Abstract
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. 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.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Abbreviations
- VAWT:
-
Vertical-axis wind turbines
- P ω :
-
Total wind power available
- P o :
-
Power output by the wind turbine
- C p :
-
Coefficient of power
- A :
-
Swept area of the turbine
- ω :
-
Angular velocity of turbine in rad/sec
- ρ :
-
Density of the air
- λ :
-
Tip-speed ratio
- R :
-
Radius of the turbine
- H :
-
Height of turbine
- D :
-
Diameter of the turbine
- rpm:
-
Turbine speed in revolutions per minute
- d :
-
Diameter of turbine blades
References
Power Technology, https://www.power-technology.com/features/cheapest-renewable-energy-sources/. Last accessed 13 Feb 2019
OIL PRICE, https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Wind-Solar-Are-Now-The-Cheapest-Sources-Of-Power-Generation.html. Last accessed 14 Feb 2019
Johari MK, Jalil MAA, Shariff MF (2018) Comparison of horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) and vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT). 7:74–80. https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i4.13.21333
Alam F, Steiner T, Chowdhury H, Subic A (2011) A study of golf ball aerodynamic drag. In: 5th Asia-Pacific congress on sports technology (APCST) Procedia Engineering, vol 13, pp 226–231, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2011.05.077
Alam F, Chowdhury H, Moria A, Subic A (2010) A comparative study of golf ball aerodynamics. In: Conference: 17th Australasian fluid mechanics conference 2010, Auckland, New Zealand, pp 599–602, ISBN: 978-1-61782-913
Aerospace Web, http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/aerodynamics/sports/sphere-flow-comparison.jpg. Last accessed 05 May 2019
Gupta AK (2015) Efficient wind energy conversion: evolution to modern design. ASME J Energy Resourc Technol 137(5):051201–051201-10, JERT-14-1427. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4030109
Alom N, Saha UK (2018) Four decades of research into the augmentation techniques of Savonius wind turbine rotor. ASME J Energy Resourc Technol 140(5), 050801, 14 pages. Paper No: JERT-17-1620. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4038785
Mari M, Venturini M, Beyene A (2017) A novel geometry for vertical axis wind turbines based on the Savonius concept. ASME J Energy Resourc Technol 139(6):061202–061202-9. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4036964
Mahmoud NH, El-Haroun AA, Wahba E, Nasef MH (2012) An experimental study on improvement of Savonius rotor performance. Alexandria Eng J 51(1):19–25
Rosmina N, Jauharib AS, Mustaamalc AH, Husind F, Hassane MY (2015) Experimental study for the single-stage and double-stage two-bladed Savonius Micro-sized turbine for rain water harvesting (RWH) System. In: 2nd international conference on sustainable energy engineering and application, ICSEEA Energy Procedia, 68, pp 274–281
Kamoji MA, Kedare SB, Prabhu SV (2008) Experimental investigations on single stage, two stage and three stage conventional Savonius rotor. Int J Energy Res 32(10):877–895. https://doi.org/10.1002/er.1399
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the laboratory assistants, Sanjay Singh, Amit Kumar, Sunil Gupta and Vishal Gaur for their assistance in establishing the experimental rig. Authors would also thank Shiv Nadar University for their support in carrying out the experiment.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Hasan Fayaz, S.M., Tyagi, U., Jain, A., Mishra, N. (2021). Performance Enhancement of a Savonius Vertical Axis Wind Turbine with Bio-Inspired Design Modifications. In: Akinlabi, E., Ramkumar, P., Selvaraj, M. (eds) Trends in Mechanical and Biomedical Design. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4488-0_38
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4488-0_38
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-4487-3
Online ISBN: 978-981-15-4488-0
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)