Review of the Hybrid H-Savonius Rotor’s Design and Performance

Abstract

In recent times, the progress and activities on renewable energy sources are growing exponentially. Amongst the various kinds of renewable resources, wind energy is one of the most preferable due to its abundant availability, lesser cost, zero emission compared to other sources. Amongst the various kind of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT), H-Darrieus rotor is more popular in the built environment for their simple constructions and higher power coefficient which also suffers from poor self-starting features. Again, the Savonius rotor is having the good self-starting ability but possess lesser power coefficient. To address all such limitations, existing investigations of hybrid H-Savonius rotor have been reported here in terms of the design, various parameters and aerodynamic performances which are used to improve their self-starting and efficiency. From this study, it is seen that the coaxial arrangement of the H-Savonius rotor is capable to exhibit higher efficiency and better self-starting characteristics than the staging assembly or the individual Savonius or H-rotor. Again, a newly designed hybrid H-Savonius rotor exhibits the maximum power coefficient of 0.414 at TSR2.5. Modification of the Savoniusblade and thicker H-rotor airfoil blade helps to increase the efficiency of the hybrid rotor. This present paper offers an overall idea on the research growth to improve the design and performance of the hybrid H-Darrieus rotor.