Savonius Vertical Wind Turbine - Al Akhawayn University

1 School of Science and Engineering University Honors Program Savonius Vertical WIND Turbine : DESIGN, SIMULATION, AND PHYSICAL TESTING Eddahmani Aymane Dr. Hassan Darhmaoui, Dr. Naeem Sheikh May 2017 Savonius Vertical WIND Turbine : DESIGN, SIMULATION, AND PHYSICAL TESTING Honors Capstone Report I, Eddahmani Aymane, hereby affirm that I have applied ethics to the design process and in the selection of the final proposed design. And that I have held the safety of the public to be paramount and have addressed this in the presented design wherever may be applicable. _____ Approved by the Supervisors _____ iii Acknowledgments I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisors Dr Naeem Sheikh and Dr Hassan Darhmaoui for their support and continuous feedback throughout the different stages of the project.

2 Beside my supervisors, I would like to thank the school of Science and Engineering and the Honors Program for providing us with a multidisciplinary background that allows us to tackle real world problems. This project is the fruit of not only hard work but also support of friends and family, without whom it could not have been completed. Special gratitude is extended to my family: My mother for her patience, sacrifice, and endless support; and my brother, Achraf, for his excitement to hear about the smallest updates, and his support. I am grateful for the many lessons they taught me, and for their precious advice all along the past 4 years at AUI. The building process could not have been completed without the amazing assistance and work of Mr.

3 Abdelkader Balouk from the grounds and maintenance department. I would like to thank him for taking the time to help us, and having the patience to deal with our lack of experience. Warm thanks to all the friends who helped along the way, from running the simulations, to going on trips to purchase the materials, and setting up the physical tests. iv Table of Content Acknowledgments .. iii Table of Content .. iv List of Figures .. vi List of Tables .. viii Abstract .. ix 1 INTRODUCTION .. 1 Context .. 1 Methodology and Objectives .. 2 Motivation .. 3 STEEPLE Analysis .. 4 2 LITERATURE 7 Theoretical Background .. 7 Betz's law .. 8 Tip Speed Ratio .. 9 Power 10 Forces Involved.

4 10 Turbulence .. 11 Types of Wind Turbines .. 12 Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines .. 12 Vertical Axis Wind Turbines .. 14 Savonius Vertical Axis Wind 19 Characterization of Savonius Wind Turbines .. 20 Two blades Vs. Three Blades .. 21 Wind speed classification .. 21 3 3D COMPUTER DESIGN .. 23 Savonius wind Turbine : Classic barrel design .. 23 Icewind Design .. 28 Icewind .. 28 Designing the blade .. 30 4 COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS SIMULATIONS .. 35 2D Simulations: effect of the number of blades .. 35 Setup .. 38 Results .. 42 v 3D Simulations .. 49 Setup .. 50 Results .. 51 5 PHYSICAL MODEL TESTING .. 56 Experimental Procedure .. 58 Results.

5 60 6 CONSUMER BEHAVIOR STUDY .. 65 7 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK .. 72 8 BIBLIOGRAPHY .. 74 Appendix A - 2D Simulation Results .. 77 Appendix B - Survey distributed to AUI students .. 80 vi List of Figures Figure 1 STEEPLE 6 Figure 2 Types of wind turbines .. 7 Figure 3 Power Coefficient plot .. 8 Figure 4 Power Coefficient curve for different types of turbines .. 9 Figure 5 Power curve .. 10 Figure 6 The effect of lift and drag .. 12 Figure 7 Types of VAWTs .. 15 Figure 8 Working principle of a Darrieus rotor .. 16 Figure 9 Darrieus "eggbeater" Turbine .. 17 Figure 10 H-Darrieus rotor .. 18 Figure 11 Working principle of a Savonius rotor .. 19 Figure 12 Three blades Savonius Turbine .

6 20 Figure 13 Overlap of the two blades on a Savonius rotor .. 23 Figure 14 Four blades Savonius rotor 24 Figure 15 Two blades Savonius rotor design .. 24 Figure 16 Three blades Savonius rotor design .. 24 Figure 17 Three blades Savonius rotor design .. 25 Figure 18 Two blades Savonius rotor design .. 25 Figure 19 Four blades Savonius rotor 25 Figure 20 Three blades Savonius rotor design .. 26 Figure 21 Two blades Savonius rotor design .. 26 Figure 22 Four blades Savonius rotor 26 Figure 23 No base barrel design .. 27 Figure 24 Images from Icewind's promotional material .. 29 Figure 25 Icewind blade, step 1.. 30 Figure 26 Icewind blade, step 2 .. 31 Figure 27 Icewind blade, step 3.

7 31 Figure 28 Icewind blade, step 4 .. 32 Figure 29 Icewind blade - Final design .. 32 Figure 30 Icewind rotor design .. 33 Figure 31 Three blades Icewind rotor: our design vs. the original .. 33 Figure 32 Pressure difference .. 36 Figure 33 ANSYS Fluent project .. 38 Figure 34 2D model of a 2-blade rotor .. 39 Figure 35 2D 2-blade rotor and tunnel mesh .. 40 Figure 36 Residuals plot .. 41 Figure 37 Two blades rotor at 5 m/s .. 42 Figure 38 Three blades rotor at 5 m/s .. 43 Figure 39 Four blades rotor at 5 43 Figure 40 Rotor orientation .. 45 Figure 41 Pressure difference for two blades rotor .. 46 vii Figure 42 Pressure difference for three blades rotor .. 46 Figure 43 Pressure difference for four blades rotor.

8 47 Figure 44 Pressure values at 5m/s .. 48 Figure 45 Pressure difference summary .. 48 Figure 46 30 vs. 90 orientation .. 49 Figure 47 Icewind design mesh .. 50 Figure 48 Barrel design mesh .. 50 Figure 49 Barrel Mesh - Close 51 Figure 50 Pressure Distribution on Barrel design at 30 .. 51 Figure 51 Pressure Distribution on Icewind design at 30 .. 52 Figure 52 Moment values for Barrel at 30 .. 52 Figure 53 Moment values for Icewind at 30 .. 53 Figure 54 Pressure Distribution on Icewind design at 90 .. 54 Figure 55 Pressure Distribution on Barrel design at 90 .. 54 Figure 56 Moment values for Icewind at 90 .. 55 Figure 57 Moment values for Barrel at 90 .. 55 Figure 58 Parts used for the build.

9 56 Figure 59 Built models .. 57 Figure 60 Turbine Test .. 58 Figure 61 View from overhead camera .. 59 Figure 62 Anemometer used for measuring wind speed .. 59 Figure 63 Participants' distribution .. 66 Figure 64 Participants exposure to HAWTs .. 67 Figure 65 Participants exposure to VAWTs .. 67 Figure 66 Survey Options: Icewind vs. 68 Figure 67 Design Aesthetics .. 68 Figure 68 Design Aerodynamics .. 68 Figure 69 Design Aesthetics AND Aerodynamics: Option 1 .. 69 Figure 70 Design Aesthetics AND Aerodynamics: Option 2 .. 69 Figure 71 Importance of overall 70 Figure 72 Importance of noise level .. 70 Figure 73 Importance of efficiency .. 70 viii List of Tables Table 1 Comparison of VAWTs & HAWTs.

10 15 Table 2 Wind speed classification .. 22 Table 3 Measurements (m).. 24 Table 4 Measurements (m).. 25 Table 5 Pressure difference in Pa .. 44 Table 6 Generated wind speed .. 60 Table 7 Velocity and Acceleration Data .. 60 Table 8 Angular Velocity .. 61 Table 9 Angular Acceleration .. 62 Table 10 Moment of Inertia for both designs .. 62 Table 11 Torque values for both designs .. 62 Table 12 Cp Calculations - Aluminum Rotor .. 63 Table 13 Cp Calculations - Our 64 ix Abstract This project consists of designing, and testing the performance of a Savonius Vertical Wind Turbine . The project compares the performance of two designs: a classic barrel Savonius design, and the innovative design of Icewind, an Icelandic startup that makes Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs).