meter Measure Power output Table 1: The main components of the wind turbine Lego System The base line model used is the assembly and disassembly of one by one component of the Lego wind turbine, the following is the bill of Material and Data from this baseline. Final Assembly -- Wind Turbine Figure 2: Lego Wind Turbine 8

9 Figure 3: Baseline time for assembly and disassembly one by one component 9

10 Proposed Solution After experimenting with various scenarios of three, four, five and an optimal modularity approach, the following data results were found. Modularity Assembly and Disassembly Process Assumptions - Use three, four, five and an optimal solution. - For each modularity assessment, color coding was implemented (as noted in the figures) to remark the quantity of pieces in each subassembly. - Modularity of different size is possible in order to obtain optimal for 3, 4 and 5 but most of them should be the size that is representative of the experiment. Figure 4: Three piece Modularity 10

11 Figure 5: Four Pieces Modularity 11

12 Figure 6: Five Pieces Modularity 12

13 Figure 7: Optimal Solution 13

14 Table 2 : Time for assembly and disassembly with modularity The optimal solution assumptions are that the modularity will be ease to transport, easier to disassemble, recycle, reuse and will minimize subassemblies. 14

15 Sub Assemblies Figure 4 Lego Wind Turbine Subassemblies Figure 8: Wind Turbine Components 15

16 Table 3: Table 4 of Usability 16

17 Bill of Materials Figure 9: Bill of Materials 17

18 The Lego Wind Turbine Experiment Basically, the Lego wind turbine operates when the wind blows using an electric fan as a wind source; this wind forces the rotor blades to rotate, transforming the kinetic energy of the wind to mechanical energy. The blade rotation drives power to the generator which generates current. The Lego Wind turbines operate when the wind speed is within certain limits. There has to be enough wind for the blades to turn called cutting wind speed, and there is also a shutting down wind speed for when wind presents high speed that might damage the rotor or the generator. As wind speeds increase, so will the energy generated by the turbine. At certain speed of wind (depending on the turbine design and specs), the maximum (or rated) capacity of the turbine will be reached. The team used an anemometer for measuring the win speed form the electric fan Specifications: Table 4: Air Velocity and Temperature Anemometer Accuracy Air Velocity m/s + 5% Temperature C + 2degrees Figure 11: Lego Wind Turbine Figure 10: LCD Digital Wind Speed Gauge Measure Anemometer NTC Thermometer GM816 Figure 12: Massey 9 inch High Velocity Fan 18

19 Table 5: Turbine and Fan Specifications Diameter Radio Turbine 10in 5in Fan 9in 4.5in Table 6: Fan Velocity Fan Velocity Max Speed m/s

20 Figure 15: Velocity Speed 1 Figure 14: Velocity Speed 2 Figure 13: Velocity Speed 3 20

21 As expected, the closer the fan is to the wind turbine the higher wind speed output. See below table with data for different distances and fan speed Table 7: Anemometer data Fan Speed Distance (ft) m/s Table 8: Distance and Length Distance Length (ft) Figure 16: Speed and Distance 21

22 The Lego wind turbine was exposed to different distances and angles and the output of each position was recorded. See below data recorded: Speed Distance Angle Distance DATA X Velocity Y Z Input Voltage Input Current Input Wattage m/s m/s m/s Table 9: Matrix for Experiments 22

23 The table above summarizes the results of the experiment and as expected, the higher the output (0.158 joules) was recorded with the higher wind speed (electric fan on 3) and shorter distance (1 ft). The angles on all cases decreased the power output, so it is critical that the turbine blades can turn to different angles in order to get the most from the wind speed. In order to obtain the optimal solution the speed was kept at maximum (3), the distance the shortest (1 ft) and angle at 0. Only two readings, three and six blades design, were possible to obtain due to unbalance of the blades. The following table summarizes the results: Table 10: Number of blades matrix Speed Distance Angle X Y Z Data # of blades Wattage 1 N/A Unstable 2 N/A Unstable N/A Unstable 5 N/A Unstable MODIFIED USING 3 BLADES Speed Distance Angle DATA X Velocity Y Z Input Voltage Input Current Input Wattage 3 9.5m / s Table 11: Three Blades Experiment The conclusion is that with the wind speed rate in the experiment, the six blade design is the best in terms of power output. This result is the same that is found during real wind turbine design; however, increasing the blade number will increase the cost of 23

24 the wind turbine construction. On the other hand, having more than three blades raises other problems. For one thing, the extra material needed to build the blades raises the cost. And the more blades there are the lighter and thinner they need to be. Relatively thin blades are more flexible, making them prone to bend and break. PFMEA The PFMEA is a powerful tool that helps to identify possible root causes, failure modes and the estimation of their relative risks. The main goal of the FMEA is to identify and then limit or avoid risk within a design or an improvement on the process. After analyze the PFMEA performed on Lego Wind Turbine, using the optimal solution presented on this paper, we can conclude that the minimum RPN for any subassembly process is: incorrectly assembled (backwards): this has the lowest RPN because this problem can be fixed on the facility and also it can be reduced by providing visual aids, work instructions and training to the employees. The maximum RPN is for out of tolerance dimensions and scratch components. On both potential failures modes, the components maybe do not fit well and this causes and instability a bad functionality on the assemblies. Another reason to rate the above failures modes is that they can be hard to identify. For this reason, a second inspection has to be places as well as request a stronger quality to suppliers. 24

25 GaBi Model Development Figure 17: Life Cycle Assessment Model in GaBi Figure 18: Life Cycle Assessment Model in GaBi with Flows quantities and amounts and tracked inputs and outputs 25

26 Processes created for LCA of LEGO Wind Turbine The following processes were created in GaBi in order to create the LCA: Lego Pieces: This process combines the necessary raw materials to build the 118 pcs needed for the turbine. Its output gets split in two, a set of parts for the tower and a set of parts for the blade structure. Figure 19: GaBi Lego Pieces 26

27 Turbine Tower: This process takes the Lego pieces assigned to the tower (59 pcs) and turns them into the actual turbine tower. Figure 20: GaBi Turbine Tower 27

28 Turbine Blades: This process takes the Lego pieces assigned to the blade structure (59 pcs) and turns them into the actual blades. Figure 21: GaBi Turbine Blades 28

29 Servo Motor: This process takes the raw material needed to create the output servo motor for the wind turbine. Figure 22: GaBi Servo Motor 29

30 Sensor: This process take the raw material needed to create the output sensor. Figure 23: GaBi Sensor 30

31 Cable Production: This process takes the necessary raw materials to create the output cable. Figure 24: GaBi Cable Production 31

32 Next Brick: This process takes the necessary raw materials, two servo motors and the sensor, to create the output next brick. Figure 25: GaBi Next Brick 32

33 Wind Turbine Assembly: This process takes the turbine tower, the turbine blades, one servo motor, the next brick and the cable to create the output wind turbine. Figure 26: GaBi Wind Turbine Assembly 33

34 Use Phase: This is the actual use period for the wind turbine. Figure 27: GaBi Use Phase 34

35 End Life Cycle: This is the final stage for the wind turbine (disposal). It includes the recycle portion after disposal that is feedback to other processes. Figure 28: GaBi End Life Cycle 35

36 System Balances Results Figure 29: GaBi Balances Results 36

37 System Balances: Input and Output Elementary Flows in I/O separate tables Weak Point Analysis Figure 30: GaBi System Balances Figure 31: GaBi Weak Point Analysis I 37

38 Figure 32: GaBi Weak Point Analysis II Figure 33: GaBi Weak Point Analysis III 38

39 Figure 34: GaBi Weak Point Analysis IV The Lego Wind Turbine model reflects high emissions to fresh water (River Water from Technosphere, turbined), which refers to water use in hydro energy generation process, water in the output refers to the destination of the water released, not to the source. The use of substances as Copper and Aluminum, results in emissions to the environment which ultimately contribute to contamination, we might want to replace the use of the materials for other ones with less impact to the environment. 39

40 Summary and Project Conclusions This project achieved the goal of increasing the team s knowledge in the areas of manufacturing, design and its manufacturing environmental impact analysis. The hands on experience with experimenting with the Lego tool was very effective on demonstrating close real wind turbine behavior. The process design aspect of using modularity for designing optimal processes help us to measure the improvements that can be realized on real life problems. With the same impact was the use of the PFMEA as a tool for improvement and for measuring the baseline and the improvements made. Finally, the LCA tool show us how to measure the environmental impact of any process, so you can focus on improvements that affects directly the pollution impact of the production processes. 40

41 Appendix A. PFMEA B. PPT Presentation C. Video References 41