Simulation studies on influence of shape and number of blades on the performance of vertical axis wind turbine

As the construction of Savonius rotor is simple, the performance of Savonius rotor is poor. This can be enhanced by modifying either the shape of the blade and/or number of blades. In this work, modifications are adopted in both shape and number of blades. Numerical investigation is carried out using commercial code ANSYS (c). A comparative study is carried out on the multi bladed Savonius rotors with different blade configurations, namely two bladed (simple), three bladed and four bladed Savonius designs. Modified Bach type rotor is also considered based on the shape of the blade. Among all the configurations, the modified Bach type rotor gives the best performance characteristic in terms of coefficient of power (C-p) and coefficient of torque (C-t). However, it is observed from the simulation that the four bladed Savonius rotor give the poor performance compared to the two bladed and three bladed Savonius rotors. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.