Performance Investigation of Vertical Axis Wind Turbine with Savonius Rotor using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)

Abstract

The quest of clean and sustainable energy has grown rapidly all over the world in the recent years. Among the renewable energy resources available, wind energy is considered one of the reliable, environmentally friendly, green and fastest-growing source of electricity generation. This generation is accomplished through wind turbines. However, the efficiency of these wind turbines is still very limited and unsatisfactory. The primary goal of this study is to evaluate the performance of a Savonius rotor wind turbine in terms of aerodynamic characteristics, including torque, torque coefficient, and power coefficient. The design of Savonius wind turbine blades is varied and its effects is observed. The simulation models are developed using a modeling software known as Solidworks 2021 and then generated into Ansys Design Modeler 2021 R1 to define the fluid domain. In total, three distinct turbine blades are modelled while varying the diameter and height of the rotor. The simulation study is performed using FLUENT 2021 R21. A constant wind speed value of 9.2 m/s has been used throughout the simulation. The simulation was carried out using a transient time flow with a constant upstream wind speed. The results have shown that the power coefficient of all models increases with TSR and the highest efficiency is consensually obtained at almost a unity (0.9) TSR. Comparing the performance of all models, Model 2 generates the highest power coefficient followed by Model 3 and Model 1, respectively. In terms of power, torque and torque coefficient, nearly similar conclusion is drawn.