Energy Conversion and Management 189 (2019) 49–59

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Design and CFD study of a hybrid vertical-axis wind turbine by employing a T

combined Bach-type and H-Darrieus rotor systems
⁎
Arian Hosseinia, Navid Goudarzib,
a
School of Industrial Engineering and Management, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
b
The William States Lee College of Engineering, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 28223, United States

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The objective of this work was to design, simulate and evaluate the performance of an innovative hybrid vertical-
Vertical axis wind turbine axis wind turbine (VAWT) for obtaining an extended operational range and enhancing self-starting capabilities.
CFD An extensive research was conducted to explore the design parameters for obtaining an optimum novel hybrid
Hybrid rotor VAWT configuration. The hybrid VAWT consisting of a 2-bladed modified Savonius Bach-type rotor and a 3-
Sustainable design
bladed Darrieus turbine was modeled and analyzed in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to calculate the
Operational range
Startup torque
characteristic parameters of the rotor system. The geometry was then used to generate the grid in ANSYS
Meshing for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses to evaluate the performance of the designed hybrid
VAWT. Results indicated that while the Darrieus turbine had the highest coefficient of power (Cp) of 48.4% at a
TSR of 2.50, it suffered from high start-up torque requirements. The hybrid turbine demonstrated self-starting
capabilities while reaching a maximum Cp of 41.4% at a TSR of 2.5 and operation up to a TSR value of 4.5. When
compared to previous hybrid VAWT designs, the proposed configuration demonstrated improvements to the
efficiency and operational range which support the energy sustainability prospects.

1. Introduction
Wind energy is utilized in many countries as a clean and renewable
energy source and supplies over 65 GW of electrical energy in the US
today [1]. While power production from wind has a rich history, with a
dramatic energy demand increase over the past few decades, techno-
economic improvements of wind harnessing technologies and devel-
oping sustainability concepts have become more appealing. Computa-
tional wind engineering has risen in popularity over the past decades as
it can provide details of flow physics (whole-flow field data) compli-
mentary to on-site testing and measurements [2].
Wind turbines classification based on the turbine’s axis of rotation is
classified into the two categories of horizontal axis wind turbines
(HAWTs) and vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs). HAWTs have been
researched and developed to a great extent over the past centuries. On
the other hand, VAWTs have become popular since 1980s and showed a
significant potential in increasing power generation capacity of dis-
tributed generation technologies. These turbines faced a number of
disadvantages when compared with HAWTs [3], namely their lower
efficiency in power conversion. Recently, with advancements in re-
search and rotor technology, VAWT performance has been enhanced
and encompassed with other beneficial features such as wider
operational range and better performance within complex urban ter-
rains. As a result, VAWTs have risen in popularity. Balduzzi et al. [4]
analyzed the feasibility of installing a VAWT Darrieus turbine on the
rooftop of a building numerically. The study assessed the turbine to
demonstrate over 70% of its capacity on the rooftop of a building taller
than its surroundings. This is normally not the case with HAWTs as they
require open terrains and tall towers, as tall as 30–100 m. VAWTs are
omni-directional and have higher cut-out wind speeds which allow
them to operate in harsh and turbulent environments. These factors
have contributed to making these turbines attractive for both research
and industrial use purposes once again. Khan et al. [5] assessed the
state of current hydrokinetic energy harnessing machines. Their work
surveyed early and late developments in 76 research facilities. Their
results showed advantages of using VAWTs over HAWTs where the
most appealing one was the capability of exceeding the Betz limit with
VAWTs. Extensive numerical (e.g. computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
analysis) and experimental (e.g. particle image velocimetry (PIV) ana-
lysis) studies have been conducted on VAWTs to address common issues
with these turbines, such as the startup torque requirement, operational
range, and efficiency [3,6]. Numerical analyses are usually conducted
before experimental investigations to have an early assessment of a new
concept. The rest of the Introduction provides a brief but

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: arianho@kth.se (A. Hosseini), navid.goudarzi@uncc.edu (N. Goudarzi).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2019.03.068
Received 23 November 2018; Received in revised form 21 March 2019; Accepted 22 March 2019
0196-8904/ Published by Elsevier Ltd.
A. Hosseini and N. Goudarzi Energy Conversion and Management 189 (2019) 49–59

Nomenclature t Time, s
−
u Mean fluid velocity, m/s
English letters ú Fluctuating fluid velocity, m/s
V Inlet velocity, m/s
c Chord length, m w Blade arc angle, rad
Cp Coefficient of power, -
Cm Coefficient of moment, - Greek letters
D Rotor diameter, m
H Rotor height, m α Angle of rotation, rad
M Moment, N.m θ Attachment angle, rad
N Number of blades, - λ Tip-speed ratio, -
P Power, W ν Kinematic viscosity, m2/s
q Dynamic pressure, Pa ρ Fluid density, kg/m3
R Radius, m σ Solidity ratio, -
S Swept area, m2 ω Rotational velocity, rad/s

comprehensive review on different VAWTs including Savonius, Dar-
rieus, and hybrid turbines.
There is a rich literature on the Savonius turbine research. Saha
et al. [7] studied various Savonius turbine designs with a new me-
chanism using valves at the surface of the convex side of the blades to
reduce the amount of resistance from airflow which proved to be useful
for three-bladed turbines. Morshed [8] analyzed the characteristics of a
3-bladed Savonius turbine with and without overlap computationally
and experimentally. Results indicated the advantages of overlap at low
wind velocities. In a study by El-Askary et al. [9] new Savonius-type
concepts were analyzed in CFD to achieve a more efficient rotor design.
It was observed that adding a curved guide vane to the conventional
design can improve the performance of Savonius rotors. Ali [10] con-
ducted experimental investigations to compare Savonius turbines with
two and three blades. Results indicated that the two-blade design had
higher Cp values. Zhou and Rempfer [11] conducted CFD analyses on
two conventional bucket-shape Savonius turbines and a Bach-type rotor
design. The results showed higher torque rating for the Bach-type rotor
throughout the operational range of turbines. Maximum Cp values of
the bucket-shape rotor and the Bach-type rotor were 18.90% and
26.35%, respectively. The Bach rotor turbine with two blades showed a
promising performance when compared to the conventional design.
Although the stand-alone turbine has been analyzed and optimized, the
performance of a hybrid rotor design based on this profile has not been
researched.
Aerodynamic performance of Darrieus turbines have been studied
by a number of researchers. Castelli et al. [12] analyzed an H-Darrieus
turbine numerically using 2D ANSYS Fluent simulations. Their results
demonstrated that while the average Cp value was lower than the Betz
limit, it can exceed it instantaneously. An innovative H-Darrieus turbine
with a flexible blade geometry design to achieve a higher aerodynamic
performance was proposed by Wang et al. [13]. They analyzed turbines
with two and three normal and deformable blades. The highest Cp was
achieved at λ values between 1 and 4. However, they showed that
higher rotor solidity (σ) may decrease Cp values, lower than that in a
conventional model. In a computational study by Bedon et al. [14], the
performance of a tilted Darrieus turbine was evaluated in CFD analyses
and compared with experimental results from the vertical design. The
results showed that efficiency is decreased with the tilt angle and that
the URANS models provide data with accuracy comparable to experi-
mental measurements. Although there is a rich literature in improving
Darrieus turbine design; many of those have shown the advantages of
combining Savonius turbine with these turbines to obtain better start-
up torque capabilities and aerodynamic performance throughout a
desired operational range.
Hybrid VAWTs can be a combination of drag-based and lift-based
rotors such as the Savonius and Darrieus turbines, respectively. This
combination can address the drawbacks of each turbine design, as
mentioned above, such as obtaining self-starting characteristics at low λ
values and high Cp at high λ values [15]. However, hybrid VAWTs have
certain challenges such as new forms of vortex shedding, more complex
system design optimization, and relatively lower performance due to
the created drag forces by the Savonius turbine at high λ values. Gupta
and Biswas [16] conducted numerical analysis to evaluate the effects of
design parameters such as overlap ratio and bucket size of a hybrid
turbine, consisting of an eggbeater Darrieus turbine and a 3-bladed
Savonius turbine. Five overlap ratios of 16.2%, 20%, 25%, 30%, and
35% at λ values 0.215 and 0.451 were studied; they found that the
16.2% overlap ratio produced the highest lift-to-drag ratio at low
Reynolds numbers. Rassoulinejad-Mousavi et al. [17] experimentally

Table 1
Recent developments in VAWT technologies.
Research Features

A novel flexible foil vertical axis turbine for river, ocean, and tidal applications [26] + Higher peak Cp
+ Self-starting
− Small operational range (∼TSR 2.2)

A detailed investigation of a novel vertical axis Darrieus wind rotor with two sets of blades [27] + Higher peak Cp
+ Higher initial torque
− Small operational range (∼TSR 3)

Physical testing of performance characteristics of a novel drag-driven vertical axis tidal stream turbine; with comparisons to + Utilizing both drag and lift forces
a conventional Savonius [28] + More optimized Cp curve
− Small operational range (∼TSR 1.6)

Experimental and numerical investigation of a three-dimensional vertical-axis wind turbine with variable-pitch [29] + Assessment of the effect of rods on VAT
performance
− Small operational range
− Self-starting issues at low TSRs

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A. Hosseini and N. Goudarzi Energy Conversion and Management 189 (2019) 49–59

Table 3
Design parameters for the current hybrid rotor design.
Parameter Value Literature

Aspect ratio 1.5 Saha et al. [7]

Solidity ratio 0.5 Wang et al. [13]
Number of stages 2 Saha et al. [7]
Airfoil profile NACA0021 Mohamed [37]
End plates diameter 1.1 × Bach rotor diameter Jeon et al. [34]
0.25 Liang et al. [20]
Diameter Ratio ( DSavonius
DDarrieus )
Bach rotor blade arc angle 124° Kamoji et al. [33]
Bach rotor blade shape factor 0.2 Kamoji et al. [33]
Material Al 1060 Alloy Sutherland [38]

Fig. 1. Roadmap for analyzing turbine concepts.

Fig. 3. 2D Setup configuration for the simulations.

Table 4
Setup parameters for the CFD analyses.
Parameter Value Unit

Inlet velocity 9 m/s

Turbulence intensity ratio 0.05 –
Turbulence viscosity ratio 10 –
Calculation algorithm SIMPLE –
Flow density 1.225 kg/m3
o
Flow temperature 15 C
Viscosity model k-ω SST –
Equation order (momentum, kinetic Second order –
energy, specific dissipation rate)
Wall conditions No slip –
Time discretization According to TSR, calculated to s
achieve 1° of rotation per time
step

turbine. While he obtained lower Cp values compared to those pub-

Fig. 2. The final assembly (dimensions in mm).
tested a hybrid VAWT with different 2-bladed Savonius and 3-bladed H-
Darrieus arrangements; the Savonius turbine in the middle obtained the
optimum design. Letcher [18] experimentally tested a hybrid turbine
consisting of a Savonius turbine installed at the bottom of a H-Darrieus
lished in [17], he demonstrated the advantages of a hybrid VAWT over
one of the promising industrial turbines, the Mariah Power Windspire
[19]. Bhuyan and Biswas [15] compared the startup torque require-
ments of a conventional H-Darrieus rotor with a hybrid VAWT with the
Savonius rotor in the middle. Results indicated startup capabilities of
the hybrid turbine at any azimuth angle and Reynolds number.

Table 2
Specifications of modeled turbines.
Turbine Height (m) Diameter (m) Blade profile Number of blades (Each Stage) Number of stages

Bach 0.525 0.750 Optimized Bach Profile [31] 2 4

Darrieus 4.500 3.000 NACA0021 [34,35] 3 2
Hybrid 4.500 3.000 Combined Bach & Darrieus 11 (8 Bach & 3 Darrieus) 2

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A. Hosseini and N. Goudarzi Energy Conversion and Management 189 (2019) 49–59

Table 5
Grid characteristics details for each case.
Turbine Number of cells Calculation TSR

Bach 102,000 0.9

214,000
370,000
509,000

Darrieus 300,000 3.0

450,000
760,000

Hybrid 500,000 3.0

850,000
1,200,000

However, the Savonius turbine acts as a brake for the hybrid turbine at
higher wind speeds, thus decreasing the maximum possible power
generation. Liang et al. [20] conducted a numerical study to obtain the
optimum number of turbine blades and the diameter ratio ( DSavonius
DDarrieus ) of a
hybrid VAWT. Using NACA 0012 airfoil blades, they found a hybrid
turbine with two blades on the Darrieus rotor and a 0.25 diameter ratio
provided the optimum system performance; start up torque require-
ments got as low as 0.1 Nm at low wind speed of 2 m/s and a maximum Fig. 4. Grid structure around the Bach rotor.
Cp of 0.363 at λ values between 2.6 and 3.2. These studies support
developing a hybrid VAWT by using a drag-type turbine such as the
Savonius turbine in the middle of an H-Darrieus rotor. This combination
increases the start-up torque and efficiency at lower λ values.
A variety of hybrid VAWTs and enhancements are developed to
address different design issues such as operational range and applic-
ability to urban and industrial deployment [6]. An omni-direction guide
vane (ODGV) designed by Chong et al. [21] increased the efficiency of a
VAWT 182% at input wind speeds of 6 m/s; it led to obtaining a 3.48
times higher maximum power output. However, it was not investigated
whether this approach can improve the start-up torque at lower wind
speeds. Prospects for the development of VAWTs have also been
documented in a research by Gorelov et al. [22]. Some of the innovative
VAWT designs can be recalled as “The Dual VAWT” [23], “Power-
Window” [24] and “The VGOT Darrieus turbine” [25]. The Dual VAWT is
sensitive to the wind direction which is a disadvantage when compared Fig. 5. Cm vs. α for different numbers of cells in the Bach rotor structure at a
with conventional VAWTs. Power window is not scalable for industrial TSR value of 0.9.
development and high-scale electricity generation. The VGOT Darrieus
Turbine also faces start-up torque issues and cannot stand harsh en-
vironmental operational conditions. All these designs have their own
use and advantages; however, they often come with some unavoidable
drawbacks, as mentioned above. Such drawbacks often discourage their
development in a large scale.
A summary of the literature can be reached by collecting the tra-
deoffs of modern VAWT technologies as seen in Table 1 which presents
a number of notable recent developments in vertical-axis turbines
technology. The conclusions of the literature review are the following:

1. Despite the high abundancy of research in the Savonius-type rotors

technology, the aerodynamic efficiency of these turbines has not yet
reached an industrial level of standard to be able to compete with
current HAWT technologies on a wide scale. However, the re-
Fig. 6. Numerical data and estimated trend for the coefficient of moment of the
spective rotors provide a high static torque due to their geometry
Bach turbine.
and can assist the start-up phase of lift-type VAWTs. Furthermore,

Table 6
Overview of the conducted CFD simulation.
Turbine Calculated TSRs Reynolds Number Features

Bach 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1 456,840 Operation at low TSRs

Darrieus 1, 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6 1,827,300 Operation at high TSRs
Hybrid 1, 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6 1,827,300 Operation at low and high TSRs at the cost of performance at higher TSRs

52
A. Hosseini and N. Goudarzi
Fig. 7. Numerical data and estimated trend for the coefficient of power of the
Bach turbine.
Fig. 8. Grid structure around the Darrieus rotor.
Fig. 9. Cm vs. α for different numbers of cells in the Darrieus rotor structure at a
TSR value of 3.
the operational range of the drag-type turbines is significantly
smaller when compared to other technologies due to the drastic
increase of resistive torque in higher rotational velocities.
2. The Darrieus VAWT has been a main subject of development in past
researches due to its promising aspects such as higher efficiency and
low manufacturing cost. While this rotor has demonstrated a high
performance at high rotational velocities, the start-up torque de-
mand for this rotor is an aspect of concern which has required in-
stallation of active controller technologies or operators. These de-
velopments often contradict reduce the robustness and increase
manufacturing cost of the Darrieus rotor and therefore have not
achieved industrial development.
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Energy Conversion and Management 189 (2019) 49–59
Fig. 10. Numerical data and estimated trend for the coefficient of moment of
the Darrieus turbine.
Fig. 11. Numerical data and estimated trend for the coefficient of power of the
Darrieus turbine.
3. The hybrid VAWT technology emerged with the goal of combining
the advantages of lift-type and drag-type rotors in one design. While
these combinations have been studied in the past with the goal of
proposing such design based on iterative studies, a design based on
optimizations of literature which can maintain efficiency over an
extended operational range and provide satisfactory start-up torque
has not yet been thoroughly studied. Thus, the objective of this
paper is to benefit from all the currently published literature and
introduce an innovative, sustainable, self-starting hybrid VAWT
design consisting of a Bach-type Savonius turbine and Darrieus
turbine which can operate in a wide range of wind velocities and
environmental conditions, ranging from urban small-scale to harsh
off-shore circumstances.
The utilization of the Bach-type rotor in the hybrid design coupled
with the aerodynamic structure aimed at achieving a wide operational
range constitutes this VAWT as a novel enhancement to current tech-
nologies. Furthermore, the current study focuses on utilizing previous
literature and optimizations to achieve a novel efficient hybrid VAWT
design. To the best knowledge of the authors, the performance of the
proposed hybrid VAWT has never been explored in the literature as
Fig. 1 illustrates a general road map procedure used for designing the
proposed turbine concept in this work. Further elaboration on this
roadmap and the data analysis is provided in the Section 2. The design
and performance analysis of stand-alone Bach and Darrieus turbines,
and the hybrid system is discussed in the Section 3. Finally, the con-
cluding remarks are summarized in the Section 4.
2. Methodology
The proposed hybrid VAWT design follows three major design and
analysis steps:
A. Hosseini and N. Goudarzi Energy Conversion and Management 189 (2019) 49–59

Fig. 12. The worst elements of the hybrid grid structure lied on the tips of the blades.

Fig. 15. Cm vs. α for different numbers of cells in the hybrid rotor structure at a
TSR value of 3.

Fig. 13. Grid structure around the hybrid turbine.

Fig. 16. Numerical data and estimated trend for the coefficient of moment of
the hybrid turbine.

Fig. 14. Y+ values for the CFD analyses.

1. Design and performance analysis of a stand-alone Savonius turbine

2. Design and performance analysis of a stand-alone Darrieus turbine
3. Performance analysis of a combined Savonius and Darrieus design
(Hybrid VAWT)

For each step, a 3-D geometry was modeled in SolidWorks; the

geometry was then imported into ANSYS for meshing. ANSYS Fluent
was used to solve the Navier-Stokes equations on the meshed geometry
to obtain moment coefficients. Finally, the results were interpreted and
imported into MATLAB to calculate the turbine aerodynamic char- Fig. 17. Numerical data and estimated trend for the coefficient of power of the
acteristics such as power coefficient. More details on these steps are hybrid turbine.

54
A. Hosseini and N. Goudarzi Energy Conversion and Management 189 (2019) 49–59

Fig. 18. Velocity magnitude contours for the hybrid turbine at rotation angles α and TSR 2 (optimum performance).

provided in the following Sections.
Three rotors were analyzed in 2D ANSYS Fluent to estimate the
performance of different setups:
1. The Bach rotor
2. The Darrieus rotor
3. The hybrid turbine
The proposed hybrid turbine as shown in Fig. 2, consists of two tiers;
each tier has four two-blade Bach turbines [30] and one three-blade
Darrieus turbine. This combination was achieved based on an extensive
review on previous optimizations and literature on design of individual
and hybrid VAWTs which will be described in the following.
The Bach rotor system was designed based on researches analyzing
the placement and of drag-type turbines in H-Darrieus turbines [17].
This hybrid turbine with a total height of 9 m and a diameter of 3 m is
designed for commercial-scale applications. A previous study by Liang
et al. [20] assessed a diameter ratio ( DSavonius
DDarrieus ) of 0.25 to be the optimum
design value and therefore; this value was used in developing this
model in this work. Moreover, each tier of the hybrid turbine is de-
signed with an aspect ratio of 1.5 which is supported by previous re-
searches as an optimum ratio for hybrid turbines [7]. Table 2 lists the
specifications of the turbines.

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A. Hosseini and N. Goudarzi Energy Conversion and Management 189 (2019) 49–59

Fig. 19. Comparison between coefficient of moment values for the Darrieus and
Fig. 21. Cp vs. TSR curve for various designs.
hybrid turbines.

Nc
σ=
R (1)

where N is the number of blades, c is the chord length and R is the

radius of the rotor. This value resulted in a chord length of 25 cm for the
Darrieus blades. Table 3 summarizes the literature and features used to
achieve a novel efficient design in this work.

2.1. Hybrid VAWT components

The assembly consisted of more than thirty parts which can be ca-
tegorized into the following groups:

Fig. 20. Comparison between coefficient of power values for the Darrieus and
hybrid turbines.
Previous studies suggest an aspect ratio greater than 1 for increasing
the efficiency [31,32]. Bach rotors utilize an overlap ratio of zero, as-
pect ratio (H/D) of 0.7, blade arc angle (w) of 124°, blade shape factor
()
1
Straight length of the rotor/Radius of buckets) of 0.2 and an end plate
2
parameter (End plate diameter/rotor diameter) of 1.1 as Kamoji et al. [33]
and other researches have demonstrated the effectiveness of the end
plates [34,35]. The overlap ratio of zero helps in reducing the turbu-
lence effects at higher rotational speeds by decreasing vorticity and
therefore leading to a higher operational tip-speed-ratio (TSR or λ). The
designed Bach rotor has a rotor diameter of 0.75 m and is positioned
directly against the incoming wind (α = 0°).
The Darrieus turbine has a diameter of 3 m and its blades are placed
at a 60° phase angle between the top and bottom tiers to cover the full
span of 360°. The Darrieus blades were modeled by a NACA0021 profile
at a solidity ratio (σ ) of 0.5. This symmetric profile is efficient in high
rotational speeds due to utilizing a high lift/drag ratio. This effective-
ness of this value was demonstrated by Castelli et al. [12,36] compu-
tationally and experimentally on an H-Darrieus turbine with the same
profile. The solidity is defined by:
• Bach rotor system: The rotor system consists of four stages of the
Bach turbines connected by the end plates. No shafts were used in
this system to increase aerodynamic efficiency.
• Darrieus blades: Spanning a length of 9 m in each turbine stage.
• Wheels: The wheels are the parts that connect the Darrieus blades to
the main shaft. This mechanism is more promising than using struts
as the wheels do not induce unnecessary vorticity by blocking the
flow around the rotors.
• End plates: The end plates were used at the bottom and top of Bach
turbines to increase their efficiency and prevent vortex shedding.
There are a total of 5 disks in each stage. Holes have been created in
the centers of these disks to allow the fitting of the shafts.
• Shafts: The main shafts which connect tiers to each other at the
bottom and top of the Bach rotor system.
Modern wind turbines are often built from aluminum because of its
light weight and low price. In order to achieve an optimum aero-
dynamic efficiency, the proposed design was proposed to be manu-
factured using aluminum 1060 alloy because of its light weight and low
price [38].
2.2. Meshing and grid structure
The sliding mesh approach was used in this work. In this type of
meshing, multiple zones are defined around the geometry and

Table 7
Notable results from CFD analyses and comparison with previous literature.
Turbine Maximum Cp Optimum TSR Minimum TSR Maximum TSR

Darrieus 48.4% 2.5 ∼1 5

Castelli et al. [36] (Solo Darrieus) 31.3% 2.63 1.43 –
Wang et al. [13] (Darrieus turbine with deformable blades) ∼40% 2.0 ∼0.8 ∼4
Bach 26.95% 0.86 Self-starting –
Kamoji et al. [33] (Solo Bach) 21% 0.69 Self-starting 1.4
Hybrid 41.4% 2.5 Self-starting 4.5
Bhuyan et al. [15] (Savonius-Darrieus Hybrid Turbine with 0.15 overlap) 34% 2.29 – ∼3
Bhuyan et al. [15] (Savonius-Darrieus Hybrid Turbine with 0 overlap) 19% 2.29 – ∼3

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A. Hosseini and N. Goudarzi
interfaces are utilized to facilitate mesh motion. The solution can be
achieved at desired rotational speeds by rotating the inner zone where
the rotors are located. Control circles were created around the turbine
blades to ensure a focused grid structure in the mentioned areas and a
triangular unstructured pattern was used to reduce engineering time.
Two symmetrical wall zones were used on the bottom and top of the
structure. The inlet was modeled as a velocity inlet at 9 m/s of air flow
with a density of 1.225 kg/m3. The circular zone between the two zones
was modeled as an interface and the control zones around the blades
were set as interiors. The structure used in this study is supported by
new studies for studying rotary equipment in 2D [12,20,35,36]. Fig. 3
illustrates the schematic of the computational domain.
Each case was modeled separately in 2D based on the 3D model.
Furthermore, two zones were created in each case for sliding-mesh
analyses. The inner zone (zone 1) was focused on the swept area of the
turbine and the outer zone (zone 2) was created on a larger area around
the turbine to maintain flow properties.
2.3. CFD analyses
ANSYS Fluent is one of the most respected CFD codes. The mesh
structure for each case was imported into ANSYS Fluent R19 to setup
the geometry for the analyses. The bases for this code are the Unsteady
Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations which define the
pressure-velocity relations in the fluid flow [39]:
∂u¯i
=0
∂x i (2)
∂u¯i ∂ 1 ∂p¯ ∂ ⎛ ∂u¯i
+ (ui¯uj ) = − + ⎜ν − ui′¯u′j ⎞⎟
∂t ∂x j ρ ∂x i ∂x j ⎝ ∂x j ⎠ (3)
Eq. (2) is the continuity equation and Eq. (3) is the momentum
− −
equation. ui , uj , uí and uj́ are the mean and fluctuating values of velocity
− of analyses over the range of turbine's operational TSR. Grid analyses
in the axial system of coordinates, respectively. p is the mean pressure,
ν is the kinematic viscosity, ρ is the density of the fluid and t is the time.
− Graphical contours are drawn at various stages of the operation to il-
The term ui uj , commonly called the Reynolds stress, was modeled using
the k-ω SST turbulence model. The SIMPLE algorithm which uses a
relationship between velocity and pressure corrections to enforce mass
conservation and to obtain the pressure field was utilized in this case
[40]. This algorithm often presents accurate results in high Reynolds
numbers and turbulent conditions. Pressure, momentum, turbulent ki-
netic energy, and specific dissipation rate were modeled using a second-
order upwind scheme. The k-ω SST viscous model is effective for ro-
tational analyses in CFD analysis; the literature suggested that this
model is 10% more accurate than the k − ∊ and Spalart-Allmaras models
[35,41]. For each case, the reference values were set up based on the
dimensions of the Solidworks model and were used to calculate the flow
characteristics. The rotors were simulated against an inlet velocity of
9 m/s and the air density was considered to be 1.225 kg/m3 at 15 °C.
The blades were modeled as walls at operational TSRs. Furthermore,
based on the grid structure and geometry of each case, several trial
were employed to determine the optimum grid structure; the grid
analysis is provided for each turbine. Finally, the advantages and dis-
advantages of combining these turbines and the flow characteristics
around the rotors were analyzed. Table 4 summarizes the flow prop-
erties and operational conditions for the CFD analyses.
2.4. Data analysis
The flow field data was exported from ANSYS Fluent into MATLAB.
Afterwards, according to the reference values; the turbine's aero-
dynamic characteristics were calculated. The coefficient of moment
(Cm) can be defined by
57
Energy Conversion and Management 189 (2019) 49–59
M
Cm = 1
2
qSD (4)
where M is the moment about the center of rotation, q is the dynamic
pressure, S is the swept area, and D is the rotor diameter. For VAWTs,
swept area can be defined as S = DH where D and H are the diameter
and height of the turbine, respectively. The dynamic pressure can be
1
defined as q = 2 ρV 2 for single-phase flow where V is the wind velocity.
In order to create the means for measuring the efficiencies of turbines,
the coefficient of power can be introduced:
Pturbine
Cp =
Pwind (5)
where Pturbine is the amount of power generated by the turbine and Pwind
is the available wind power. Pturbine can be obtained by P = Mω where ω
is the rotational velocity in radians/s. Pwind can be formulated as a cubic
1
relation to the wind velocity Pwind = 2 ρSV 3 .
It is common to present characteristics of rotary equipment based on
tip speed ratios (TSRs). This representation can provide the means to
estimate characteristics at other wind velocities and avoid high com-
putational costs for analyzing individual wind speeds. TSR is defined by
Rω
TSR = V where R is the radius of the turbine.
In this work, Cm was calculated in each case based on the reference
values and imported into MATLAB. Next, the average Cp was estimated
based on the data for each TSR. The maximum amount of power gen-
eration and turbine aerodynamic characteristics were finally estimated
and presented in the results and discussion section. It should be noted
that the turbines were simulated for more than 10 revolutions (3600°)
over the course of the transient runs to guarantee the solution con-
vergence.
3. Results and discussion
Results for each case are presented in this section. The coefficient of
power (Cp) and coefficient of moment (Cm) were calculated for each set
were also performed for each case to assess the quality of the structures.
lustrate the effects of vortex shedding and turbulence on the perfor-
mance of each rotor. Table 5 lists the setup details of the grid analysis
for each case. The calculations were performed at the rotational velo-
city which demonstrated the highest Cp for each design to assure the
accuracy of the data. Table 6 presents an overview of the CFD calcu-
lation settings.
3.1. Design and performance analysis of a stand-alone Bach turbine
Grid analysis – Grid quality analysis showed a satisfying quality of
equi-size skew with average cell skew ratio of 0.08 [40]. The worst
elements of the mesh lied on the edge of the blades as expected. A
boundary layer with a growth ratio of 1.2 and 5 rows was created
around the rotor as suggested by previous research [12]. Fig. 4 illus-
trates the grid structure of the Bach rotor.
The Bach rotor was simulated according to the configurations pre-
sented in Tables 4 and 5. Fig. 5 presents the Cm trend over the course of
rotation for the rotor for different quantities of grid cells at a TSR value
of 0.9. It is evident that in this case the computational values reach a
satisfactory accuracy with 300,000 elements and therefore this value
was chosen for further analyses on this rotor.
The blades were modeled as a rotating wall at tip-speed ratios of
0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9 and 1.0. Numerical data and estimated trends for the
Cm and Cp of the Bach turbine are presented in Figs. 6 and 7. Similar to
earlier published works [33], Cm decreases linearly with TSR. High
amounts of moment at low TSRs assist the Bach turbine to act as a
starter for the hybrid turbine, assisting the Darrieus turbine's high
torque requirement at lower TSRs. The Cm trend in Fig. 6 is compared
A. Hosseini and N. Goudarzi
with existing literature [33] which presents a numerical correlation for
estimating the performance of the respective rotor.
The highest numerical Cp was achieved at TSR 0.9 to be 27.1%. The
trend estimates a maximum Cp of 26.95% at TSR 0.87. These results
were within the same range to those from Kacprzak et al.'s experimental
and CFD calculations [41,42]. The drag force on this turbine increases
with TSR and while this helps reducing startup torque requirements at
low TSRs, the aerodynamic geometry creates a negative drag force at
high TSRs which reduces the hybrid turbine's efficiency as explored by
previous research [17,43].
3.2. Design and performance analysis of a stand-alone Darrieus turbine
Grid quality analysis measures a good quality for the mesh structure
with the maximum skew ratio being 0.73. The worst elements lied on
the tip of the blades as expected. Fig. 8 illustrates the overall grid
structure for the Darrieus rotor. Similar to the previous setup, the
Darrieus rotor was simulated according to the configurations presented
in Tables 4 and 5. Fig. 9 presents the Cm trend over the course rotation
for the rotor for different quantities of grid cells at TSR 3. It is evident
that the computational data converges as the cell count approaches
450,000 and therefore this value was chosen for further analyses.
Contrary to the Bach rotor, the Darrieus rotor achieved its peak
efficiency at high TSRs. Cm values were calculated for the Darrieus
turbine at TSR values listed in Table 6. The maximum numerical
amount of Cm was found to be 21.0% at TSR 2. An estimated trend is
illustrated in Fig. 10. The low Cm values at low TSRs suggested that the
turbine requires a start-up mechanism.
The numerical Cp data had a maximum value of 48.4% at TSR 2.5,
as shown in Fig. 11. The optimum operating range is achieved from TSR
2 where Cp is over 20%. The wide operational range can be realized in
this figure for the proposed Darrieus design. Numerical data assess the
turbine to be feasible for power generation up to a TSR value of 5.
3.3. Performance analysis of a combined Savonius and Darrieus design –
Hybrid VAWT.
Grid quality check revealed a good grid quality around the rotors.
The most skewed cells are lying at the tip of the Darrieus and Bach
blades. The worst elements on the tip of the blades due to curvature.
Fig. 12 inspects the worst elements of the grid which lie on the tip of the
Darrieus and Bach blades. Fig. 13 illustrates the grid structure for the
hybrid turbine.
The grid structure for the hybrid rotor was achieved by combining
the previous cell structures for the Darrieus and Bach rotors. Fig. 14
presents the Y+ values for the hybrid rotor analyses. Fig. 15 presents
the Cm trend for the hybrid rotor over the course rotation for the rotor
for different quantities of grid cells at TSR 3. It is observed that the error
becomes negligible in the higher orders of elements by implementing
the current grid structure.
Fig. 16 shows the numerical data and estimated trend for the Cm of
the hybrid turbine. The maximum numerical value for Cm was 18.8% at
TSR 2. A Cm amount of 10.5% was achieved at TSR 1 which demon-
strates the increase in the initial torque by utilizing the Bach turbine.
When compared to the Cm value of the Darrieus rotor at TSR 1 (6.6%),
this value was 59% higher, promoting the self-starting capabilities of
this design. The maximum operational TSR for this rotor was estimated
to be 4.5. This value is lower than that of the Darrieus rotor because of
the high drag force generated by the Bach rotor at high rotational ve-
locities.
Fig. 17 presents the numerical data and estimated trend for the Cp of
the hybrid turbine. The maximum numerical Cp amounted to be 41.4%
at TSR 2.5.
Graphical contours of velocity are shown in Fig. 18. The highest
velocity magnitude is found to be at the tip of the approaching blade of
the hybrid turbine. A wake zone similar to the other cases can be seen
58
Energy Conversion and Management 189 (2019) 49–59
behind the turbine. This zone is smaller in this case which is due to the
induced momentum by the Darrieus turbine blades on the low-velocity
zone behind the Bach turbine. By inspecting the contours, one can
deduct that the Bach turbine is utilizing the vortex formed within the
Darrieus rotor in the previous stand-alone simulation. This interaction
increases the performance of the hybrid turbine at lower TSRs where
the turbulent effects are less present. However, it is also observed that
the high drag force of the Bach rotor reduces the efficiency of the hybrid
rotor at higher rotational velocities.
Figs. 19 and 20 illustrate the Cm and Cp trends and numerical values
for studied Darrieus and hybrid VAWTs. As noted, when compared with
the Darrieus turbine, the immense drag force from the Bach turbine at
high TSRs reduces the moment on the hybrid turbine and therefore, this
turbine has lower maximum Cp and lower maximum operation TSR.
Bhuyan et al. [15] also reached similar conditions with their hybrid
VAWT design. On the other hand, this turbine does not require start-up
mechanisms and uses the Bach rotor system to start its operation. The
higher Cm value for the hybrid turbine at TSR 1 suggests improvements
at lower TSRs in this model. This fact makes the turbine reliable for
development in urban areas and small sizes to harness wind at low
speeds while making it an attractive choice for offshore development or
deployment in remote areas where an operator cannot start the turbine.
When coupled with the benefits of VAWTs such as low maintenance
costs and insensitivity to wind direction, this turbine can be advanta-
geous in situations where the operation conditions are not optimal or
access is limited.
Table 7 lists the notable results and features for each of these tur-
bines. It can be seen that the proposed solo-Darrieus design reached up
to a maximum operation TSR of 5 which is an improvement when
compared to other similar designs (Castelli et al. [36]). The Bach tur-
bine demonstrated results which were slightly higher than those from
the optimized design of Kamoji et al. [33]. The hybrid turbine was able
to achieve a high Cm at low TSRs and therefore would be able to achieve
a smooth start-up operation. Furthermore, this turbine was able to
reach a peak Cp of 41.4% which is higher than those of similar hybrid
turbine designs (Bhuyan et al. [15]). On the other hand, this rotor de-
monstrated reduced aerodynamic efficiency at higher TSRs due to the
high drag force of the Bach rotor system at those speeds as expected
from previous literature in this area [15,17,44]. The implementation of
a control mechanism to reduce the rotational velocity of the Bach tur-
bine at high speeds would be of significant value for further works
which is an ongoing research by the team now.
Fig. 21 shows the comparison of the results of this work with similar
VAWT designs. It is evident that the proposed design is expected to
achieve an extended operational range of TSRs while maintaining a
higher efficiency when compared to previous literature.
The following can be deduced from the results of this study:
• The proposed hybrid VAWT design benefited from previous litera-
ture optimizations which led to a higher Cp value and an extended
operational range whence compared with similar hybrid VAWT
designs.
• While the assessed efficiency of the hybrid design is lower than that
of the solo Darrieus rotor, the higher static torque provides the
means to achieving a more sustainable and robust system which can
tolerate a higher range of environmental conditions.
• The operational range of the hybrid VAWT is estimated to reach a
TSR value of 4.5 which is significantly higher than previous designs
in the literature. This supports the sustainable development aspects
and provides an insight into the effects of optimizations on VAWT
technologies.
4. Conclusion & discussion
The objective of this research was to present an efficient hybrid
rotor design with self-starting capabilities and an extended operational
A. Hosseini and N. Goudarzi
range for being suitable for both low-speed and high-speed wind farms.
An innovative hybrid turbine design was introduced based on two rotor
designs, including a Darrieus and Bach-type modified Savonius tur-
bines. The conceptual and design phases were carried out by utilizing
previous literature on VAWT design and testing. The research process
included theoretical analysis and CAD modeling in Solidworks, meshing
in ANSYS, CFD analysis in ANSYS Fluent and post processing and data
analysis in MATLAB to assess each rotor and the combined hybrid
turbine designs. CFD analyses were carried out in transient mode using
the k-ω SST turbulence model and SIMPLE algorithm to simulate over
10 complete cycles of rotation for each rotor and extract the aero-
dynamic properties. Each rotor was analyzed at various TSRs to detect
the maximum numerical values of Cp and Cm. Furthermore, maximum
and minimum operation TSRs were estimated using the numerical data
and a comparison was conducted between the designed VAWTs and
previous literature. Results for each turbine indicated that:
• The Bach turbine reaches the maximum C p of 26.95% at TSRs 0.86.
Cm decreases linearly versus TSR for this turbine. The high drag
force of this turbine at high TSRs reduces the aerodynamic torque on
the blades and leads to low performance.
• The Darrieus turbine achieved maximum amounts of Cp and Cm of
48.4% and 21.0% at TSRs 2.5 and 2, respectively. Although this
turbine demonstrated a higher Cp when compared to other VAWT
designs, it suffers from the inability to start-up because of the low
initial torque. This fact designates the utilization of the Darrieus
turbine in low-speed or harsh environmental conditions to be un-
reliable. On the other hand, the proposed Darrieus design is ex-
pected to be able to reach very high operation TSRs and therefore
can achieve a wide operational range.
• The hybrid turbine benefitted from the high initial torque provided
by the Bach rotor system and therefore demonstrated improvements
to self-starting capabilities. The turbine achieved a maximum Cp of
41.4% and a maximum Cm of 18.8% at TSR values of 2.5 and 2. As a
result, this turbine is a suitable candidate for harnessing wind en-
ergy in an extended range of operational conditions while main-
taining high efficiency. The proposed design demonstrated im-
provement to current hybrid VAWT technology when compared to
literature.
Although this design benefits from self-starting capabilities and
wide operational range, the aerodynamic performance can still be en-
hanced by implementing a control structure [45]. The proposed design
would also be beneficial for utilization in water flow [45]. Moreover,
future studies should be conducted to address some of the limitations of
the current study as well as cost-benefit analyses to assess the localized
cost of energy (LCOE) for this design [46].
Conflicts of interest
None.
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