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GT2010
June 14-18, 2010, Glasgow, UK
GT2010-
Mohamed H. Mohamed
mohamed.mohamed@st.ovgu.de
GaborJaniga
janiga@ovgu.de
Pap
Elemer
elemer.pap@ovgu.de
Dominique Thevenin
thevenin@ovgu.de
ABSTRACT
Wind energy is one of the most promising sources of renewable energy. It is pollution-free, available locally, and
can help in reducing the dependency on fossil fuels. Although a considerable progress has already been achieved,
the available technical design is not yet adequate to develop reliable wind energy converters for conditions corresponding to low wind speeds and urban areas. The Savonius turbine appears to be particularly promising for such
conditions, but suffers from a poor efficiency. The present
study considers an improved design in order to increase the
output power and the static torque of the classical threeblade Savonius turbine, thus obtaining a higher efficiency
and better self-starting capability. To achieve this objective three geometrical properties are optimized simultaneously: 1) the position of an obstacle shielding the returning blade; 2) the position of a deflector guiding the wind
toward the advancing blade; and 3) the blade skeleton line.
As a whole, fifteen free parameters are taken into account
KEYWORDS
Introduction
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Nomenclature
Cm
Cms
CP
Blade height
Rsh
Gap width
Output torque
Ts
Static torque
Obstacle angle
Deflector angle
Speed ratio
Orientation angle
Density
Angular speed
Figure 1.
Savonius rotor
S.J. Savonius initially developed the vertical axis Savonius rotor in the late 1920s. The concept of the Savonius
rotor is based on cutting a cylinder into two halves along
the central plane and then moving the two half cylinders
sideways along the cutting plane, so that the cross-section
resembles the letter S (Fig. 1, [3]).
The Savonius rotor, which is a slow-running vertical
axis wind machine (typically used for ' 1.0 or below, see
Eq. 1) has unfortunately a poor efficiency when considering the standard design: theoretically, Cp ' 0.2 at best [4].
Nevertheless, it presents many advantages for specific applications, in particular due to its simplicity, resulting robustness, compactness and low cost. If a higher efficiency
could be obtained, the Savonius rotor would become a very
interesting complementary source of electricity.
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These previous studies have demonstrated that Savonius turbines show considerable drawbacks compared to
conventional turbines, in particular a low efficiency and
poor starting characteristics. Previous investigations of our
research group have shown that guiding and obstacle plates
placed appropriately in front of the turbine might increase
its efficiency [6,7]. Using a contoured shape might be even
more promising but would require considerably more free
parameters and will therefore be considered in a later step.
Building on top of our previous results, the blade shape will
be simultaneously modified in the present work. The optimization process thus relies on free design variables that
describe the position and angles of the plates, the blade
shape (skeleton line) as well as the gap width s (Fig. 3).
At the end, fifteen free parameters are thus considered (X1 ,
Y1 , X2 , Y2 , Xd1 , Yd1 , Xd2 , Yd2 , XP1 , YP1 , XP2 , YP2 , XP3 , YP3
and s). The objective function considers only one output of
the simulation, that should be maximized: the output power
coefficient Cp .
Advancing
Blade
Wind
(0,0)
Returning
Blade
Figure 2.
Savonius rotor
(1)
P
RHU 3
Optimization Methodology
Optimization is a body of mathematical results and numerical methods for finding and identifying the best candidate from a collection of alternatives, without having to
explicitly enumerate and evaluate all possible alternatives.
Optimization is a key engineering task, since the function
of any engineer is to design new, better, more efficient, and
less expensive systems as well as to devise plans and procedures for an improved operation of existing systems. Nevertheless, such a real optimization relying on suitable algorithmic procedures is still a relatively new approach, in
particular when considering turbomachines [8, 9].
The central goal when designing an improved Savonius turbine is to achieve high efficiency, i.e., high power
output. Furthermore, it must be kept in mind that turbomachines often operate outside the nominal (or design) conditions. Therefore, after optimizing the configuration for the
maximum output power coefficient, known to occur for a
speed ratio ' 0.7, the full range of speed ratios will be
considered.
In our group, a considerable experience is available
concerning the mathematical optimization relying on evaluations based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
[10]. We therefore employ our own optimization library,
OPAL (for OPtimization ALgorithms), containing many
(2)
and
Cm =
T
R2 HU 2
(3)
The conventional, three-blade configuration of the rotor has been extensively studied in the past [5]. The corresponding values of Cp and Cm have been determined numerically and sometimes experimentally as a function of
the speed ratio . This has been used to validate extensively our numerical procedure by comparison with published, reference data [6].
3
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Xd2
(a)
New configuration
X1>R
Input
Input file
file
(parameter
(parameter values)
values)
Advancing
Blade
Yd1
Yd2
Deflector
Wind
Gambit
Gambit
Journal
Journal file
file
Fluent
Fluent
Journal
Journal file
file
Gambit 2.4
Fluent 6.3
Geometry
++
Mesh
Mesh
CFD
Simulation
+
OPAL
Evolutionary
Evolutionary
Algorithms
(0,0)
Y2
Obstacle
Y1
x
Output
Output file
file
(objective
(objective value)
value)
Post-processing
Post-processing
X2>R
Returning
Blade
C
C program
program on
on Linux
Linux for
for automatization
automatization
P4
(b)
P3(XP3,YP3)
Y
Fixed points
Blade
center
(P0)
Figure 4.
pling.
r
X
P1(XP1,YP1)
Variable points
S
P2(XP2,YP2)
P5
Turbine shaft
Figure 3.
a) plate parameters
(X1 ,Y1 , X2 ,Y2 , Xd1 ,Yd1 , Xd2 and Yd2 ); b) XP1 ,YP1 , XP2 ,YP2 , XP3
and YP3 used to modify the blade shape; additionally, the gap width s.
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using the SIMPLE (Semi-Implicit Method for Pressurelinked Equations) algorithm for pressure-velocity coupling.
The flow variables and all turbulent quantities are discretized in a finite volume formulation using a secondorder upwind scheme. For the present configuration, twodimensional simulations are sufficient (no geometry change
in the third direction when excluding boundary effects), so
that very fine grids can be employed.
The unsteady flow is solved by using the Sliding Mesh
Model (SMM). Three complete revolutions are always
computed, using a constant time-step; the first one is used
to initiate the correct flow solution, while the flow properties (in particular the power coefficient Cp and the torque
coefficient Cm ) are obtained by averaging the results during
the last two revolutions. On a standard PC, one evaluation
(i.e., three revolutions for one specific configuration) takes
about 280 minutes of computing time.
A grid-independence study has been first carried out
for one geometrical configuration. Several different twodimensional, unstructured grids of increasing density and
quality, composed of 3 400 up to 116 000 cells, have been
tested for the standard Savonius turbine with a specified obstacle plate. All grids employing more than 71 000 cells
lead to a relative variation of the output quantity below
1.8% [6]. Since the cost of a CFD evaluation obviously
increases rapidly with the number of grid cells, the intermediate grid range between 75 000 and 95 000 cells has been
retained for all further results shown in the present paper.
The grid is refined in the vicinity of the turbine and of the
solid surfaces, capturing all relevant flow features (Fig. 5).
The minimum size of the computational domain has been
checked in a separate project [17]. It has been found that a
domain size equal to 27 times the rotor radius is needed to
get a result independent from any influence of the boundary conditions. This is in agreement with previous studies,
mostly recommending 10 times the rotor radius on each
side of the turbine.
Figure 5.
of the turbine
CFD Validation
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No. of revolutions
0.2
20
0.15
0.1
60
80
100
0.05
l =0.7
Instantaneous power coeff.
Average Power Coeff.
0.8
0.4
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.2
15
30
45
60
75
Time
Speed ratio(l)
Figure 6.
40
1.2
Figure 7.
and on the average power coefficient C p computed by CFD for the opti-
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Table 1.
Optimum
configuration
Parameter
Minimum allowed
Maximum allowed
Blade shape
Blade shape
Xp1/r
XP1 /r
0.53
1.2
YP1 /r
0.24
0.24
XP2 /r
0.24
1.1
YP2 /r
0.94
0.24
XP3 /r
0.24
1.1
YP3 /r
0.24
0.94
s/R
X2/R
Xd1/R
Xd2/R
X1/R
CP
X2/R
Y1/R
Yd2/R
Yp2/r
Yd1/R
Yp3/r
1.1 -0.24 1.1 0.94 0 1.65 0 2.6 -1.1 0 -1.1 -0.7 0.18 0.38
Xp2/r
Yp1/r
1.2 0.24
Xp3/r
0.363
Optimum
configuration
0.024 Absolute
uncertainty
0.156
Three-blade
Savonius turbine
without guiding
plates
Guiding plates
X1d /R
1.2
0.0
Yd1 /R
1.1
1.65
X2d /R
1.88
0.0
Figure 8.
Yd2 /R
1.76
2.6
uration are connected with a thick gray line. The power coefficient of the
X1 /R
1.88
1.1
Y1 /R
0.7
0.0
X2 /R
1.88
1.1
Y2 /R
1.88
0.7
0.53 -0.24 0.24 -0.94 0.24 0.24 -1.2 1.1 -1.88 1.76 -1.88 -0.7 -1.88 -1.88 0.03 0.024
Deflector
Gap width
s/R
0.03
Advancing
Blade
Wind
0.18
or in parallel on a PC cluster [10]. Such a parallel procedure, already implemented in OPAL, has not been used in
the present case but could reduce the needed time by orders
of magnitude, as demonstrated in other studies. Relying
on parallel computers and possibly carrying out each CFD
evaluation again in parallel [10] is clearly necessary when
considering three-dimensional problems. Fortunately, it
is quite straightforward to implement, so that researchers
having access to parallel clusters can solve corresponding
problems within an acceptable lapse of time.
The optimal configuration (highest point in the right
column in Fig. 8, all corresponding parameters being connected by a thick gray line) can now readily be identified for
= 0.7. The corresponding geometry is shown in Fig. 9.
The optimum parameter values are listed in Table 2.
Obstacle
Returning blade
Figure 9.
dure.
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Table 2.
Optimal configuration
Part
Parameter
Value
Angle
Blade shape
XP1 /r
0.6077
YP1 /r
-0.1338
XP2 /r
0.2735
YP2 /r
-0.7136
XP3 /r
0.7065
YP3 /r
0.5901
Xd1 /R
-0.3089
Yd1 /R
1.436
Xd2 /R
-0.4591
Yd2 /R
2.388
X1 /R
-1.3638
Y1 /R
-0.1075
X2 /R
-1.691
Y2 /R
-1.5935
s/R
0.0988
Guiding plates
Gap width
= 81.13
Figure 10.
= 0.7).
optimized configuration.
= 77.58
Self-starting capability
coefficient by 0.207 compared with the conventional threeblade Savonius turbine (semi-cylindrical blade shape). As
a whole, this means a relative increase of the performance
(measured by the power output coefficient) by 57% for the
optimum design.
Off-design performance
Practical realization
From the technical point of view many existing systems already rely on a tail vane for optimal alignment into
the wind direction. A similar technical solution would be
used for the Savonius turbine using guiding plates. In this
manner the orientation of the system can be simply, efficiently and automatically controlled. As a whole, the optimized configuration is only slightly more complex, more
expensive and heavier than the original system. Therefore,
8
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(a)
0.7
Optimum design
% Relative increase
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
Negative Torque (no self-starting capability)
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.2
1.4
1.6
(b)
angle
0.45
0.4
80
0.35
0.3
60
0.25
0.2
40
0.15
0.1
20
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.2
1.4
Conclusions
The Savonius turbine is a promising concept for smallscale wind-energy systems, but suffers from a poor efficiency. Therefore, the major objective of the present study
is to identify an improved design, leading to higher values
of the power coefficient and of the static torque of the threeblade Savonius turbine, thus obtaining a higher efficiency
and better self-starting capability. For this purpose, frontal
plates guiding the wind toward the advancing blade are introduced. Simultaneously, the installation of these guiding
plates improve the self-starting capability of the system.
After validating the numerical procedure against experimental measurements, accurate CFD simulations of the
unsteady flow around a conventional three-blade Savonius
turbine have been carried out. The realizable k turbulence model can be employed for a quantitative analysis of
the performance, provided a sufficiently fine grid is used.
The blade shape, position and angles of the guiding
plates and gap width have then been optimized in a fully
automatic manner, in order to obtain the best possible performance, as measured by the power coefficient Cp . The
optimization relies on evolutionary algorithms, while all
geometrical configurations are evaluated by CFD. This optimization procedure is able to identify considerably better configurations than the conventional three-blade Savonius turbine, leading in particular to a relative increase of
the power output coefficient by 57% at = 0.7. A perfor-
1.6
Speed ratio(l)
Figure 11.
120
0
0.2
90
0.05
0
60
Figure 12.
100
0.5
30
Rotation angle(q)
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The Ph.D. work of Mr. Mohamed is supported financially by a bursary of the Egyptian government.
REFERENCES
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