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To solve the increasing power demand of the growing population without increasing carbon footprint, energy efficiency for renewable sources needs to be improved. This paper focuses on the performance improvement of Savonius vertical axis wind turbine, commonly utilized to harness low wind speed potentials. Such turbines can find excellent use in places where the wind speed is not sufficient for introducing traditional horizontal axis wind turbines. To develop a better aerodynamic design that can reduce drag, dimples introduced on the blade profile. The effect of endplate also studied for improving the performance of the turbine. The design and comparative analysis performed with an endplate and dimpled blade profile. Computational fluid dynamics simulations carried out for understanding the performance of the turbine with dimples and endplates when subjected to low incoming wind velocity. Comparative analysis performed between the proposed design with the baseline design, i.e. with endplates, without endplates and with dimples on blades to show how it affects the efficiency of the turbine. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021.

Mechanical Engineering

(SoE) School of Engineering

Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering

Numerical analysis of savonius vertical axis wind turbine with dimpled blades

<p>One of the prime commodities in modern civilization is energy. The amount of energy consumption has become the indicator for the standard of living and the degree of industrialization. People use fossil fuels to meet nearly all of their energy needs, such as powering vehicles, producing electricity for light and heat and running factories, thus greatly exhausting the fossil fuel reserves along with polluting the environment with greenhouse gases. Renewable energy sources are viable alternatives, and among the various types of renewable energy sources available, wind energy is the sector which has a lot of untapped potential. Our objective is to improve the efficiency of a Savonius-type vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) which currently has the least efficiency among existing wind turbine designs. Savonius turbines have a very compact structure and can run at low wind speeds which are desirable characteristics for commercial-scale power production. This research paper focuses on improving the efficiency of Savonius wind turbine. Since Savonius-type wind turbines are drag-based wind turbines, we need to reduce the impulsive force acting on the negative face in order to increase the drag difference between the positive and negative side of the rotor blades thereby improving the efficiency of the turbine.&nbsp;Our proposition for attaining higher efficiency is by incorporating the concept of dimples (inspired from golf ball) on the negative side of the rotor blade and tubercles (inspired from whales) on the leading edge of the rotor blade. Dimples reduce the amount of wake region in the case of golf ball by increasing turbulence which is one of the desirable characteristics in the case of Savonius wind turbine. Tubercles help in reducing the wake region behind the rotor blades by increasing the turbulence of air near the surface of the rotor thereby improving the efficiency of the turbine. © 2021, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.</p>

Performance Enhancement of a Savonius Vertical Axis Wind Turbine with Bio-Inspired Design Modifications

This research deals with the design and fabrication of novel designs as a means to harness wind energy using ‘Savonius' Turbine. It is generally employed to harvest the low to extremely low wind speed potentials. They can be particularly of high use in the regions where the wind speeds are not high enough for installing conventional horizontal axis wind turbines. The paper introduces a novel concept of testing a Savonius wind turbine with dimple structures on its blades and investigating its effect on the turbine's efficiency. The study also deals with the experimental validation of the effect of using a converging ducted structure with a single stage and double stage configurations of Savonius wind turbine, apart from comparing the turbine's performance with and without endplates. The results of the study prove that power coefficient increases with the addition of dimple structures on the blades and it can be further augmented by using a ducted structure with the Savonius turbine. © 2020. All rights reserved.