3D printing: rapid manufacturing of a new small-scale tidal turbine blade

The 3D printing technology used for small tidal and wind turbines has great potential to change and overcome certain weaknesses in traditional manufacturing techniques. In rural areas and isolated communities, small turbine systems could be locally fabricated and assembled by using additive manufacturing machines and also can be employed to decrease residential energy consumption. The objective of the paper is to study the thermomechanical performance of 3D printing of a small-scale tidal turbine blade and their process using Digimat-AM because more research efforts are needed in this area. In this work, the tidal turbine blade is printed by using the selective laser sintering (SLS) method with polyamide 12 (PA12) and polyether ether ketone (PEEK) polymers reinforced by carbon beads (CB) and glass beads (GB). This research examines conceptual considerations of small tidal turbines including material properties and aerodynamic parameters. Once the finite element evaluation has been completed, the deflection, residual stresses, temperature distribution, and the deformed blade or warpage can be obtained. It is concluded that PA12-CB has warpage higher than PA12-GB by 3.78%, and PEEK-CB has warpage lower than PEEK-GB by 8.4%. Also, the warpage of PA12-CB is lower than PEEK-CB by 10.31%, and the warpage of PA12-GB is lower than PEEK-GB by 20.95%. Therefore, the lowest warpage is observed for PA12-GB. Finally, the results showed that 3D printing presents an excellent opportunity in the design and development of tidal energy systems in the future.