Experimental Study of Incorporating Fins on the Rotor Blades of Savonius Wind Turbine

Abstract

The significant rise of electricity energy consumption from fossil fuel has increased the search for viable sources of energy. Wind as an environmentally friendly renewable energy source can be an alternative solution to generate electrical power. This research aims to analyze the influence of incorporating blade on the fin of a Savonius wind turbine type L and S. It adopts a rotor dimension with 1.1 m diameter and height of 1.4 m. The material used for the blade is aluminum plate. Experimental works were performed by incorporating different number of fin on the rotor blades and the electrical power generated was evaluated. Under different wind speed conditions, it evaluates the performance of the vertical axis wind turbine by adding 1 to 4 fins into the rotor blades. This research suggests that the fin blade incorporated affect the performance of the turbine to generate electricity. However, the power generated does not linearly increase with increasing number of fins. Adding one fin on the blade of the Savonius turbine generate more power than the one without fin with a value of 10.66 watt for L blade type and 13.40 watt for S blade type at wind speed of 4.5 m/s. However, adding more than one fin results in less power generated as adding 4 fins on the blade generate only 8.13 watt and 10.80 watt at the same value of wind speed for L and S blade type, respectively. It implies that the performance of a Savonius vertical axis wind turbine can be improved by modification of the blade design.