Small-scale vertical-axis wind power generation technologies such as Savonius wind turbines are gaining popularity in suburban and urban settings. Although vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) may not be as efficient as their horizontal-axis counterparts, they often present better opportunities for integration within building structures. The main issue stems from the suboptimal aerodynamic design of Savonius turbine blades, resulting in lower efficiency and power output. To address this, modern turbine designs focus on optimizing various geometric aspects of the turbine to improve aerodynamic performance, efficiency, and overall effectiveness. This study developed a unique optimization method, incorporating a new blade geometry with guide gap flow for Savonius wind turbine blade design. The aerodynamic characteristics of the Savonius wind turbine blade were extensively analyzed using 3D ANSYS CFX software. The optimization process emphasized the power coefficient as the objective function while considering blade profiles, overlap ratio, and blade number as crucial design parameters. This objective was accomplished using the design of experiments (DOE) method with the Minitab statistical software. The research findings revealed that the novel turbine design “OR0.109BS2BN2” outperformed the reference turbine with a 22.8% higher power coefficient. Furthermore, the results indicated a trade-off between the flow (swirling flow) through the gap guide flow and the impact blockage ratio, which resulted from the reduced channel width caused by the extended blade tip length.

Renewable energy sources are preferred for many power generation applications. Energy from the wind is one of the fastest-expanding kinds of sustainable energy, and it is essential in preventing potential energy issues in the foreseeable future. One pertinent issue is the many geometrical alterations that the scientific community has suggested to enhance rotor performance features. Hence, to address the challenge of developing a model that resolves these problems, the purpose of this investigation was to determine how well a scaled-down version of a Savonius turbine performed in terms of power output using a wind tunnel. Subsequently, the effect of the blockage ratio produced in the wind tunnel during the chamber test on the scaled model was evaluated. This study discusses the influences of various modified configurations on the turbine blades’ torque and power coefficients (Cp) at various tip speed ratios (TSRs) using three-dimensional (3D) unsteady computational fluid dynamics. The findings showed that the scaled model successfully achieved tunnel blockage corrections, and the experimental results obtained can be used in order to estimate how the same turbine would perform in real conditions. Furthermore, numerically, the new models achieved improvements in Cp of 19.5%, 16.8%, and 12.2%, respectively, for the flow-guiding channel (FGC at Ⴔ = 30°), wavy area at tip and end (WTE), and wavy area on the convex blade (WCB) models in comparison to the benchmark S-ORM model and under identical wind speed conditions. This investigation can provide guidance for improvements of the aerodynamic characteristics of Savonius wind turbines.

A meshing size study is essential for any simulation, as it affects the accuracy of the results by approximating the real-world geometry. This paper presents a detailed mesh convergence study for a 2D axisymmetric pipe model. The model incorporates a one-quarter cross-section due to the axisymmetric nature of the pipe. Four pipe wall thicknesses were investigated: 3.40 mm, 7.11 mm, 10.97 mm, and 18.26 mm. The results revealed a significant advantage for simulations involving thin pipes. They achieved convergence, a state with stable solution values, by utilizing a less dense mesh, leading to reduced computational time. This trend was exemplified by the fact that a thinner pipe with thickness, t = 3.40 mm has converged with only 8 mesh elements, whereas a significantly thicker pipe, t = 18.26 mm necessitated 14 elements for convergence. This suggests that more complex geometries, with intricate details, may require a larger and denser mesh for convergence, leading to increased computational time. In conclusion, the mesh convergence study confirms that the finite element analysis (FEA) model has achieved a converged solution.

Wind energy is seeing rapid growth and development in many nations, particularly in metropolitan areas. As is generally known, standard commercial wind turbines

The Savonius wind rotor considered the most common categories of the vertical axis wind rotor in order to generate energy from the wind. Elliptical blades one of adopted geometry to design the Savonius turbine rotor. The development of the blade geometry is some of the most essential strategies for improving the Savonius rotor's performance. In this paper, CFD simulations were used to study the effect of geometric parameters of the small scale elliptical Savonius turbine rotor (ESTR) with inner surface wavy blades. The simulation has been implemented in a in a two configurations design models, ESTR models with twisting angle in range of (5˚ to 45˚) and ESTR models with tilt angle of end plates (3˚ to 15˚) with an aspect-ratio of (1) and an overlap-ratio within (0.2). The performance was assessed using torque and the power coefficient varies with the tip speed ratio. The numerical results shows that the increase in the maximum power- coefficient with increase of twist angle and tilt angle until optimum values of 30˚ and 12˚ for a twist angle and tilt angle, respectively. Although in all configuration show a good increase in power coefficient but there are a significant increasing in maximum power coefficient for ESTR model with twist angle of 30˚ which was 3.7% while the increasing reach to 14.55% at ESTR model with tilt angle 12˚ at tip speed ratio of 7. As well as, in comparison to the preceding ESTR model, these two models give a leap in power coefficients for a distinct range of tip speed ratios.