Aerodynamic and mechanical system modeling of a vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT)

Abstract

The Savonious rotor is a slow running vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) which gets stabilized after a certain period of functioning. This work aims to assess the results of an aerodynamic study concerning a Savonious rotor. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a technique used to solve the airflow around the wind turbine rotor. In this paper, the turbulence models standard k-ε and shear stress transport (SST) k-ω are the turbulences models. A three-dimensional study of the problem has been conducted. Firstly, the moment of static forces acting on the rotor blades have been compared to with experimental results. Secondly, the integration of the equation of motion of the Savonious rotor with one degree of freedom (1-DOF) rigid body dynamics model. Implicit schemes for unsteady Euler equations have been used to perform dynamic simulation.