Cosmolution

I am a wind turbine electrical engineer. What design changes would make your life easier?

I can give you an exact number. However, it depends on the turbine. Different turbines have different blade lengths depending on whether they're off-shore or on-shore. Also, the optimal rev/sec is different on different turbines. In other words, it depends.

To calculate, you need to know the diameter of the circle that's swept out during rotation. Let's say it's 108 meters. Now you need to know the circumference of that circle. Multiply by pi (3.14). This tells you how many meters the blade tip travels per revolution. In this case, it would be ~339.2m per revolution. Now, let's assume it's rotating at 15rpm. 339.2*15 = 5089m/min. This means that every minute the blade tip is travelling 5089 meters. So, you can convert to m/sec by dividing by 60 (60 seconds in one minute). You get 84.8 m/s. This is equivalent to about 189.7mph.

So, a 108m blade diameter traveling at 15 rpm will result in a blade tip traveling at almost 190mph.

I can pass that along to the mechanical guys. Maybe we can figure out how to make the generator 1/10th of its current size... hmmm...

You sound like me at this time last year. I was in the aerospace industry and didn't really care for it. I was getting pigeon-holed into doing nothing but system safety analysis. It was kind of fun, but I didn't feel like it was my calling. Plus, I'd wanted to get into the power industry for a while. More specifically, the renewable energy industry. I wanted to use my skillset to better the world. I feel like I'm doing that now.

To answer your question, the only US based one I know of is GE. However, there are European companies (probably from Denmark) that have US operations. When I applied, I had just gotten an email from LinkedIn saying there was a job available that might fit my desires. I had my linkedIn account looking for jobs in the power industry.

There are three big ones to check out: GE, Vestas, and Siemens. I can look and see if we have any postings for mechanical engineers and get back with you.

What are you wanting to do? A lot of the actual design work is still done overseas for the European based companies, but there is still a need for engineers in the US.

It's not really a question of cooling, but mechanical strain. Also, the generators are optimized to provide maximum power at a certain RPM, which is achieved well-before the hub is spinning too fast.