Enhancement of aerodynamic performance of Savonius wind turbine with airfoil-shaped blade for the urban application

The present study introduces a novel rotor configuration with an airfoil-shaped blade, based on the low-speed high-lift FX74-CL5-140 airfoil, for enhancing the performance of the Savonius wind turbine for a practical application in urban areas. The preferment of the present design over the original one with a semicircular shape is confirmed by the sequence of unsteady two-dimensional (2D) numerical simulation. The results demonstrate a new power coefficient peak (up to 16.5 % better than that of the original rotor) could be gained at the tip speed ratio (TSR) of 1.1. The effective working range is further extended to TSR > 0.7 compared to that at TSR > 1.0 in the literature. Insight into the flow dynamic, including pressure, velocity, streamline, and wake analysis, reveals that the thick blade near the overlap region, benefiting in terms of the turbine's high performance. The airfoil blade increases the momentum energy around the rotor, changes the pressure on the concave side, and varies the origin of the pressure force, leading to an increase in the moment arm with more torque exhibited on the rotor at high TSR. In addition, the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) analysis is also performed to better understand the flow phenomena behind the rotor. Overall, the present design is beneficial for urban applications because it can enhance the rotor performance without losing the omnidirectional and compactness features.