Rapid prototyping of small wind turbine blades using additive manufacturing

For practical research results at NMMU on small wind turbine blade design, a manufacturing method was required to rapid prototype various iterations of blade designs. The requirements of the manufacturing method were a rapid (a few days), cost effective and accurate technique to produce full size small wind turbine blades (up to 1.4 m long) that could withstand short term testing. From the manufactured wind turbine system, results could be obtained and design changes made to the following iteration of the blade design. The process used to manufacture the blades involves five steps: 1) A program to design the turbine blade. 2) A program to develop a CAD model from the designed blade parameters. 3) A CAM programme to process the CAD for 3D printing. 4) 3D printing (additive manufacturing) of the turbine blade geometry using FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling). 5) Reinforcement of the PLA plastic printed blade. For this research, the 3D printer has been designed and manufactured. The first few iterations of blade designs have been manufactured and the testing of the blades is currently under way. Future testing of the long term structural characteristics of turbine blades produced using this method is recommended and planned. This documented research is drawn from a section of Poole´s PhD research (Optimisation of a Mini Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine to Increase Energy Yield During Short Duration Wind Variations) [1].