Numerical Study of a Six-Bladed Savonius Wind Turbine

Abstract

The aim of the present paper is to investigate ways of improving the efficiency of a six-bladed Savonius rotor. The efficiency of Savonius machines is low because of the “negative drag” exerted on the convex part of the blades and also because the torque of standard Savonius rotors varies substantially during one rotation and therefore affects the self starting of the rotor at certain wind angles. Improvement of the efficiency of the Savonius rotor is carried out by increasing the number of blades and also by preventing the wind from impinging on the convex parts. The latter can be done by hiding the convex part of the blades behind a shield or a vane. The present paper shows the results of two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) computations, indicating a promising increase of the power coefficient from 0.3 to 0.5.