CFD Study of Unsteady Flow Through Savonius Wind Turbine Clusters

Mohamed MEZIANE, Elhachmi Essadiqi, Mustapha Faqir, Mohamad Fathi Ghanameh

Abstract


The interaction between Savonius vertical axis wind turbine clusters installed in far or close proximity can devalue or enhance the output power of single Savonius vertical axis  wind turbines.  In this paper, the effect of spatial distribution is studied for the development of efficient Savonius vertical axis wind turbine farms. Numerical simulations are performed for a single Savonius wind turbine, sets of two rotating turbines in three different configurations  (aligned, parallel and oblique configurations), and clusters of three rotating turbines, using five separation distances of 0.25D, 0.5D, 1D, 1.5D and 2D, making a total of twenty-two test scenarios. The commercial CFD software Fluent 15.0 is used for the numerical study. The torque and power coefficient results of single Savonius turbine are compared and validated against experimental and numerical data based on the literature review. The results showed that there was a combined effect related to the inter-turbine distance and the output power. This combined effect showed an efficient three Savonius turbine cluster having an average power coefficient 3 times higher than an isolated turbine. Best Savonius farm efficiency and high output power could be obtained by considering, at least, these two parameters.


Keywords


Wind energy; Vertical axis wind turbines; CFD simulation; Savonius interaction; wind farms.

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References


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DOI (PDF): https://doi.org/10.20508/ijrer.v9i2.8973.g7635

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