Enhancement of Savonius Wind Turbine Performance Through Blade Optimization

Abstract

The objective of this study is to create an innovative blade design that enhances the power efficiency of the Savonius rotors. This is achieved by optimizing the blade shape of the traditional Savonius rotor using the ANSYS Adjoint solver program. The results of the analysis revealed that the total pressure exerted on the optimized shape was 16 times greater than that of the traditional Savonius rotor. To compare performance metrics, the rotor with the optimized blade structure was numerically modeled alongside the traditional and Banesh-type Savonius rotors using the ANSYS Fluent program. The Dynamic Mesh 6DOF method is used in the model domain in order to simulate rotation of the rotor. The rotors were then analyzed in two different configurations: as a single-stage rotor with a phase angle of 0o, and as a three-stage rotor with a phase angle of 60o between each stage while keeping rotor height constant. The optimized blade rotor with 3 stages demonstrated superior performance with a power coefficient of 0.44, outperforming both the Banesh and traditional Savonius rotors, while also displaying power coefficient values 18.9% and 37.5% higher than the Banesh-type Savonius and traditional Savonius rotors, respectively.