Numerical Study of a Six-Bladed

Savonius Wind Turbine

Binyet Emmanuel
e-mail: emmanuelbinyet@hotmail.com
Wang Jun
e-mail: wangjhust@163.com
Fluid Machinery Department,
Huazhong University of Science and Technology,
1037 Luoyu Road,
Wuhan 430074, Peoples Republic of China
The aim of the present paper is to investigate ways of improving
the efciency of a six-bladed Savonius rotor. The efciency 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 efciency of the Savonius rotor is car-
ried out by increasing the number of blades and also by prevent-
ing 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 uid dynamics (CFD) computations, indicating a
promising increase of the power coefcient from 0.3 to 0.5.
[DOI: 10.1115/1.4004549]
Keywords: Savonius, vertical axis wind turbine, CFD
1 Introduction
In developing countries with low industrialization, lack of elec-
trical energy is a major barrier to their progress. Among the vari-
ous alternatives, wind turbines of the Savonius type t well
because they are easy to manufacture and have low cost. More-
over, drag rotors start producing energy at very low wind speeds
and can still continue producing electricity at very high wind
speeds. This is the reason why this type of turbine is still popular
despite its low coefcient of power.
The aim of the present paper is to improve the efciency of the
Savonius rotors by working on its two main drawbacks: (1) unsta-
ble torque and (2) drag caused by the pressure on the convex part.
2 Rotor Concept and Computational Fluid Dynamics
(CFD) Model
These rotors work under the principle of drag difference: the
concave part has a high drag coefcient and the convex part has a
low one (Fig. 1). The difference in drag creates a torque M, which
makes the rotor spinning with an angular velocity x, giving a me-
chanical power P
m
Mx.
FLUENT 6 together with GAMBIT were used for the CFD modeling
(Fig. 2). The two-dimensional unstructured mesh is formed by
two zones of almost 100,000 triangular cells each. The rotor is
inside the moving zone (delimited by a circular interface), which
is rotating at a constant angular velocity. The static zone sur-
rounds the moving zone and represents a constant wind ow. The
SIMPLE algorithm (with default under relaxation factors) to-
gether with the turbulence model RNG k-e were used to solve the
discrete RANS over the nite volume mesh.
The aim of the simulations is to estimate the power curve
(C
P
k). For the standard Savonius rotors, due to the presence of
the overlap, the tip speed ratio (TSR) reads k x 2d e =2v,
where v denotes the wind speed and x denotes the rotational
velocity, e describes the overlap;
e
d

1
6
gives the best performan-
ces, and the efciency is maximum when k is a little below
1 (according to the references).
For the six-bladed rotor: k x
D
2
=v.
The power coefcient reads C
P
Mx=
q
2
v
3
S, M being the overall
torque at the axis.
The reference surface S is a (vertical) rectangular surface of
height h (1 m) and the rotors diameter D as width. The heightdi-
ameter ratio for the rotor used in the present simulations is two
(then D 0:5m). For the six-bladed rotor, S m
2
D m h m .
For the Savonius rotor (see Fig. 1), S m
2
2d e m h m .
3 CFD Computations
3.1 Savonius Rotor. The conventional Savonius rotor does
not work efciently for the following two reasons: there is a nega-
tive torque resulting of the wind exerting pressure on the convex
part of the blades and also because the torque produced varies
(from high to null) along the rotation. The computation results
shown in Fig. 3 conrm this statement.
Figure 3 shows clearly the biggest drawback of the standard
Savonius rotor: the torque varies and becomes null along the rota-
tion. High torque value occurs only once every 180 deg. In addi-
tion, the pressure on the convex blade is all long of the rotation,
hindering the advancing blade generating an important vortex
(negative drag). The overlap ratio that denes the empty space at
the center plays a key role because it reduces the effect of the
pressure on the convex part and allows wind owing to the other
side, thus impinging on the other concave part.
For a better efciency of the turbine, the wind blowing in the
rotor should produce torque continuously. Then, more blades can
be added in order to capture all the stream tubes owing through
the rotor. We therefore chose to use the six-bladed rotor concept,
which seems to have optimum characteristics (according to Shi-
kha et al. [2]).
3.2 Six-Bladed Savonius Rotor. The height, curvature, and
arc length (inner and outer diameters) of the six-bladed rotor have
a strong inuence on its efciency. The present work has focused
on the innerouter diameter ratio. It has been found that a 35% ra-
tio achieves higher power output.
The wind inside the rotor should be able to ow from blade to
blade, so that more blades experience high pressure on their con-
cave part, thus raising the overall torque value. The rotor on the
left of Fig. 4 has the lowest efciency because the air is trapped
inside the blades; the part of the blade near the shaft yet does not
produce any signicant torque. It has to be kept in mind that the
power output of a nonoptimized multibladed rotor would even be
lower than a standard Savonius rotor [4].
The velocity at the center of the rotor is much higher than in the
free stream and the pressure is also lower. The air is owing from
blade to blade, generating pressure on four concave parts. The inner
ow is prominent, giving a more efcient transformation of the
kinetic energy into pressure at the concave faces. At B4, the ow is
not efciently captured by the blade, leading to a loss in kinetic
energy (high exit velocity). The separation bubbles in the wake of
the two convex parts (B5 and B6) illustrate well the negative drag.
We also notice that there is not much ow in the zone behind B2.
There is also a separation bubble in the wake of B2 and B3, result-
ing in a lower pressure zone at B3 and B 4, thus lowering the over-
all efciency (Fig. 5).
Contributed by the Solar Energy Division of ASME for publication in the
JOURNAL OF SOLAR ENERGY ENGINEERING. Manuscript received November 18, 2010;
nal manuscript received June 28, 2011; published online October 18, 2011. Assoc.
Editor: Spyros Voutsinas.
Journal of Solar Energy Engineering NOVEMBER 2011, Vol. 133 / 044503-1 Copyright VC
2011 by ASME
Downloaded From: http://solarenergyengineering.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 06/04/2014 Terms of Use: http://asme.org/terms
Fig. 2 CFD model, two-dimensional grid, and boundary conditions
Fig. 1 Main geometric factors of the Savonius rotor, physical model, and our prototype
Fig. 3 Flow over time for a wind speed of 3 m/s
044503-2 / Vol. 133, NOVEMBER 2011 Transactions of the ASME
Downloaded From: http://solarenergyengineering.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 06/04/2014 Terms of Use: http://asme.org/terms
3.3 Improving the Efficiency Using External Devices. The
goal is to suppress the pressure exerted on the convex part. Four
congurations were investigated: six-bladed rotor, six-bladed
rotor with wind full shield and half shield, six-bladed rotor with
stator (Fig. 6). Computations, both steady and unsteady, were run
for different TSR. The computations results showed that
1. the six-bladed rotor without shielding has a reduced ef-
ciency but still higher than a standard Savonius rotor
2. the two shielded rotors and the rotor with stator have a high
efciency due to the suppression of the negative drag.
3.3.1 Rotor With Partial Shield. There is no wind inow im-
pinging on the convex parts of the blades anymore, suppressing
the negative drag. Convex parts are now located in a low pressure
zone. Therefore, the power at the rotation axis is higher. Some of
the air particles tend to avoid the concave blades due to the high
pressure. Because of the little ow in the blade channels, the
energy conversion is mostly due to the two rst blades.
3.3.2 Rotor With Full Shield. The main difference with the
previous conguration is that the stream lines are directed in the
concave parts; the air particles are forced into the blades. There is
a high velocity zone at the inlet of the shield due to the lower pres-
sure inside the blade channels and the higher pressure in the neck.
3.3.3 Rotor With Stator. Mobile shields have to adjust their
position to ensure that the inlet is perpendicular to the wind at any
time, thus yielding a complicated design and stability problems.
The stator is then a better solution; it brings a very high efciency at
optimum angles. However, at some angles, the stator would become
an obstacle to the wind ow, meaning a huge drop in the efciency.
The stator presented here can improve the efciency at the major
wind angles (0, 90, 180, and 270) but would decrease the efciency
at minor angles and especially if the wind is parallel to the vanes.
The power output therefore depends on the wind direction. Figure 7
(right) shows the computation results for a wind angle of 45 deg;
the Cp is very low because the vane is an obstacle to the ow in the
concave blade: concave faces cannot efciently capture the wind.
Furthermore, an important part of the incoming ow is impinging
Fig. 4 CFD ow eld (pressure and streamlines) for different inner diameters under a wind
speed of 3 m/s and a TSR of 0.5
Fig. 5 Steady ow for a wind speed of 3 m/s and a TSR of 0.2 and 0.5 (above)
and for a wind speed of 6 m/s for a TSR of 0.2 and 0.5 (below)
Journal of Solar Energy Engineering NOVEMBER 2011, Vol. 133 / 044503-3
Downloaded From: http://solarenergyengineering.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 06/04/2014 Terms of Use: http://asme.org/terms
on the convex parts and high pressure is applied on the perpendicu-
lar vanes. At the optimum angle [Fig. 7 (left)], the drag of this con-
guration is substantial; the pressure in front of the rotor is
signicantly higher. As a result, streamlines tend to avoid the vanes
but most fail to do so and are forced in the rotor yielding a high
mass ow rate in the blade channels. The ow slows down in front
of the stator, but the total pressure is mostly conserved in the main
ow direction. The ow inside the rotor is prominent as four con-
cave parts produce torque. However, the stator is not optimum yet
since pressure is still exerted on the convex parts (B5, B6).
4 Comparison Between the Savonius Rotor and Other
Configurations
The prototypes from references have similar geometric factors
than the present CFD model: overlap ratio of 0.15 [4] and 0.2 [6]
as well as semicircular blades. The only different factor is the
heightdiameter ratio, which is lower in Refs. [4,6]. There is a
quite good overall agreement between the present CFD computa-
tions and those of Refs. [4,6]. Discrepancies could be due to Reyn-
olds effects (inuence on ow separation) as well as scale effects.
Fig. 7 Rotor with stator for a wind speed of 2 m/s and 6 m/s for a TSR of 0.8 and 0.2
Fig. 8 k-Cp curves, comparing the efciency
Fig. 6 Flow for a wind speed of 3 m/s, rotor with partial and full shield for a TSR of 1 and 0.5
044503-4 / Vol. 133, NOVEMBER 2011 Transactions of the ASME
Downloaded From: http://solarenergyengineering.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 06/04/2014 Terms of Use: http://asme.org/terms
Indeed, models for wind-tunnel tests, because of their reduced
scale (height of 1 m [4] and 0.6 m [6]), are more sensitive to 3D
effects and vertical ows that both have a negative inuence on
the efciency (Fig. 8).
The results of the computations showed that the optimized six-
bladed rotors aerodynamic efciency is slightly higher than the
standard Savonius rotor over a nite range of lambda (00.65) and
reaches a Cp max of 0.3. The multibladed rotors (lower operating
k) have a lower rotating speed than the standard Savonius rotors.
Since the wind is pushing on the blades at each time step, the
blades tangential velocity cannot excess the wind speed.
The rotor with stator shows a very high efciency (almost
reaching 0.5). However, the wind angle was optimum, and the
scenario reects an ideal case. In real conditions, wind would
always change and efciency would then decrease. This con-
cept is the most suitable for the design of an improved drag tur-
bine. The rotor with half shield also shows good aerodynamic
characteristics (max efciency reaching 0.4). On the other
hand, this conguration is more theoretical because of the chal-
lenging design due to the adjustment of the shield according to
the wind.
5 Conclusion
1. According to the results of the computations, the shielded
rotors have a high efciency. Using the six-bladed rotor
alone gives a max efciency of 0.3, which is slightly higher
than the standard Savonius rotors and should also present bet-
ter starting abilities. Numerical simulations indicate that it is
possible to improve the efciency of the Savonius concept.
2. The prototype showed that using those external devices
(shields, vanes) is complicated for both design and opera-
tion. Indeed, the inlet has to remain steadily oriented toward
the wind (perpendicular to the wind at any time), thus
removing the main advantage of the vertical axis wind tur-
bines, which is the independency of the wind direction. In
application, using the rotor alone is more convenient.
3. The coefcients of power given by CFD are overestimated
because the two-dimensional model reects ideal cases. We
expect the coefcients of power on prototypes to be reduced
by a 20% factor (0.24 and 0.4 instead of 0.3 and 0.5).
References
[1] Publication of the World Energy Council Survey of Energy Resources, 2007.
[2] Shikha, Bhatti T. S., and Kothari D. P., 2003, Wind Energy Conversion Sys-
tems as a Distributed Source of Generation, J. Energy Eng., 129, pp. 6980.
[3] Guo, X. S., Wind Energy Technology (Beijing Industrial Chemistry Press,
2007), pp. 8487.
[4] Sheldahl, R. E., Blackwell, B. F., and Feltz, L. V., 1978, Wind Tunnel Per-
formance Data for Two- and Three-Bucket Savonius Rotors, J. Energy, 2, pp.
160164.
[5] Martin, J., 1997, Techniques de lIngenieur, traite Genie energetique Energies
eoliennes, Jean Martin Energies eoliennes Techniques de lIngenieur, B8585,
p. 11.
[6] Yan, L., Hara, Y., and Hayashi, T., 2009, A Wind Tunnel Experimental Study
on The Overlap Ratio of Savonius Rotors, Acta Energiae Solaris Sinica, 30,
pp. 226231.
[7] Fujisawa, N., and Gotoh, F., 1994, Experimental Study on the Aerodynamic
Performance of a Savonius Rotor, J. Sol. Energy Eng., 116, pp. 148152.
[8] Menet, J.-L., and Bourabaa, N., 2004, Increase in the Savonius Rotors Ef-
ciency Via a Parametric Investigation, http://www.mendeley.com/research/
increase-savonius-rotors-efciency-via-parametric-investigation/.
[9] Menet, J.-L., Valdes, L.-C., and Menart, B., 2001, A Comparative Calculation
of the Wind Turbines Capacities on the Basis of the L-r Criterion, J. Renew-
able Energy, 22, pp. 491506.
[10] Ogawa, T., 1984, Theoretical Study on the Flow About Savonius Rotor,
J. Fluids Eng., 106, pp. 8590.
[11] Nakajima, M., Iio, S., and Ikeda, T., 2008, Performance of Double-Step Savo-
nius Rotor for Environmentally Friendly Hydraulic Turbine, J. Fluid Sci.
Technol., 3, pp. 293300.
Journal of Solar Energy Engineering NOVEMBER 2011, Vol. 133 / 044503-5
Downloaded From: http://solarenergyengineering.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 06/04/2014 Terms of Use: http://asme.org/terms