As part of their TIPE (Travaux d’Initiative Personnel Encadrés – supervised personal initiative work), two students currently in the MP (maths and physics) section at the Lycée Faidherbe de Lille secondary school sought to build an urban wind turbine in line with this year’s TIPE theme, i.e. “the city”.
They turned to Centrale Lille for advice from our professors, as well as access to certain manufacturing resources. The two students thus worked on the mechanical design of a vertical wind turbine, directing its blades according to their angular position to optimise production (two aeromotor blades, and one drag-based). They then made their machine using 3D printers and laser cutting. Finally, at the boundary layer wind tunnel (in building M6), they were able to conduct tests to validate the operation of the wind turbine and compare the theoretical modelling with the actual implementation.
This project was carried out with the assistance of Denis Le Picart, Christophe Cuvier, François Lesaffre and Matthieu Meersdam. It is an original experience that has allowed these students to get off the beaten track while encouraging them to join Ecole Centrale de Lille at the end of their competitive exams.