Performance Enhancements of Savonius Wind Turbine using a Hybrid Augmentation System

Abstract

Today, the use of renewable energy sources is an inevitable necessity. Wind energy is one of the most important sources of renewable energy. In recent years designing and increasing the performance of wind turbine devices has been a significant effort of scientists. Savonius wind turbine is one of the vertical axis wind turbines. This type of wind turbine has some advantages such as self-starting ability even in the low-speed area, simple design, and low noise, which makes them stable for capturing wind energy in urban areas. But there is an undesirable negative torque that causes turbine performance to drop. Installing an upstream deflector can reduce the negative torque. Moreover, utilization of the wind-lens and Twin-rotor system increases the turbine performance. The effects of this proposed hybrid system on the performance of the Savonius wind turbine are investigated numerically using ANSYS-fluent software. In the present study, a complete investigation of geometric parameters such as width, distance from the wind-lens throat, and deflector angle on the performance of the turbine is evaluated. Results show a combination of the upstream deflector, wind-lens, and twin-rotors system increase the power coefficient of the turbine by about 121% relative to a single rotor Savonius wind turbine.