Abstract:
We performed a multidisciplinary research of plant leaf inspired wind turbine blade by 4D printing.
We conducted airfoil selection sizing of tapper sections of the leaf main vein using Matlab
iteration. The research is based on plant leaf main veins are wider at the roots and narrow at the
tip. This concept was coupled with the blade element momentum theory to get the tapering ratio.
We come across fabrication of leaf mimetic blade using the concept of 4D printing. From our very
small size (144mm) blade length, we obtain 0.4 N lift force. The baseline (normal un deformed
just 3D printed) blade was able to give 0.3 N which shows an improvement in our proposed blade.
The simulation and experimental results for different wind speeds at angle of attack 10 degree
agrees very well. The dynamic mechanical analysis test confirms the deforming nature of the
material at higher temperature which is observed from hot water bath experimental test. We
performed a hot water bath test of printed samples at about 9595℃ − 100℃ to which is higher
than the glass transition temperature of material and observe that the material changes from its flat
shape to semicircle when it remains in that hot water for about 2 minutes. This shows the shape
shifting performance of our used material which is PLA.
Key words: 4D printing, hot water bath, leaf main vein