scholarly journals PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF A HELICAL SAVONIUS ROTOR WITHOUT SHAFT AT 45° TWIST ANGLE USING CFD

Author(s):  
Bachu Deb ◽  
Rajat Gupta ◽  
R.D. Misra

Helical Savonius rotor exhibits better performance characteristics at all the rotor angles compared to conventional Savonius rotor. However studies related to the performance measurement and flow physics of such rotor are very scarce. Keeping this in view, in this paper, a three dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis using commercial Fluent 6.2 software was done to predict the performance of a two-bucket helical Savonius rotor without shaft and with end plates in a complete cycle of rotation. A two-bucket helical Savonius rotor having height of 60 cm and diameter of 17 cm with 45° bucket twist angle was designed using Gambit. The buckets were connected at the top and bottom circular end plates, which are 1.1 times the rotor diameter. The k-ε turbulence model with second order upwind discretization scheme was adopted with standard wall condition. Power coefficients (Cp) and torque coefficients (Ct) at different tip speed ratios were evaluated at different rotor angles. From the investigation, it was observed that power coefficient increased with increase of tip speed ratio up to an optimum limit, but then decreased even further tip speed ratio was increased. Further investigation was done on the variations of Cp & Ct in a complete cycle of rotation from 0° to 360° in a step of 45° rotor corresponding to the optimum tip speed ratio. The value of Cp at all the rotor angles is positive. Moreover, velocity magnitude contours were analyzed for each rotor angle and it could be concluded that high aerodynamic torque and power can be expected when the rotor is positioned at 45º & 90º with respect to incoming flow.

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajat Gupta ◽  
Bachu Deb ◽  
R. D. Misra

Helical Savonius rotor is considered to be superior to conventional Savonius rotor in terms of higher power coefficient (Cp) and better starting characteristic. However studies related to helical Savonius rotors is few. In view of this, in this paper, the performance of a helical Savonius rotor with shaft at 45° bucket twist angle for one complete cycle of rotation was analyzed using Computational Fluid Dynamics. A two-bucket helical Savonius rotor with shaft was designed using GAMBIT, having a height of 60 cm and diameter of 17 cm with 45° bucket twist angle. A three dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis using Fluent package was done to predict the performance of the rotor. Standard k-? turbulence model with second order upwind discretization scheme and standard wall condition was used. Grid independence test was also conducted to have the best meshing accuracy. Power coefficients (Cp) of the rotor at different tip speed ratios were evaluated for rotor angle variation from 0° to 180°. Cp at each rotor angle increased with increase of tip speed ratio up to an optimum tip speed ratio, but then decreased even if tip speed ratio was further increased. Moreover, the effect of rotor angle on Cp in a complete cycle of rotation was analyzed. Cp was found to be positive at all rotor angles, and higher values of Cp were obtained at rotor angles namely 45°, 90°, 225° and 270°, which would contribute maximum power production by the rotor. In addition to these, flow physics of the rotor was studied using tangential velocity plots w.r.t. rotor angle and path lines across the rotor. It was found that at 45°, 90° and 135° rotor angles, maximum concentration of the path lines near the tip of the blades in the upstream and downstream side of the rotor had occurred, which would be responsible for generation of maximum power coefficient in its clockwise rotation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 953-954 ◽  
pp. 424-427
Author(s):  
Jian Yong Zhu ◽  
Kai Wang ◽  
Hai Bin Ruan

The Aerodynamic Performance of 2D Savonius Rotor in Ground Effect is Numerically Simulated through Solving Unsteady Compressible RANS Equations and the Standard k-ε Turbulence Model. the Calculation Results Indicate that the Ground Effect Influences the Starting Performance and the Power Output. the Optimal Height between the Ground to the Lowest Part of the Rotor is 0.4 Times Rotation Diameter, at which the Starting Performance is Optimal. the Ground Effect also Increases the Power Coefficient and the Tip Speed Ratio Corresponding to the Maximum Power Coefficient. when Determining the Rated Tip Speed Ratio, the Fluctuation of the Torque Values and the Power Coefficient with Different Tip Speed Ratio should be Synthesized.


2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Amiri ◽  
M. Anbarsooz

Savonius wind turbines are popular for their easy fabrication and high starting capabilities. Nevertheless, they suffer from low power coefficients, which are mainly due to a negative torque resulting from the blade moving against the upcoming wind. Numerous methods have been proposed to alleviate the negative torque, among them are modified blade profiles (twisted blades), adding flow deflectors, and valve-aided blades. In this study, the effects of adding automatic valves to a two-bladed Savonius rotor on its energy conversion efficiency are investigated numerically and experimentally. The valves are placed at three different positions: close to the rotor axis, at the blade center, and at the tip of the rotor. Results show that although adding valves can decrease the negative torque of the returning blade, they can also lead to a considerable reduction in the positive torque of the advancing blade. For the rotors in the current study, the maximum power coefficient is increased 20.8% when the valves are at the tip of the blades, while the two other cases have decreased the power coefficient of the rotor. Adding the valves to the blades does not change the tip speed ratio corresponding to the maximum power coefficient of the rotor.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 729-735 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohanad Al-Ghriybah ◽  
Mohd Fadhli Zulkafli ◽  
Djamal Hissein Didane ◽  
Sofian Mohd

The performance of the single and double blade Savonius rotors are numerically analyzed using the K-ε/realizable turbulence model. The computations are implemented at different values of tipspeed ratio from 0.2 to 0.4 with a step of 0.05. Both rotors have the same dimensions with an external overlap between their blades equals 0.02 m. The results indicate that the double blade rotor performs better than the single blade rotor in terms of power coefficient. In addition, the torque coefficient is improved at all tested values of tip-speed ratio. Furthermore, the results of the simulation show that the maximum power coefficient was 0.163 at tip-speed ratio = 0.4 for the double blade rotor, whereas the maximum improvement of the double blade rotor occurs at tipspeed ratio = 0.2 with a percentage of 11.86% compared to the single blade rotor. Moreover, the highest value of the torque coefficient was 0.524 at tip-speed ratio = 0.2 for the double blade rotor.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manoj Kumar Chaudhary ◽  
Anindita Roy

A small wind turbine blade was designed and optimized in this research paper. The blade plays an important role, because it is the most important part of the energy absorption system. Consequently, the blade has to be designed carefully to enable to absorb energy with its greatest efficiency. The main objective of this paper is to optimized blade number and selection of tip speed ratio corresponding to the solidity. The power performance of small horizontal axis wind turbines was simulated in detail using blade element momentum methods (BEM). In this paper for wind blade design various factors such as tip loss, hub loss, drag coefficient, and wake were considered. The design process includes the selection of the wind turbine type and the determination of the blade airfoil, twist angle distribution along the radius, and chord length distribution along the radius. A parametric study that will determine if the optimized values of blade twist angle and chord length create the most efficient blade geometry. The 3-bladed, 5-bladed and 7-bladed rotor achieved maximum values of Cp 0.46, 0.5 and 0.48 at the tip speed ratio 7, 5 and 4 respectively. It was observed that using BEM theory, maximum Cp varied with strongly solidity and weakly with the blade number. The studies showed that the power coefficient increases upto blade number B = 5, while the blade number if increased above 5 then the power coefficient decreases at operating pitch angle equal to 3°. Highest Cp would have solidity between 4% to 6% for number of blade 3 and design point tip speed ratio of about "7". Highest Cp would have solidity ranging from 5% to 10% for number of blade 5 and 7 and design point tip speed ratio of about 5 and 4 respectively.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Niyat Zadeh ◽  
M. Pourfallah ◽  
S. Safari Sabet ◽  
M. Gholinia ◽  
S. Mouloodi ◽  
...  

AbstractIn this paper, we attempted to measure the effect of Bach’s section, which presents a high-power coefficient in the standard Savonius model, on the performance of the helical Savonius wind turbine, by observing the parameters affecting turbine performance. Assessment methods based on the tip speed ratio, torque variation, flow field characterizations, and the power coefficient are performed. The present issue was stimulated using the turbulence model SST (k- ω) at 6, 8, and 10 m/s wind flow velocities via COMSOL software. Numerical simulation was validated employing previous articles. Outputs demonstrate that Bach-primary and Bach-developed wind turbine models have less flow separation at the spoke-end than the simple helical Savonius model, ultimately improving wind turbines’ total performance and reducing spoke-dynamic loads. Compared with the basic model, the Bach-developed model shows an 18.3% performance improvement in the maximum power coefficient. Bach’s primary model also offers a 12.4% increase in power production than the initial model’s best performance. Furthermore, the results indicate that changing the geometric parameters of the Bach model at high velocities (in turbulent flows) does not significantly affect improving performance.


2012 ◽  
Vol 189 ◽  
pp. 448-452
Author(s):  
Yan Jun Chen ◽  
Guo Qing Wu ◽  
Yang Cao ◽  
Dian Gui Huang ◽  
Qin Wang ◽  
...  

Numerical studies are conducted to research the performance of a kind of lift-drag type vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) affected by solidity with the CFD method. Moving mesh technique is used to construct the model. The Spalart-Allmaras one equation turbulent model and the implicit coupled algorithm based on pressure are selected to solve the transient equations. In this research, how the tip speed ratio and the solidity of blade affect the power coefficient (Cp) of the small H-VAWT is analyzed. The results indicate that Cp curves exhibit approximate parabolic form with its maximum in the middle range of tip speed ratio. The two-blade wind turbine has the lowest Cp while the three-blade one is more powerful and the four-blade one brings the highest power. With the certain number of blades, there is a best chord length, and too long or too short chord length may reduce the Cp.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-37
Author(s):  
Mabrouk Mosbahi ◽  
Mouna Derbel ◽  
Mariem Lajnef ◽  
Bouzid Mosbahi ◽  
Zied Driss ◽  
...  

Abstract Twisted Darrieus water turbine is receiving growing attentiveness for small-scale hydropower generation. Accordingly, the need for raised water energy conversion incentivizes researchers to focalise on the blade shape optimization of twisted Darrieus turbine. In view of this, an experimental analysis has been performed to appraise the efficiency of a spiral Darrieus water rotor in the present work. To better the performance parameters of the studied water rotor with twisted blades, three novel blade shapes, namely U-shaped blade, V-shaped blade and W-shaped blade, have been numerically tested using a computational fluid dynamics three-dimensional numerical model. Maximum power coefficient of Darrieus rotor reaches 0.17 at 0.63 tip-speed ratio using twisted blades. Using V-shaped blades, maximum power coefficient has been risen up to 0.185. The current study could be practically applied to provide more effective employment of twisted Darrieus turbines and to improve the generated power from flowing water such as river streams, tidal currents, or other man made water canals.


Author(s):  
Nur Alom ◽  
Ujjwal K. Saha

The Savonius rotor appears to be particularly promising for the small-scale applications because of its design simplicity, good starting ability, and insensitivity to wind directions. There has been a growing interest in recent times to harness wind energy in an efficient manner by developing newer blade profiles of Savonius rotor. The overlap ratio (OR), one of the important geometric parameters, plays a crucial role in the turbine performance. In a recent study, an elliptical blade profile with a sectional cut angle (θ) of 47.5° has demonstrated its superior performance when set at an OR = 0.20. However, this value of OR is ideal for a semicircular profile, and therefore, requires further investigation to arrive at the optimum overlap ratio for the elliptical profile. In view of this, the present study attempts to make a systemic numerical study to arrive at the optimum OR of the elliptical profile having sectional cut angle, θ = 47.5°. The 2D unsteady simulation is carried out around the elliptical profile considering various overlap ratios in the range of 0.0 to 0.30. The continuity, unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations and two equation eddy viscosity SST (Shear Stress transport) k-ω model are solved by using the commercial finite volume method (FVM) based solver ANSYS Fluent. The torque and power coefficients are calculated as a function of tip speed ratio (TSR) and at rotating conditions. The total pressure, velocity magnitude and turbulence intensity contours are obtained and analyzed to arrive at the intended objective. The numerical simulation demonstrates an improved performance of the elliptical profile at an OR = 0.15.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document