Influence of Geometric Parameters on the Performance of Savonius Wind Turbine Using the Response Surface Methodology

Rising concerns about climate change and the growth of energy consumption have led to the need to use technologies based on renewable sources. Wind energy is one of the most promising renewable technologies with an increasingly important role. Particularly Savonius Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (SVAWT) have several advantages for certain geographical conditions attracting designers to research them. The present study introduces the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) as a tool for evaluating multiple SVAWT configurations and estimating the influence of rotor geometric parameters on SVAWT performance. For this purpose, CFD simulations are developed for different SVAWT configurations modeled parametrically through the rotor geometric parameters. The numerical solutions obtained are used to generate a Response Surface (RS). The RS is evaluated by finding satisfactory quality metrics. The influence of the geometric parameters is estimated using the selected RS. As a result, an experimental space is proposed where it is more likely to find the values in the geometric parameters that maximize the SVAWT performance. This research provides tools for large-scale evaluation of SVAWTs. Therefore, influence analysis of the parameters is carried out with fewer experiments. RSM and proposed experimental space serve as a base for future studies that optimize the SVAWT configuration.