Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1 s2.0 S235248472100826X Main - 2
1 s2.0 S235248472100826X Main - 2
Energy Reports
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/egyr
Research paper
article info a b s t r a c t
Article history: From some decades, the world has a deep problem which called energy crisis. Therefore, a considerable
Received 6 July 2021 effort has introduced in the field of renewable energy to cove and solve this problem especially
Received in revised form 8 September 2021 wind energy. Some attempts succeeded to improve the wind turbine to convert the wind energy
Accepted 10 September 2021
into mechanical energy. However, rare designs are available to convert the low-speed wind energy.
Available online 23 September 2021
Savonius turbine is one of promising converters for low wind speed energy. In the present work, an
Keywords: important improvement in the power output coefficient has been achieved as well as an interesting
Enhancement increase in the static torque coefficient which shows the self-starting capability. A modification
Turbine has been performed on the conventional design by adding a couple of frontal guiding plated to
Savonius reduce the negative torque increase the positive torque. An optimization technique based on in-house
Wind energy optimization library called OPAL coupled with CFD is utilized in the current work. The main objective
of this optimization study is to maximize the turbine power coefficient. An interesting increase in
the Savonius turbine performance has been gained (typically 39.8% relative increase of the power
coefficient).
© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
1. Introduction around 5% of the world electricity market. The wind power gen-
eration still has essential problems such as storage and distribu-
Wind energy is a promising clean source of energy due to its tion during the electricity generated quantity did not match the
abundantly availability as well as it is pollution-free. It is clear demands due to the varying of the wind continuously.
that the wind energy can reduce the depending on the fossil fuel. In the remote and urban areas, the electricity generated from
Several countries nowadays take the wind energy as essential wind energy would be a good solution for the energy problem. A
source of energy. Moreover, developing countries realized in the drag turbine which called Savonius rotor appears basically to be
last decade the importance of the wind energy. Furthermore, particularly promising for such low wind speeds and it has simple
these developed countries realized that the renewable energy is and compact design.
an indication to civilization for its effective utilization in power In the second decade of the 20th Century, S.J. Savonius in-
production with zero emissions. vented the vertical axis Savonius turbine. Savonius turbine con-
There are many constraints face the power generation from sists of two semi cylinders. As in Fig. 1 the two semi cylinders
wind energy, however, the commercial market of the wind tur- shifted partially to generate a concave and convex shapes accord-
ing the flow direction as in Fig. 2. With respect the wind flow
bines is increased with up to 31% annually. It is estimated that
direction, the concave semi-cylinder is called advancing blade,
ten million MW of wind energy on earth are continuously avail-
however, the convex semi-cylinder is called returning blade. A
able (Gupta et al., 2008). By 2020, the wind power has captured
positive torque is generated on the advancing blade (concave
blade) and instantaneously, a negative torque is affected on the
∗ Corresponding author at: Mechanical Engineering Department, College of returning blade (convex blade) as shown Fig. 2. The generated
Engineering and Islamic Architecture, Umm Al-Qura University, P.O. 5555, torque on the turbine shaft is the difference between the positive
Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
and the negative torques on the rotor blades.
E-mail address: mhmohamed@uqu.edu.sa (M.H. Mohamed).
URL:
As in Fig. 1, Savonius turbine is a vertical axis wind turbine
http://www.uni-magdeburg.de/isut/LSS/Mitarbeiter/Thevenin/Thevenin.htm based mainly on drag forces which generated on the turbine
(D. Thévenin). blades. Therefore, it is compatible with low speed wind up to 5
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2021.09.021
2352-4847/© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
M.H. Mohamed, F. Alqurashi and D. Thévenin Energy Reports 7 (2021) 6069–6076
Nomenclature
Cm Torque coefficient [–]
Cms Static torque coefficient [–]
Cp Output power coefficient [–]
D Turbine diameter [m]
e Blade overlap distance [m]
H Blade height [m]
M Turbine torque [N m]
P Turbine power output [N m/s]
R Turbine radius [m]
U Wind speed [m/s]
β Obstacle angle [◦ ]
γ Deflector angle [◦ ]
λ Speed ratio [–]
θ Turbine rotation angle [◦ ]
ρ Air density [kg/m3 ]
ω Turbine angular velocity [1/s]
2. Performance of a Savonius turbine A deep literature review is the first step to compare between
the different ideas which considering the improvement of the
Several parameters affect the performances of Savonius tur- Savonius turbine efficiency as main objective. The main drawback
bine as in Fig. 2, the speed ratio is defined as: of Savonius turbine is the low efficiency as published in a lot of
ωR publications, e.g., Menet and Nachida (2004), Menet et al. (2001),
λ= (1) Menet (2004) and Kamoji et al. (2009). So, several modifica-
U
tions and developments have been introduced in the literature
Savonius rotor with a height H, and under the effect of a wind
to improve the performance of this type of wind turbine (see
velocity (U), the output power P and the generated torque M on
e.g. Mohamed et al., 2008a; Kamoji et al., 2009; Huda et al.,
the shaft of the Savonius rotor will be calculated, then these toque
1992; Saha and Rajkumar, 2006; Irabu and Roy, 2007; Menet,
and power can used to define the non-dimensional coefficients
2007; Hayashi et al., 2005). Table 1 summarized some important
which called generated torque coefficient (Cm ) and output power
modification proposals to improve the turbine performance. Due
coefficient (Cp ), respectively shown as follow:
to the highest interest of the Savonius rotor, it is important that
P the developments and modifications should not involve an ex-
CP = (2)
1
2
ρ DHU 3 ceedingly complex or expensive design to keep the main feature
of the turbine which is simplicity of the design. In this work, a
and modified configuration of the Savonius rotor is utilized, involving
M simultaneously an obstacle plate and a flow deflector. Obstacle
Cm = (3)
1
4
ρ D2 HU 2 and deflector are guiding plates used as simple idea to increase
6070
M.H. Mohamed, F. Alqurashi and D. Thévenin Energy Reports 7 (2021) 6069–6076
Table 1
Improving the performance of a conventional Savonius turbine.
Design Gain Description and comments
Helical designs (Kamoji et al., 2009) Enhance the self-starting Deeply complexity, higher cost
Deflector plate (Huda et al., 1992) 20% Not clear design
Twisted-blades (Saha and Rajkumar, About 27% relative to standard Deeply complexity, higher cost
2006)
Guide-Box design (Irabu and Roy, 2007) 50% (three blades rotor) Deeply complexity, higher cost
Modified Savonius (Menet, 2007) 60% in the self-starting Expected vibration problem
Guide Vanes (Hayashi et al., 2005) Depends on tip speed ratio value Not so good for large tip speed ratio
Obstacle plate (Mohamed et al., 2008a) 15% increase in the power coefficient Only narrow parameter space considered
Shield plate (Iio et al., 2011) 80% increase in the power coefficient Using a flat shield plate when the clearance ratio is 0.73
Ducted nozzle (Elbatran et al., 2017) An increase of 78% in power coefficient (maximum Cp = 0.25) has been recorded for the ducted
nozzle turbine at TSR = 0.73
Frontal baffle (Kailash et al., 2012) Maximum C p = 0.35 Savonius water turbine with two upstream deflector
plates
Thick blade (Kerikous and Thévenin, 12% relative increase in output power A thick-bladed hydraulic Savonius turbine at TSR = 1.1
2019) coefficient
Conveyor–deflector curtain A relative increase in Cp of 20% Rotor with conveyor–deflector curtain system
system (Tartuferi et al., 2015)
Combined blade (Sanusi et al., 2016) An increase up to 11% An increase in output power coefficient can be achieved
through the application of combined blades
Dual splitters (Patel and Patel, 2021) An enhancement around 7.3% with comparison The study is limited to the Savonius hydrokinetic rotor
to standard Savonius
S-shape Savonius turbine with two 84% percent increase of power coefficient The performance is improved for the rotor with two
deflectors (Ramadan et al., 2021) guiding deflectors to be 0.24 at a tip speed ratio at 0.7
Frontal plates with three-blade Savonius Increasing the static torque The deflectors improved the self-starting ability and
turbine (Salleh et al., 2021) increased the power coefficient of the turbine under
different conditions.
Only Obstacle plate (Mohamed et al., 27.3% relative increase in the efficiency of the Two and three blades Savonius turbines have been
2010) two blades rotor studied under the effect of the shielding obstacle plate.
Array of Savonius rotors (Belkacem and Two times the conventional Savonius wind In this work of an array of 11 turbines with a distance
Paraschivoiu, 2016) turbine of 1.4R in between them are used in the simulations.
Savonius turbine for roof mounted An improvement in the power coefficient from A horizontal configuration of a Savonius wind turbine is
integration (Larin et al., 2016) 0.043 to 0.24 proposed to be mounted on the upstream edge of a
building.
Set of deflector plates (Storti et al., 30% increase in efficiency using a genetic algorithm combined with an artificial
2019) neural network
Sizing the rotor guide plates Turbine was casing better than the caseless Optimized casing dimensions
configuration (Antar and Elkhoury, 2019) one
Bach-type Savonius turbine (Haddad Performance of the turbine with additional Concentric blade (additional inner blades) inside the
et al., 2021) inner blades is increased by 22.39% at TSR original rotor blade
equals 0.75
Until recently, the trial-and-error is used in the literature to The CFD leads indeed to precise and accurate flow charac-
denominate ‘‘optimization’’ with manual method at the variation teristics around and inside the turbine. In sequence, optimiza-
of a real, mathematical optimization. Thus, this is now exchanging tion methodology will obtain the right solution depending the
rapidly and several of automatic optimization is used. Therefore, accurate results of the Computational Fluid Dynamics.
In the current work, the optimum position and angle of the The flow simulation around the Savonius rotor is very difficult
deflector will be the target under the mathematical optimization and challenged task due to high time dependent conditions, in ad-
automatically, as a new step in the direction of a deep and full dition, the flow separation plays a considerable role for the power
optimization of all parameters influencing the performance of the coefficient of the rotor. Thus, accurate numerical procedure is
Savonius turbine. needed and deep check of the model and the full numerical
To get the optimum configuration, a suitable algorithm must procedure by validation is the first step to trust the results. All
be chosen. Furthermore, a appreciable experience is available the simulation in this work has been taken place by ANSYS-Fluent
in our group concerning the mathematical optimization based software. Due to the unsteadiness of the flow characteristics
on CFD evaluations (Thévenin and Janiga, 2008). Thus, it is em- around the Savonius turbine, the unsteady Reynolds-Averaged
ployed our own optimization library, OPAL (for OPtimization Navier–Stokes equations are calculated utilizing the SIMPLE al-
ALgorithms), consisting several optimization methods. OPAL has gorithm for pressure–velocity coupling. Furthermore, a second-
already been coupled with several CFD solvers (Fluent, CFX, and order upwind scheme is used to solve the different variables and
several CFD solvers) and was utilized successfully to enhance turbulent values are discretized in a Finite-Volume formulation.
a lot of engineering designs, such as heat exchangers (Hilbert To model turbulence parameters, the realizable k-ε model is
et al., 2006), turbomachinery (Mohamed et al., 2008a,b) or burn- used, where this model is normally recommended for rotating
ers (Thévenin et al., 2005; Janiga and Thévenin, 2007). For the zones. In the present work, 2D calculations are suitable (as 3D
current design, Evolutionary Algorithms are employed, and all Savonius turbine with end plate), so that very accurate mesh
the used parameters are listed as follow: in this work the opti- can be used. Sliding Mesh Model (SMM) is used in this work to
mization methodology used twenty population size of first gen- solve the unsteady flow characteristic. By using a constant time-
eration and twenty generations. Evolutionary Algorithm utilized step, four complete revolutions are always computed. The effect
survival probability equals 50%, Average probability is around of the time step on the CFD simulation should be studied. For
33.3%, crossover probability is 16.7% and mutation probability this purpose, four different values of time steps equivalent to
equals 100% as well as mutation magnitude is 30% (i.e., ±15%), azimuthal angular steps of 0.25◦ , 0.5◦ , 1◦ , and 3◦ are included
however, this value will reduce in every generation by factor 0.8. in this investigation. The difference in Cp is less than 1.2% for
A fully automatic optimization finally takes place, using OPAL 0.5◦ , and 1◦ azimuthal angular steps, while it exceeds double
(decision-maker for the configurations to investigate), the com- this ratio for 3◦ azimuthal angular step. Therefore, an azimuthal
mercial tool Gambit for geometry and grid generation (including angular step of 1◦ has been systematically retained for the rest
quality check) and the industrial CFD code ANSYS-Fluent to com- of the CFD simulations in this work. The first revolution is uti-
pute the flow field around the turbines. As a result of the CFD lized to initiation the perfect flow field solutions; however, the
6072
M.H. Mohamed, F. Alqurashi and D. Thévenin Energy Reports 7 (2021) 6069–6076
8. Conclusions
Fig. 8. Comparison of the incident flow direction with (top row) and without deflector (bottom row) at different times for λ = 0.7, Zoom on the vicinity of the
turbine (CFD domain is larger).
References Menet, J., 2004. A double-step savonius rotor for local production of electricity:
A design study. Renew. Energy 29 (11), 1843–1862.
Antar, E., Elkhoury, M., 2019. Parametric sizing optimization process of a Menet, J., 2007. Aerodynamic behaviour of a new type of slow-running. In: VAWT
casing for a savonius vertical axis wind turbine. Renew. Energy 136 (2019), Wind Energy Proceedings of the Euromech Colloquium. (43), Springer, pp.
127–138. 235–240.
Belkacem, Belabes, Paraschivoiu, Marius, 2016. CFD analysis of a finite linear Menet, J., Nachida, B., 2004. Increase in the savonius rotors efficiency via a
array of savonius wind turbines. J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 753 (10), 102008. parametric investigation. In: European Wind Energy Conference EWEA -
Van den Braembussche, R.A., 2008. Numerical optimization for advanced tur- Poster Presentations, Aerodynamics and Aeroacoustics.
bomachinery design. In: Thévenin, D., Janiga, G. (Eds.), Optimization and Menet, J., Valdés, L., Ménart, B., 2001. A comparative calculation of the wind
Computational Fluid Dynamics. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg. turbines capacities on the basis of the L-σ criterion. Renew. Energy 22 (4),
Elbatran, A.H., Ahmed, Y.M., Shehata, A.S., 2017. Performance study of ducted 491–506.
nozzle savonius water turbine, comparison with conventional savonius Mohamed, M.H., Janiga, G., Pap, E., Thévenin, D., 2008, Optimal performance of
turbine. Energy 134, 566–584. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2017.06. a Savonius turbine using an obstacle shielding the returning blade. In: Ninth
041. International Congress of Fluid Dynamics and Propulsion ASME-ICFDP9,
Gupta, R., Biswas, A., Sharma, K.K., 2008. Comparative study of a three-bucket (ICFDP9-EG-249) Alexandria, Egypt.
savonius rotor with a combined three-bucket Savonius-three bladed Darrieus Mohamed, M.H., Janiga, G., Thévenin, D., 2008. Performance optimization of a
rotor. Renew. Energy 33 (9), 1974–1981. modified Wells turbine using non-symmetric airfoil blades. In: ASME Turbo
Haddad, H.Z., Elsayed, K., Shabana, Y.M., Mohamed, M.H., 2021. Comprehensive Expo Conference, (GT2008-50815), Berlin, Germany.
influence of the additional inner blades with different configurations on the Mohamed, M.H., Janiga, G., Thévenin, D., 2010. Optimization of savonius turbines
performance of a savonius wind turbine. Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, using an obstacle shielding the returning blade. Renew. Energy 35 (11),
Util. Environ. Effects 20. 2618–2626.
Hayashi, T., Li, Y., Hara, Y., 2005. Wind tunnel tests on a different phase Patel, Vimal, Patel, Ravi, 2021. Free energy-extraction using savonius hydroki-
three-stage savonius rotor. JSME Int. J. Ser. B 48 (1), 9–16. netic rotor with dual splitters. Mater. Today: Proc. 45 (6), 5354–5361. http:
Hilbert, R., Janiga, G., Baron, R., Thévenin, D., 2006. Multiobjective shape //dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2021.01.928.
optimization of the flow around a heat exchanger using parallel genetic Ramadan, A., Hemida, M., Abdel-Fadeel, W.A., Aissa, W.A., Mohamed, M.H., 2021.
algorithms. Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 49, 2567–2577. Comprehensive experimental and numerical assessment of a drag turbine for
Huda, M.D., Selim, M.A., Islam, A.K.M.S, Islam, M.Q., 1992. Performance of an river hydrokinetic energy conversion. Ocean Eng. 227 (1), 108587.
S-shaped savonius rotor with a deflecting plate. RERIC Int. Energy J. 14 (1), Saha, U.K., Rajkumar, M.J., 2006. On the performance analysis of savonius rotor
25–32. with twisted blades. Renew. Energy 31 (11), 1776–1788.
Iio, S., Katayama, Y., Uchiyama, F., Sato, E., Ikeda, T., 2011. Influence of setting Salleh, Mohd Badrul, Kamaruddin, Noorfazreena M., Mohamed-Kassim, Zulfaa,
condition on characteristics of savonius hydraulic turbine with a shield Baka, Elmi Abu, 2021. Experimental investigation on the characterization
plate. J. Therm. Sci. 20 (3), 224–228. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11630-011- of self-starting capability of a 3-bladed savonius hydrokinetic turbine using
210462-9. deflector plates. Ocean Eng. 228, 108950.
Irabu, K., Roy, J.N., 2007. Characteristics of wind power on savonius rotor using Sanusi, A., Soeparman, S., Wahyudi, S., Yuliati, L., 2016. Experimental study of
a guide-box tunnel. Exp. Therm Fluid Sci. 32 (2), 580–586. combined blade savonius wind turbine. Int. J. Renew. Energy Res. 6 (2),
Janiga, G., Thévenin, D., 2007. Reducing the CO emissions in a laminar burner 615–619.
using different numerical optimization methods. J. Power Energy 221 (5), Storti, Bruno, Dorella, Jonathan, Roman, Nadia, Peralta, Ignacio, Albanesi, Alejan-
647–655. dro, 2019. Improving the efficiency of a savonius wind turbine by designing
Kailash, G., Eldho, T.I., Prabhu, S.V., 2012. Performance study of modified savonius a set of deflector plates with a metamodel-based optimization approach.
water turbine with two deflector plates. Int. J. Rotating Mach. 2012, http: Energy 186, 115814.
//dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/679247. Tartuferi, M., D’Alessandro, V., Montelpare, S., Ricci, R., 2015. Enhancement
Kamoji, M.A., Kedare, S.B., Prabhu, S.V., 2009. Performance tests on helical of savonius wind rotor aerodynamic performance: A computational study
savonius rotors. Renew. Energy 34 (3), 521–529. of new blade shapes and curtain systems. Energy 79 (C), 371–384. http:
Kerikous, E., Thévenin, D., 2019. Optimal shape of thick blades for a hydraulic //dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2014.11.023.
Savonius turbine. Renew Energy 19 (134), 629–638. http://dx.doi.org/10. Thévenin, D., Janiga, G., 2008. Optimization and Computational Fluid Dynamics.
1016/j.renene.2018.11.037. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Larin, P., Paraschivoiu, M., Aygun, C., 2016. CFD based synergistic analysis of Thévenin, D., Zähringer, K., Janiga, G., 2005. Automatic optimization of
wind turbines for roof mounted integration. J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 156, two-dimensional burners. In: European Combustion Meeting, ECM05,
1–13. Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium, pages 240/1–240/6.
6076