Title: Computational investigation of Savonius wind turbines with classical and novel blade configurations

Authors: T. Nilavarasan; J. Dheenadhayalan

Addresses: Madras Institute of Technology, Chrompet, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600044, India ' Madras Institute of Technology, Chrompet, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600044, India

Abstract: In this study, a modified blade profile configuration has been suggested to improve the low-performance levels of the classical Savonius wind turbine. Numerical investigation of both the classical and modified Savonius rotor has been carried out using ANSYS FLUENT 14.0. The proposed design has been observed to prevent the negative static torque coefficient that has occurred in the classical rotor at certain rotor angles relative to the wind direction. The performance of both the classical and the modified designs have been examined and compared at three different Reynolds Numbers. Results indicate better performance of the modified rotor when compared with that of the classical rotor. The improvement was found to be due to the higher overlap flow velocity for the modified Savonius rotor than that of the classical Savonius rotor. Moreover, significant improvement was observed in the torque and power coefficients as the free-stream Reynolds number increases.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics; CFD; Savonius wind turbines; Reynolds number; static torque coefficient; dynamic torque coefficient; power coefficient; turbine blade design; rotor angles; overlap flow velocity.

DOI: 10.1504/PIE.2015.073084

Progress in Industrial Ecology, An International Journal, 2015 Vol.9 No.2, pp.153 - 167

Received: 11 Apr 2015
Accepted: 06 Jul 2015
Published online: 16 Nov 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article