Performance and flow analysis of an elliptic bladed Savonius-style wind turbine

Abstract

This paper describes the results of a three-dimensional numerical investigation conducted on an elliptic bladed Savonius-style wind turbine (SSWT) and the flow field around it. The investigation is also enriched by the comparison of the performance and flow characteristics of this turbine to that of a conventional semicircular bladed SSWT. Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations are solved using a k-ω shear stress transport turbulence model under dynamic conditions. The numerical results indicate the highest power coefficient (CP) of 0.25 for an elliptic bladed SSWT in comparison with 0.21 for a semicircular bladed SSWT. Furthermore, the computational findings are strengthened by the wind tunnel experiments. From both studies, better torque and power characteristics are obtained with the elliptic bladed turbine in comparison with the semicircular bladed turbine. The deviation of computational results from experimental findings for both kinds of turbines is studied here. The flow field in the vicinity of the blades for both the SSWTs has been studied and compared using the parameters, namely velocity, pressure, and turbulent intensity.