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Wind Tunnel Experiments to Estimate the Performance of a Novel Arc-Elliptical-Bladed Savonius Wind Rotor

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Advances in Thermofluids and Renewable Energy

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering ((LNME))

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Abstract

The gradually exhausting non-renewable energy resources, pollution from conventional fuel resources and alarming global warming have sparked the interest in developing renewable technologies for power generation. In that connection, the vertical-axis drag-based Savonius wind turbine/rotor is an exciting prospect to harness the free energy available in the wind and can be deployed in remote areas having no electricity grids. The present study aims at designing and developing a vertical-axis Savonius wind rotor, and its subsequent testing in a wind tunnel. The key parameters affecting a Savonius rotor’s output are its blade shape, aspect ratio, overlap ratio and blade number. Considering the various aspects of blade design reported in the literature, a novel arc-elliptical-bladed Savonius wind rotor has been developed. The overlap ratio and aspect ratio are chosen to be 0.15 and 1.1:1, respectively. The testing of the rotor has been conducted in a subsonic wind tunnel under different loading conditions. The power coefficients are estimated for a range of tip-speed ratios. Further, its output characteristics have been compared with conventional semicircular-bladed Savonius rotor. The experiments reveal an improvement of 37% for arc-elliptical-bladed rotor as compared to semicircular-bladed rotor.

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Abbreviations

A :

swept area of rotor (m2)

AR:

aspect ratio (dimensionless)

C P :

power coefficient (dimensionless)

C T :

torque coefficient (dimensionless)

d :

blade/bucket diameter (m)

D :

diameter of rotor (m)

D 0 :

diameter of end plate (m)

H :

height of rotor (m)

N :

rotational speed (rpm)

P available :

power available in the wind (W)

P turbine :

power output of the rotor (W)

R :

radius of rotor (m)

Re:

Reynolds number (dimensionless)

r p :

radius of the braking pulley fitted on rotor shaft (m)

S :

tension in slack side (kg)

T :

torque generated by the rotor (Nm)

V :

wind velocity at rotor inlet (m/s)

W :

tension in the tight side (kg)

β :

overlap ratio (dimensionless)

ρ :

density of wind (kg/m3)

ω :

rotational speed (rad/s)

λ :

tip-speed ratio (dimensionless)

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Acknowledgements

The study documented here forms a part of the TEQIP Collaborative Research Scheme of National Project Implementation Unit (NPIU), India supported research project (ID: 1-5738545131) titled “Aerodynamic Performance Evaluation of Savonius Vertical-axis Rotor for Small-scale Power Generation”. The financial support extended is gratefully acknowledged.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jorhat Engineering College, Jorhat, 785007, India

    Parag K. Talukdar, Palash Saikia & Deva Kanta Rabha

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Meghalaya, Meghalaya, 793003, India

    Nur Alom

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Assam, 781039, India

    Umang H. Rathod & Vinayak Kulkarni

Authors
  1. Parag K. Talukdar
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  2. Nur Alom
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  3. Umang H. Rathod
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  4. Vinayak Kulkarni
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  5. Palash Saikia
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  6. Deva Kanta Rabha
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam, India

    Pinakeswar Mahanta

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam, India

    Pankaj Kalita

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Arunachal Pradesh, Yupia, Arunachal Pradesh, India

    Anup Paul

  4. Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Arunachal Pradesh, Yupia, Arunachal Pradesh, India

    Abhik Banerjee

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Talukdar, P.K., Alom, N., Rathod, U.H., Kulkarni, V., Saikia, P., Rabha, D.K. (2022). Wind Tunnel Experiments to Estimate the Performance of a Novel Arc-Elliptical-Bladed Savonius Wind Rotor. In: Mahanta, P., Kalita, P., Paul, A., Banerjee, A. (eds) Advances in Thermofluids and Renewable Energy . Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3497-0_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3497-0_16

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  • Online ISBN: 978-981-16-3497-0

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