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a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 28 January 2015
Received in revised form
30 October 2015
Accepted 6 December 2015
Available online 20 December 2015
This study aimed to understand the performance and shape characteristics of a helical Savonius wind
turbine at various helical angles. The power coefcient (Cp) at different tip speed ratios (TSRs) and torque
coefcient (CT) at different azimuths for helical blade angles of 0 , 45 , 90 , and 135 were observed
under the conditions of a constant projection area and aspect ratio. The numerical results discussed in
this paper were obtained using an incompressible unsteady Reynolds average NaviereStokes (k- RNG)
model. A numerical analysis in the unsteady state was used to examine the ow characteristics in 1
steps from 0 to 360 . In addition, an experiment was performed at a large-scale wind tunnel, and the
results were compared with those of the numerical analysis. Wind speed correction was also employed
because of the blockage effect between the wind turbine and wind tunnel. Our results showed that the
maximum power coefcient (Cp,max) values in both cases had similar tendencies for the TSR range
considered in this study, i.e. from 0.4 to 0.8, except for the twist angle of 45 . The Cp,max occurred at the
twist angle of 45 , whereas it decreased by 25.5% at 90 and 135 . Regarding the CT values at various
azimuths, the results showed that the peak-to-peak values in the proles for 90 and 135 were less than
those for 0 and 45 .
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Numerical study
Savonius wind turbine
Helical blade
Maximum power coefcient
Q-criterion
1. Introduction
Because of the excessive use of fossil fuels, the world is facing
serious problems related to energy depletion and environmental
pollution. To overcome these problems, many alternatives to fossil
fuels have been proposed. Among these, renewable energy has
drawn much attention because of the signicant investments in
its research and development by governments and the diverse
policies established by governments to extend it to the private
sector. According to a report published by the [1]; the amount of
renewable energy generated is increasing yearly. In 2012, the
amount had grown by about 19% from the previous year. The capacity of wind energy in particular has increased compared to
other forms of renewable energy. The annual average growth rate
of wind power capacity from 2007 to 2012 was reported to be
about 25%.
Within wind energy, horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs)
have attracted most of the attention during recent years. However,
vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) have an inherent advantage
over HAWTs. For example, in the case of VAWTs, the blade is easily
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: hclim@pusan.ac.kr (H.-C. Lim).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2015.12.012
0960-1481/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
232
wind turbine at a 90 twist angle. They reported that the performance at a low aspect ratio (0.88) was better than those at 0.93 and
1.17 [13,14]. performed a numerical analysis on a Savonius turbine
with either two or three blades. The results indicated that the twobladed rotor generated better power coefcients than the threebladed design. Furthermore, they attempted to optimize the
blade shape using evolutionary algorithms [15]. numerically studied the inuences of the number of blades, overlap ratio, twist
angle, and aspect ratio on the power coefcient [16]. conducted an
experiment using a helical blade in a wind tunnel. Their results
indicated that an increase in the twist angle enhanced the performance at low speeds. On the other hand, increasing the twist angles
resulted in a reduction in the net positive torque.
Fig. 2. Top and side view of wind rotor shapes with different twist angle (solid line: contact line on the upper endplate, dashed line: lower endplate).
233
rV H
Re
m
(1)
where V and H are the velocity at the tunnel freestream and the
height of the Savonius turbine, respectively. In this study, V and H
are taken as 8 m/s and 10 m/s and 2.1 m, respectively. Therefore, the
Reynolds numbers used in this study are 1.8106 and 1.44106 for
the experiment and simulation, respectively.
In addition, in order to dene the power and torque coefcients
(Cp and CT, respectively), the dynamic effects of the rotational wind
turbine need to be considered; therefore, the hydraulic diameter Dh
of the Savonius turbine is used to form an appropriate projection
area A.
Dh
2D H
DH
TSR
uR
2pRn
V 60V
Average area
f0
f45
f90
f135
0.296
0.297
0.297
0.297
m2
m2
m2
m2
Maximum area
0.392
0.386
0.366
0.335
m2
m2
m2
m2
Minimum area
0.136
0.183
0.229
0.268
m2
m2
m2
m2
(3)
Table 1
Average, maximum, and minimum projection areas at different twist angles.
Twist angle
(2)
234
Cp
Tu
3
0:5rAV
(4)
CT
T
2
0:5rARV
(5)
H
a
D
(6)
and lower end-plates of the blades. In order to properly join all the
blades and stabilize the ow around them, the use of both upper
and lower end-plates was the best choice, as previously suggested
(see Refs. [20,21]). Regarding the aspect ratio, a was set to 1.33:1,
which was considered to be the optimum shape [19]. Overlap ratio
b was set to 0.167, and end-plates were installed. In order to
conduct an experiment and numerical analysis based on different
twist angles, we made four different models: - 0 , 45 , 90 , and
135 .
In the case of a Savonius wind rotor, the projection area would
change along a cycle of rotation when two blades are rotating.
Therefore, when the blades are rotating, a performance evaluation
needs to consider a full cycle. Depending on the twist angle, the
projection area appears to have a variety of shapes: a nut, ellipsoid,
almost circle, etc. At a twist angle of 0 , the projection area has the
shape of two partly overlapping circles. As the twist angle increases, however, the projection area turns into an ellipsoid shape,
as indicated in Fig. 3. Therefore, the various projection area shapes
at different twist angles were taken into consideration in this study.
Note that even at different twist angles, the wind turbine was
designed to have projection areas with identical average sizes. The
maximum, minimum, and average projection areas are listed in
Table 1. The gures in this table indicate that the difference between the minimum and maximum projection areas became lower
as the twist angle increased.
2.3. Wind tunnel experiment
The experiments were carried out in a large-scale boundary
b0 ,
e
D
(7)
The twist angle is dened as the twist angle between the upper
Vc
1
V
1 m CS
235
reconnects with the external domain so that the wind ows are
readjusted and repeatedly renewed. Therefore, after creating this
unsteady condition, it is nally stabilized. The nal values depend
on the number of iterations (i.e. 50 iterations in our study) and then
become converged. In addition, the data began to be saved after ve
rotations of the turbine rotor to ensure ow stabilization. The data
began to be saved after ve rotations of the turbine rotor to ensure
ow stabilization.
3.1. Governing equation
The turbulence model employed in this paper requires an unsteady Reynolds average NaviereStokes (URANS) analysis. In this
case, the governing equations under a Newtonian uid condition
required two equations: the continuity equation expressed in Eqn
(9) and momentum equation expressed in Eqn (10).
vui
0
vxi
(9)
vui
v
1 vp
v
ui uj
vxj
r vxi vxj
vt
3. Numerical analysis
In this study, the numerical simulations were coaxially performed using ANSYS Fluent, which is a commercial computational
uid dynamics (CFD) solver. This software calculates the complicated ow structure based on the nite volume method (FVM) of
the NaviereStokes governing equation, which is suitable for
resolving the problems associated with the interaction between the
complicated on-coming wind ow and the rotating blades. The
numerical domain and meshes were generated using ANSYS ICEM.
The number of meshes used in this study ranged from 1,200,000 to
1,500,000.
In order to calculate the ow around the wind turbine, it is
important to set an appropriate iteration time at each step during
the rotation of the blade. As the subdomain is rotated in each step, it
vui
u0i u0j
vxj
!
(10)
Dk
v
Dt vxj
ak meff
vk
vxj
(8)
where the blockage ratio (S/C) is the ratio of the wind turbine
projection area (S) and wind tunnel cross-sectional area (C). V is the
free stream velocity, Vc is the correction velocity, and m represents
the coefcient of wall, which had a value of one. In our study, the
values of S/C and Vc/V were 0.092 and 1.15, respectively. After
correction, the velocity in the wind tunnel during our experiments
was increased from 10 m/s to 11.5 m/s, while the velocity in the
numerical simulations was changed from 8 m/s to 9.2 m/s.
Dk
v
r
Dt vxj
v
a meff
vxj
Gk r
(11)
2
C1 Gk C2 r R
k
k
(12)
Fig. 7. Overall domains of boundary and internal condition used in numerical analysis.
236
order to deduce the link between the pressure and velocity in the
calculation domain, the semi-implicit method for pressure-linked
equation (SIMPLE) algorithm was used.
In order to deduce the link between the pressure and velocity in
the calculation domain, we implemented a second-order upwind
scheme (thus improving accuracy and feasibility) rather than using
a rst-order scheme. In order to convert the continuity equation
into a discrete Poisson equation for pressure, the Simple method
was applied (see Refs. [11,14,27]). The differential equations are
linearized and solved implicitly in sequence, starting with the
pressure equation (predictor stage), followed by the momentum
equations and the pressure-correction equation (corrector stage).
In order to manipulate the gradient, we used a least-squares cellbased scheme. (See Ref. [28]).
The time step we used in the calculation was 5.89104 sec at
TSR1 (i.e. 1 rotation every time step) to observe the detailed
structure of the separated wake behind the turbine blades. For a
reliable result, the calculation was continuously made to achieve
consistent torque from each blade during one cycle. In addition, in
order to provide a suitable time step, the CFL number was maintained at less than 10, which is a bit unsuitable, but the standard
wall function compensates for the wall treatment instead.
During each iteration, the values obtained for the variables
should get closer and closer so that they converge. For some reason,
the solution can become unstable, so a relaxation factor refers the
value from the previous iteration to dampen the solution and cut
out steep oscillations. As a rule of thumb in this study, we simply
keep the relaxation factors at default, which is quite reasonable for
especially cold ows without combustion. In our study, we used
pressure 0.3, body force 1, momentum 0.8, turbulent kinetic energy
0.8, turbulent dissipation rate 0.8, and turbulent viscosity 1.
237
Fig. 10 shows the torque coefcient (CT) values at different azimuths. When the azimuth was varied, CT attained its highest value
of 0.34 at a twist angle of 45 and TSR of 0.45. The graphs also
indicate that the phase difference of CT decreased as the twist angle
increased. At a twist angle of 135 , the phase difference was the
least.
In the experiment, the torque sensor actually reads the averaged
torque values during the measurement so that the values of
different azimuth angles in real time may not be possible or
available owing to the hardware limitations of our experiment. In
addition, depending on the condition of the wind tunnel, the torque
signal sometimes becomes unstable in the early stages of measurement. Therefore, during each measurement, we waited to
obtain a stable condition that yielded a reliable rpm and torque. The
averaged values were obtained after waiting for approximately
5e10 min to get reliable values in the tunnel. For the numerical
simulation, the torque variation having consistent periodic values
from each blade was averaged for each cycle.
In the result, negative CT values occurred in the azimuth angle
ranges of 60 -150 and 240 -330 at twist angles of 0 , 45 , and
135 , with a TSR of 0.88. Regarding this observation, which will be
explained shortly, it is inferred that a force by air is not properly
transferred to the concave surfaces of both blades. Instead, it might
affect convex surfaces. However, in a case where TSR was less than
0.45, no negative values were found. This might be because the air
resistance increased at the convex part of the blade in comparison
to the rotational power of the turbine as the rotational speed
increased. In contrast, the blades with twist angles of 135 did not
show any negative value of CT at TSR 0.88.
Fig. 11 shows CT values with a TSR of 0.6 at different azimuths.
Interestingly, in Fig. 11(a) and (b), the CT of blade 1 tends to increase
and decrease within the range of 225 -270 . However, this phenomenon was not observed in the case of blades with twist angles
of 90 and 135 . It seems that the twist angle caused the internal
238
the opposite side of the blade. When the twist angle was 90 , the
instant kink of the torque coefcient did not appear because of the
twist angle. In addition, with an increase in the twist angle, the
239
240
Fig. 12. Q-criterion distribution around Savonius wind turbine (Q-value was 0.011).
241
Fig. 15. Surface pressure (Cpr) and velocity eld at twist angles of 45 and 135 with an azimuth angle of 45 . In the gure, the wind directions are toward the page.
242
Fig. 16. Sectional pressure distribution indicating the maximum and minimum Cpr. In the gure, (a) and (c) are the case of maximum Cpr and (b) and (d) the minimum Cpr.
Fig. 17. Averaged surface pressure distribution for different twist angles.
243
Fig. 18. Sectional averaged pressure distribution around the blades with different twist angles.
stagnant pressure close to the end plates is a bit high for the blade
with a twist angle of 0 (see the slices S1 and S5. The suction
pressure would be high close to the end plate). However, this effect
seems to be reduced for the blade with a twist angle of 135 (see the
slice S5). Considering the structural stability, this effect reduces
relatively the vertical load (vertical lift force and bending moment,
etc.) on the main rotational axis (i.e. the negative lift force increases
as the twist angle increases).
5. Concluding remarks
This study investigated the performance and shape characteristics of a helical Savonius wind turbine at various twist angles. The
power coefcient (Cp) values at different TSRs and torque coefcient (CT) values at different azimuths for twist blade angles of 0 ,
45 , 90 , and 135 were observed under the condition that the
projection area and aspect ratio were constant. The key conclusions
are summarized as follows.
1) The simulation results successfully veried the experiment results at a range of TSRs and maximum power coefcient (Cp,max)
values as the Savonius wind turbine blade twist angle was
varied.
2) The maximum Cp appears to be approximately 0.13 at a twist
angle of 45 . However, at twist angles of 90 and 135 , the value
of the power coefcient (Cp) became lower than that at 0 , but
the maximum Cp appeared to be similar.
3) When the twist angle was greater than 90 , it was found that the
torque coefcients stabilized and remained constant.
This work was supported by the Human Resources Development of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and
Planning (KETEP) grant funded by the Korea government Ministry
of Knowledge Economy (No. 20124010203230, 20114010203080).
In addition, this research was supported by Basic Science
Research Program through the National Research Foundation of
Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and
Technology(2013005347).
This research was also supported by the Fire Fighting Safety &
119 Rescue Technology Research and Development Program funded
by the Ministry of Public Safety and Security (MPSS-2015-80).
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