Upcycling of wasted fabrics into savonius wind turbine rotor and experimental validation of design modifications for performance enhancement by wind tunnel test

This study outlines the application of upcycling technology to wasted fabrics in a Savonius wind turbine rotor and its performance enhancement through design modifications and experimental validation using wind tunnel tests. The Savonius wind turbine with rotors made of wasted fabrics, textiles, or tents would be highly beneficial in underdeveloped or isolated areas at a reasonable cost, as the fabrics can be folded into very small pieces to be hand-carried at the point of transportation, and the rotor can be easily repaired or replaced using widely available textiles in those areas. To compensate for the loss due to the waving characteristics of the fabric rotor compared to the plastic-skin rotor, design modifications, including the addition of end plates made of the same fabric materials and optimization of the overlap ratio (OLR), were studied. The experimental wind tunnel test showed that the maximum power coefficients increased by 24.7 % and 19.8 %, respectively.