An experimental study on the Darrieus-Savonius turbine for the tidal current power generation

Abstract

The Darrieus turbine is popular for tidal current power generation in Japan. It is simple in structure with straight wings rotating around a vertical axis, so that it has no directionality against the motion of tidal flow which changes its direction twice a day. However, there is one defect in the Darrieus turbine; its small starting torque. Once it stops, a Darrieus turbine is hard to re-start until a fairly fast current is exerted on it. To improve the starting torque of the Darrieus turbine used for tidal power generation, a hybrid turbine, composed of a Darrieus turbine and a Savonius rotor is proposed. Hydrodynamic characteristics of a semi-circular section used for the Savonius bucket were measured in a wind tunnel. The torque of a two bucket Savonius rotor was measured in a circulating water channel, where four different configurations of the bucket were compared. A combined Darrieus and Savonius turbine was tested in the circulating water channel, where the effect of the attaching angle between Darrieus wing and Savonius rotor was studied. Finally, power generation experiments using a 48 pole electric generator were conducted in a towing tank and the power coefficients were compared with the results of experiments obtained in the circulating water channel. Copyright © 2009 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE).