Development of a wind turbine using 3D printing: A prospection of electric power generation from daily commute by car

Abstract

The design, construction, and development of micro-turbines using 3D printing has been an important advance in the wind energy field to explore the possibility of offering viable alternative for the electric power generation, reducing the pollution caused by fossil fuels. In this work, a five blade vertical axis wind turbine prototype was tested. The components were designed using CAD and the turbine was manufactured by additive technology in a 3D printer. The material employed for 3D printing was commercial polylactic acid. The mechanical properties of the material used were obtained by tensile tests under the ASTM D-638 standard. On the other hand, a static structural simulation was performed by finite element method. Maximum tensile stress safety factor, maximum principal stresses, and fatigue analyses of the main turbine components were computed. The turbine performance as function of rotational velocity and relative wind velocity was analyzed implementing an experimental set-up.

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“…The fatigue behavior is one of the most important parameters to consider, therefore a fatigue analysis was performed using static structural simulations. Based on the work of Evans et al (2021) and Monzamodeth et al (2021), the fatigue stress at 6.3E10 cycles (nominal time life = 20 years) was computed. In this work the prototype was manufactured employing commercial PLA, thereby, the simulations and their corresponding results depended completely on the mechanical properties of the polymer used.…”

“…In this work the prototype was manufactured employing commercial PLA, thereby, the simulations and their corresponding results depended completely on the mechanical properties of the polymer used. The fatigue database of the PLA utilized was obtained from a previous work reported (Monzamodeth et al, 2021). The resulting S-N curve was added to the Ansysś library and comprises from 500 to 1E11 cycles.…”

“… UTS = ultimate tensile strength and MPS is the maximum principal stress. The values of the PLA mechanical properties for the structural simulation were obtained from previous related work (Monzamodeth et al, 2021).…”

“…On the other hand, 3D printing has been used for manufacturing wind models; to mention just a few, Bassett et al (2015), reported the feasibility for rapid manufacturing of Darrieus wind turbines and their potential small-scale application; Han et al (2016), designed and manufactured ten miniature air-driven energy harvested, underlining the potential of 3D printing in the energy industry. Monzamodeth et al (2021), designed and built a wind turbine prototype for personal use on mobile systems, which may be efficient for electric power generation by taking advantage of the relative wind velocity generated by daily commute. In this work, a wind turbine was designed, 3D printed and evaluated on mobile working conditions.…”

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“…Finally, in this work, the authors recommend further work to identify how the power generated could be increased. In reference [30] is shown a rapid prototyping technique with 3D printing to create a wind turbine focused on vehicles and domestic power generation. The study exposes the feasibility to implement and deploy a vertical wind turbine with PLA with biodegradable properties and a duration of 20 years.…”