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Spline-bladed Savonius wind rotor with porous deflector: a computational investigation

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Abstract

In order to improve the performance of the Savonius wind turbine, various blade profiles and shapes have evolved over the past two decades. In recent times, a spline profile, developed through optimization technique, has shown its superiority over other existing profiles. In the present work, the effect of porous deflector at the upstream of the spline blade profile has been studied numerically using the ANSYS Fluent software. The continuity, unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes, equations and two equation eddy viscosity SST (Shear Stress transport) k-ω model are solved to find the torque and power coefficients of the blade profile as a function of tip speed ratio (TSR). The static pressure, velocity magnitude, velocity streamlines and vorticity, and turbulent kinetic energy contours are obtained and analyzed. For the sake of comparison, the results are also generated for the blade profile with a solid deflector. At TSR = 0.8, the simulated results of spline profile with a porous deflector having a porosity of 90% show an improvement of maximum power coefficient by 6.6% and 14.7% as compared to the spline profile without the deflector and the semicircular profile, respectively.

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Data availability

The data that is used in this manuscript are available in open literature. Also, the data associated with this manuscript can be available from the author with a request.

Abbreviations

A :

Swept area (mm2)

AR:

Aspect ratio (H/D)

C d :

Drag coefficient

C m :

Torque coefficient

C p :

Power coefficient

C l :

Lift coefficient

D :

Diameter of the rotor (mm)

e :

Overlap distance (mm)

H :

Height of the blades (mm)

L :

Characteristic length of the roto (m)

N :

Rotor rotational speed (rpm)

h :

Height of the deflector (mm)

l :

Distance of the deflector (mm)

t :

Thickness (mm)

β :

Deflector angle (degree)

P :

Rotor power (W)

Re:

Reynolds number

ρ :

Density of air (kg/m2)

T :

Actual rotor torque (Nm)

T w :

Theoretical torque in wind (Nm)

ϕ :

Porosity

u :

Rotor tip speed (m/s)

V :

Incoming air velocity (m/s)

ω :

Rotor’s angular velocity (rad/s)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781039, India

    Aavirbhav Shukla & Ujjwal K. Saha

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Meghalaya, Shillong, 793003, India

    Nur Alom

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  1. Aavirbhav Shukla
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Correspondence to Nur Alom.

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Shukla, A., Alom, N. & Saha, U.K. Spline-bladed Savonius wind rotor with porous deflector: a computational investigation. J Braz. Soc. Mech. Sci. Eng. 44, 444 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40430-022-03755-w

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