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.

A new wind turbine design for domestic use in urban and semi-urban areas has been studied to examine their implementation and efficiency. In this work, the development of a wind turbine, based on the beehive shape is proposed for possible domestic implementation in urban and semi-urban zones. A first prototype is presented and results of testing it in a mobile assembly are reported. The wind turbine was designed using CAD and to compute the air flow pressure distribution on the blades and assess the mechanical response of the turbine, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and static structural simulations were performed. The CFD results showed pressure on all the wind turbine blades and a small pressure increase in the cavities generated by the beehive arrangement. On the other hand, the prototype was manufactured using a 3D printer and tested under working conditions on a mobile assembly in urban and semi-urban routes (freeway and highway, respectively). The revolutions per minute of the turbine and the relative wind velocity were measured and employed for structural simulations. The results demonstrated that the proposed beehive wind turbine is able to operate on urban and semi-urban areas. [Formula: see text]