3D-Printed Wind Turbine Scale Model with Blade Pitch Control

Wind & Water Controls
1

Hello everyone

Previously I and my colleague developed a wind turbine scale model with 3D-printer.
See how it looks like below, and video can be found here [url]3D-Printed Wind Turbine Scale Model with Blade Pitching - YouTube.

This is a simple demonstration of blade pitch control system for a small scale model of National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) 5MW Wind Turbine.

  1. The mechanical structures were printed with the 3D printer in the Mechatronics lab of the University of Agder.

  2. Different from full scale industrial wind turbines, the blade pitching here is driven by a servo motor with a rod and several bearings.

  3. The first aim of this demonstration is to show how the blade pitching affects the rotor speed, thus the wind turbine power output. Further development will be rotor speed regulation, which will require the implementation of the rotational encoder.

It is cool, isn’t it?

Cheers
Yulin

2

Yulin,

It is really cool. Nice job!

I am wondering how you draw the blade and which turbine data you use?

Yuan

3

Thanks Yuan.

We were using the data for NREL 5MW turbine.
The blade model is created with Solidworks by meshing its aerofoils.

Yulin

4

Dear Yulin,

I 'm Yaqi Hu, I have sent you an email to your email address:yulin.si@uia.no for asking some questions, but it seems to be no success. Can you give me one of your current contact?

5

Hi Yaqi

Sorry for the late response. I have just sent you my current email address.

Best regards
Yulin

6

Hello Yulin,

Im amazed by your great job on the model, im currently conducting my bachelor thesis on 5MW wind turbines and your scaled model by far is the most appealing i have seen, so can i kindly request the solidworks files of the parts and assembly to furthermore understand how you designed the pitching mechanism with more detail. And if you do kindly remember your refrences that aided you in designing the model can you include them as well?

I know i have requested alot and im apologizing and thank you either way , I Hope you all the best. :smiley:
If possible can you send me an email with the parts included?

Regards,
Omar.Farouk

7

Dear Omar

Please find these files from 1drv.ms/f/s!AorS2l0XV-Kr5AJ5uUu3TX1iE0nj
I hope that helps, and please feel free to share your project when you finish it.

Good luck
Yulin

8

Dear Dr. Yulin,

Sorry for the late reply and thank you for your cooperation, ill be referencing your work in my thesis if you simply allow me to, it is an honour.

Regards,
Omar

9

Dear Dr. Yulin,

1-May you please specify the Airfoil used in the blade in the assembly , (Blade_Compromise) ?
2- I tried using FDM 3D printing but the output was not satisfying at all , what was the method of printing?

Thank You and best Regards,
Omar

10

Hi Omar

Very sorry for the late reply that I didn’t see the notifications.

  1. I was using the airfoils defined by NREL 5MW baseline model, the details of which you can find within the AeroData folder in the FAST package.
  2. Sorry it has been a long time that I forgot the printer type and settings, but the material was plastic-type and the printing output was not satisfying either, as you may notice the burrs on the blades from the photos. I guess the results would be better with a printer with better precision.

Hope this helps.

Best regards
Yulin