Experimental study on improving the performance of the Savonius wind turbine with ailerons (Improvement of wind turbine effective in low tip speed ratio)

Abstract

For the purpose of improving the performance of the Savonius wind turbine, we added ailerons to the turbine to rotate with the turbine buckets. Ailerons with a relatively simple structure were installed within the rotating area of the Savonius wind turbine. As such, the ailerons did not increase the wind-receiving portion of the wind turbine. A semi-circular shape similar to the bucket was chosen as the aileron. Three sizes of ailerons were used, the largest of which was half the size of the wind turbine bucket. Experiments were conducted using wind tunnel test equipment, where the Savonius wind turbines fitted with ailerons were tested under various installation conditions. In the experiment, the torque generated by the wind turbine was measured at different tip speed ratios. Due to the installation of ailerons, the torque generated by the Savonius wind turbine increased mainly at low tip speed ratios. The torque increased the most when the largest aileron of the three types was used. It was also found that it is possible to improve the efficiency of the wind turbine when using large ailerons. From these results, it can be said that the installation of ailerons is effective for improving the performance of the Savonius wind turbine.

Keywords

• savonius wind turbine
• aileron
• bucket
• wind tunnel experiment
• torque coefficient
• power coefficient