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www.springerlink.com/content/1738-494x
DOI 10.1007/s12206-012-0313-y
Abstract
Savonius wind rotors with a vertical axis are not much preferred and used due to their lower aerodynamic performance than that of the
other high-speed wind rotors. The present study is intended to increase the rotor performance of the Savonius wind rotor with theoretical
method by focusing on a curtain arrangement as a wind deflector with a simple construction, which has been designed to increase the
performance of the Savonius wind rotor. This curtain arrangement has been placed in front of the rotor so as to prevent the negative
torque that occurs on the convex surface of the Savonius wind rotor and causes the performance of the rotor to be low. Thus, it has become possible to make a more efficient use of the wind energy increasing the low performance level of the Savonius wind rotors.
Keywords: Savonius wind rotor; Rotor performance; Power; Curtain arrangement
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1. Introduction
The increasing world population, when accompanied by the
developed and developing industry, is boosting the need for
energy day by day. Especially the diminished fossil energy
sources and the environmental problems brought about by it
have shifted mans interest to new and renewable energy
sources. Being one of the renewable energy sources, wind
energy has therefore aroused a great deal of interest. Wind
energy systems have been improved rapidly and advanced
considerably to become an indispensable energy source. The
cost of wind energy power production institutions has fallen in
the course of time parallel to technologic developments, fall in
turbine prices and increase in productivity. The most important part of the wind power stations is perhaps the wind rotors.
There are still studies and projects in process aiming to improve the wind energy systems and make a more efficient use
of the wind rotors. Consequently, a number of different wind
rotors and systems have been designed, tried and used during
this period.
In the present study, however, the objective is to increase
the performance of the Savonius wind rotors, which have
proven to have a lower rotor performance in comparison with
the high-speed turbines and Darrieus wind turbines in terms of
aerodynamic performance. Therefore, a wind curtain arrangement has been designed and placed in front of the rotor
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 258 296 3152, Fax.: +90 258 296 3262
E-mail address: bdeda@pau.edu.tr
Recommended by Associate Editor Won-Gu Joo.
KSME & Springer 2012
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B. D. Altan and M. Atlgan / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 26 (5) (2012) 1493~1499
3. Mathematical formulation
3.1 Power and performance calculation on conventional
Savonius wind rotors
The wind hitting the Savonius wind rotor at a certain speed
creates a positive wind force that constitutes a positive torque
(Mr+) on the concave blade and a negative wind force that
constitutes a negative torque (Mr-) on the convex blade. Since
the torque on the concave blade is higher than the torque on
the convex blade, a rotation movement is secured. Fig. 3
shows the wind loads and velocity vectors on the Savonius
wind rotor with bucket blades. Considering that rotor blade
centers rotate at a fixed linear v speed under the wind speed of
Vr, it becomes possible to find through the forces on the blade
the power and performance expressions that occur on the
Savonius wind rotor [32].
The force that occurs on the rotor blade is stated as,
B. D. Altan and M. Atlgan / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 26 (5) (2012) 1493~1499
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If we put Eqs. (4) and (5) in their place in Eq. (6), the following equation is obtained:
1
Av EVr2 F 2Vr v + Ev 2
2
Here, E = ( c1 c2 ) and F = ( c1 + c2 ) .
Prnet =
Fig. 3. Velocity vectors and direction of the torque exerted by the wind
velocity on the rotor blades.
2 FVr Vr 4 F 2 3E 2
.
3E
(1)
(2)
1
c AVr2v .
2
(3)
1
2
A c1 (Vr v ) v
1
2
A c2 (Vr + v ) v
(8a)
E = c1 c2 E = c1
(8b)
opt1 = Vr , opt 2 = Vr .
(5)
(6)
(8c)
If vopt2 = Vr, it means that the rotor rotates at the same speed
as the wind and accordingly, power is not produced; that is, it
has no physical significance. Therefore, for the optimum
power, it is necessary that vopt = 1/3Vr. Thus, optimum net
power equation is obtained as follows:
Prnetopt =
2
Ac1Vr3 .
27
(9)
F = c1 + c2 F = c1
(4)
(8)
At the point where the convex surface has the least effect on
the rotation of the Savonius wind rotor, the power is optimum.
So c2=0 should be taken.
1
c AVr2 .
2
(7a)
opt ,1,2 =
Fr =
(7)
2
c1 ( 2d e ) HVr3 .
27
(10)
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( L1 + L2 + L )Vr
( L)
(13)
(14)
(15)
(16)
L2 = l 2 Sin
L =d e+ z .
Here, is the angle between the a blade of the curtain arrangement and the flow direction, is the angle between the b
blade of the curtain arrangement and the flow direction, Vr,new
is the speed at which the wind gets out of the curtain arrangement and z is the gap between the b blade of the curtain arrangement and rotor. If l1 = l 2 = l and = = are accepted and Vr,new wind speed is written in its place in the
power equation, the optimum net power that occurs following
the curtaining procedure is expressed with the following equation:
Prnet
opt new
tain plate has been suggested for the purpose of reducing the
torque on the convex surface and theoretically, approximate
power and performance calculations have been made.
When the curtain arrangement in Fig. 5 is placed in front of
the Savonius wind rotor, it becomes possible to prevent the
effect of the wind coming over the convex blade. In this way,
the negative torque on the blade and thus the power become
equal to zero (P- = 0). Accordingly, the effect of the applied
curtain plate on the power is theoretically given below:
Pr + =
1
2
.
Ac1 v 3 2Vrnew v 2 + vVrnew
2
(11)
Prnet
opt new
2
3
.
Ac1Vrnew
27
(12)
(17)
As can be seen here, the curtain arrangement enables the Pvalue in Eq. (6) to be eliminated. Therefore, a comparison
between the optimum power Eq. (10) for the rotor without
curtain arrangement and the optimum power Eq. (17) for the
rotor with curtain arrangement shows that the difference between two equations just depends on the speeds of the wind
entering the rotor. As can be seen in Eq. (17), the more the
curtain blade length increases, the more the speed of the wind
entering the rotor will increase and thus the amount of the
power for the rotor of the same size will be more. As a result,
final ratio Eq. (18) for the rate of power increase is relation
with combination of curtain length and angle.
Prnet
( 2lSin + L )Vr
2
( 2d e ) Hc1
=
L
27
opt new
Prnet
opt
( 2lSin + L )
L3
(18)
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Fig. 7. Change of the power increase ratio with the rotor blade diameter at various curtain angles.
5. Conclusion
Although Savonius wind rotors have a low performance
level when compared with that of the other wind rotors, they
may possibly begin to be used commonly to get energy if their
aerodynamic performances can be improved, especially they
can be used in rural areas in less need for energy.
In the present study, to increase the already low performance of the Savonius wind rotors, a curtain arrangement
formed from wind deflecting plates has been placed in front of
the rotor so as to prevent the negative torque that affects the
convex surface of the Savonius wind rotor. In doing so, the
aim is to increase the speed of the wind entering the rotor and
thus to improve its efficiency. As can be seen in the figures,
the increased rotor performance is enabled with the increased
sweeping area of the curtain arrangement thanks to the increased curtain blade lengths and increased curtain blade angles.
Thanks to this curtain arrangement, some of the wind that
escapes in its entrance to the wind rotor has been prevented
from escaping to the sides. At the same time, by leading the
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flow into the concave blade, the flow that passes over the concave blade has been enabled to produce a torque with the formation of a new force on the concave surface of the other
blade that rotates in reverse direction to the wind. In this way,
the power of the Savonius wind rotor and naturally its performance could be improved and increased.
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