1Department of Mechanical Engineering, J N T University, Hyderabad
2Mechanical Engineering Department, MJ College of Engineering, Hyderabad.
3Mechanical Engineering Department, CMR College of Engineering, Hyderabad.
Savonius turbine, a vertical axis wind turbine though with high starting torque and reasonable peak power output, its use has been restricted till now because of low power output per given rotor size, weight, and cost, thereby making it less efficient when compared to horizontal axis turbines. This work is an effort to develop the present configuration of the Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) rotor in order to enhance its efficiency. Performance studies on VAWT rotor with two vertical, curved (semi-circular in cross-section) blades have been carried on initially. The blades with a twist, the angle ranging from 0° to 60° is modeled and discretised into finite volume elements and the flow through blades is analyzed using the STAR-CD, the CFD software employing different modules for modeling, meshing, and analysis respectively. The various parameters like velocity, forces, torque etc. are evaluated for every configuration by using the post-processing features of the software. Performance characteristics are hence evaluated and the results obtained are compared and validated.
VAWT, blade twist, STAR-CD
