Fully 3D printed Wind turbine - Small scale vawt

thingiverse

I was hoping to create a vawt generator for a school project.. Altho it works it needs realy high winds... so if anyone has a solution for small vawts to operate in lighter winds - please do speak up.. I am kinda proud that I managed to make a working thing but also disapointed of its performance. Aniway.... My goal was to do a fully 3D printed vawt. (I really tryed to do everything printed) I did some research and picked effective aerofoil with structual benefits. I also designed roller bearing(it was harder than I though) which works great (better than anything I found on thingy) but a also included modified gear bearing from emmett (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:53451) which could potentialy be better(but havent tested).. UPDATE: Tried the gear bearing: It has a little bit less leeway but more drag.. The base of the model is designed to attach onto something to fix it and it is also designed to add a base with generator in it (which I haven't done - since it isn't efficient enough for now) Maybe instead of generator I will put a motor with high gearing reduction and use it as an art piece indoor.. You need to print 3x blades, 3x arms,2x bearings..other stuff 1x... I used around 600g of material for complete set. Or you can just print 2 savinous parts(without blades and arms) and stack them the beam.. UPDATE 27/3/2022: I was working on leading edge addons and they didn't work as desired since they disturbed the whole profile more then expected therefore they weren't very effective.. I did some additional research and found out that most professional vawts have a starting mechanism, because their efficiency comes only from airfoil profile which has to generate alot of torque from a standing start(printed bearings also don't help with that).. For this I then decided to do a spiral addon(make sure to turn it the right way), making this a hybrid vawt.. For now I haven't tested this and didn't analised it very well(it was a quick mash up).. Update 5/4/2022 I have drilled a hole in the center beam, attached a 8mm rod inside and did some test with proper bearings (608). When turbine is hand started it generates some very good rpms in the constant wind(without the savinous add-on). I will design a main stable and attachment for some regular bearings(will post it when I do). I also did some testing on printed bearings(the roller ones) and they performed much better than expected (will post some videos that will show that) Conclusion for now: Horizontal turbines are much more effective and simple. Vertical become more effective at bigger sizes but I would be affraid to make a full scale try. Update 28/7/2022 I am currently working on airfoil design for darrieus vawt that would allow a self-start and still be high efficient lift type.. if shown any success I will probably do complete new vawt design