Publication: Parametric study on the effect of venting performance of savonius turbines for hydrokinetic applications
Loading...
Date
2023-09-01
Authors
Abu Bakar, Nurul Asyikin
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Renewable energy has become increasingly significant in Malaysia particularly with the utilization of hydrokinetic energy to generate electricity from rivers and streams. However, despite the advantages of its simple design and compact size, the efficiency of the Savonius turbine is limited by negative torque. To address
this issue, researchers have explored improvements such as incorporating vented blades that minimize the negative torque produced by returning blades. These efforts have predominantly focused previously on the elliptical Savonius blade rather than the conventional blade. Therefore, the investigation into optimized vent configurations for conventional blades remains scarce. This study aims to parametrically investigate the effects of various vent configuration parameters particularly on position, width and height, on the performance and flow structure of a Savonius turbine operating at a Reynolds number of 148 000. The finding reveals that variations in vent height have greater impact on turbine performance compared to vent position and width. The H3 turbine exhibits the highest performance of CP = 0.1520 with a 16.95% improvement over the conventional Savonius turbine achieved by utilizing an optimal vent configuration of 45 ° position, a width of 0.011 m, and a height of 0.071 m, resulting in a substantial increase in net torque. The top view flow visualization reveals a closer
recovery flow behind the advancing blade in the H3 turbine, contributing to the enhanced net torque. The side view flow structure demonstrates a smaller wake size downstream, indicating the effectiveness of the H3 vent configuration in reducing excessive turbulence on the returning blade, thereby increasing the power coefficient. In conclusion, this study provides a comprehensive insight into the influence of different vent configurations on the performance and flow structure of Savonius turbines. The findings help to establish and contributes valuable knowledge for future applications in sustainable power generation systems, highlighting the importance of optimizing vent parameters to enhance turbine efficiency and overall performance.