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Design of Small Scale Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

Conference Paper · August 2019

DOI: 10.1109/PETPES47060.2019.9003999

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 Design of Small Scale Vertical Axis Wind Turbine
Chandrashekhar P K Sachin Managuli Shashank A
Dept. of E & EE UG Student UG Student
Siddaganga Institute of Technology Dept. of E & EE Dept. of E & EE
Tumakuru, Karnataka, India Siddaganga Institute of Technology Siddaganga Institute of Technology
pkc@sit.ac.in Tumakuru, Karnataka, India Tumakuru, Karnataka, India

Abstract— In this paper design of a small scale Vertical Axis
Wind Turbine (VAWT) which is having combined characteristics
of Savonius and Darrieus wind turbines for is presented.
Increasing demand for electrical energy in remote areas enabled
the need for energy sources such as wind energy. Remote
residential areas requires small amount of energy for their
household applications such as lighting. To meet this requirement
a low speed hybrid VAWT is designed. Different VAWT rotor
designs commonly used for low speeds were analysed. The
analyses lead to the requirement of a combined design which is
having advantages of both Savonius and Darrieus models. At
lower wind speeds, the Savonius model is self-starting and creates
high torque. The Darrieus model is not self-starting, but has
higher efficiency compared to the Savonius model. The combined
design with advantages of these two model increases the power
generation capacity at lower wind speeds.
Keywords— Vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT), combined
model, renewable energy, wind energy
with curved blades for vertical axis wind turbines. In this type
of turbines the electricity is generated through the drag force
obtained by curved structure of blades.
In 1925 darrieus wind turbine model was initially
established by G. J. Darrieus who was a French Engineer. This
type of rotor model was working based on lift force. Darrieus
wind rotor model has two or three blades having thin curve
shape, air foil cross section profile and has constant chord
length. The basic working principle of the Darrieus wind
turbine is as illustrated in figure 3.2. There are many variants
in Darrieus type wind turbine. All these use lift force in order
to rotate the rotor thus generating electricity. From the
comparative study under the same operating condition, it is
witnessed that Savonius turbine with two blades is more
capable and has high power coefficient than the three blade
configuration [2]. Four possible variants of Darrieus VAWT
are as shown in figure 2.

I. INTRODUCTION
At low wind speeds, the vertical axis wind turbine which is
simpleer in construction will provides self-starting and do not
require any yaw mechanism. Unlike horizontal axis wind
turbine (HAWT), VAWT does not require orientation towards
the direction of wind which makes it more suitable for power
generation for small scale application at urban and rural areas,
especially at remote locations. Presently work is progressing
towards increasing the power coefficient of VAWTs. The
main aim of this work is to design a small scale VAWT for
small remote applications.
A wind turbine is a rotating machine that converts kinetic
energy of wind into electrical energy. The basic classification
of wind turbines falls into two types. Horizontal axis (HAWT)
and vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT). The main difference Fig. 1. Operation of a Darrieus model [3].
between the two is the axis of the rotation. HAWT has a
horizontal axis of rotation and VAWT has a vertical axis of
rotation. The VAWT has the advantage of absorption wind in
all directions without the need for yaw mechanism. The blades
of VAWT do not require any compensation for fluctuations in
wind speed which makes it simpler to build and maintain than
the HAWT. Even the VAWT are generally less noisy than the
HAWT which makes it environmental friendly.
Among the available conventional energy resources
available, wind energy is the freely available most economical
and potential source of energy. As a way of providing
independent source of electrical power from wind energy, Fig. 2. Possible variants of Darrieus VAWT: (a) H-form (b)V-form
VAWT are mainly useful for small applications at urban and (c) Troposkien and (d) Gorlov form [4]
rural areas such as individual and farm houses. There are two
main types of vertical axis wind turbines; viz, Savonius and U. K. Saha et al. accompanied a test with single, two and
Darrieus type. Darriues type has different models as shown in three stage Savonius turbine models having similar stage
Fig. 2 aspect ratio. They observed that two stage model performed
The Savonius type rotor vertical axis wind turbine was first better than the single and three stage models [5]. The study of
developed by the Finland engineer S. J. Savonius in 1922 [1]. features and performance of a Darrieus type model with
Earlier for many decades experiment was going on in Europe NACA air foil blades was carried out by Young-Tae Lee et
al.[6]. Numerical analysis was carried out with wind tunnel the shape of blade looks similar to ―S‖. The rotors can have
experiment. They observed that Darrieus type model having a two, three or more number of blade configurations and can be
NACA air foil blade produces higher power output by used as single or multiple staged arrangements. Because of the
adjusting design parameters. difference among the convex and concave shape of the blades,
An investigation under different wind speeds was a drag force is created which will make the attached rotor to
conducted by Bavin Loganathan et al. on a domestic scale rotate. This is the basic working principle. Because of simpler
model which was having semi-circular shaped blades [7]. construction and good self-starting capacity at lower wind
Initially a 16-blade model was designed. A wind tunnel with speeds this design is chosen. In this design three blade system
different wind speed ranges was used to measure torque and with three stage arrangements is chosen to make the wind
turbine self-starting.
angular speeds. They introduced a new idea of cowling device
was to increase the efficiency of the turbine. The device was
guiding the air flow into the atmosphere which was coming
out from the rear blades. Another model with 8 blades was
also developed to identify the effect of change in number of
blades with respect to the power generation. The cowling
deice was studied for its aerodynamic characteristics. For each
model the variation of increased power with respect to
different wind speeds was established. The investigation
revealed the 16 blade configuration can also be used for small
scale power generation using wind. The use of cowling device
also indicated that it has a good impact in increasing the power
generation by increasing the rotor speed.
K Pope et al. conducted a study on four different types of
wind energy systems [8]. The study included both horizontal
and vertical axis configurations for checking the performance
of blades. Selection of wind energy systems included
significant variations in designing the turbines and operating
constraints. In this study different wind energy systems were
compared with the help of first and second laws.
A collective experimental and analytical investigation was
carried out by Robert Howell et al. [9] to study the
aerodynamic and blade configuration of a domestic vertical
axis model. The complete performance of the model was
studied using wind-tunnel test. The aerodynamic performance
of the turbine model was understood by generating two as well
as three dimensional unstable unsteady computational fluid
Fig. 3. Isometric, Top, Front and Side view of Savonius rotor blade
dynamics models.
II. HELICAL TYPE VAWT The rotational energy obtained from the wind can be
calculated using the below equation:
Being self- starting in nature these are most suitable and
commonly used type VAWT for small - scale applications.
These are well known for their high withstand capability
against cross winds. This type of wind turbines extracts the Where P = Power in watts.
wind from all direction and does not require to point in the = density of air in kg/m3
particular direction of the wind. Due to increase in the torque V = Wind speed in m/s
and blades solidity, the helical type models are self -starting. A = Swept area in m2
These have less mechanical load, less noise and has better = Power coefficient
self-starting performance compared to drag type Savonius B. Helical Type Vertical Axis Blades
model.
While designing the blades of VAWT, maximum
efficiency is not only the aspect that needs to be considered.
III. DESIGN OF PROPOSED VAWT MODEL Along with maximum efficiency the protection of turbine
from cross or high winds and other environmental hazards
A. Savonius Rotor Blades
have to be considered. In the present design the helical type
The important feature of this type of rotor is its simpler rotor blades are designed in order create funnel effect,
design. The savonius rotor blade design is obtained by first resulting in an increased airflow to the turbine. This increases
dividing a cylinder into two half equally and then relocate the the rotations per minute of the turbine increasing the electrical
two semi-cylindrical surfaces sideways. From top when viewed output. This provides the means for eliminating cross winds
and thus protects the turbine from possible environmental
hazards. The airfoil blades have been designed to bear the
greater centrifugal forces produced due to excessive wind
speeds.
The designed helical type VAWT model has 3 bars for
supporting each placed symmetrically at a distance of 120o
from its center reference axis. Additionally 2 supports each
one are placed at the bottom and top of the blades. The rotary
motion of the shaft is converted to electrical power by
connecting the supports to the inner shaft. The helical shape
design of the blade is obtained by twisting it by an angle of
120o. The twist begins at one bar of the upper support and gets
finished in the adjacent bar of the lower support. The blades
are made hallow to reduce additional weight.
C. Base Frame with Generator Coil
Instead of using readily available alternator or generator,
according to the requirement a handmade permanent magnet
generator is designed. To increase the output of the generator
with same size rotor the generator is designed with multi stage.
Each stage has 12 coils and 24 magnets.
Fig. 4. Base frame with designed generator
IV. NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
The power output from the wind can be determined by the
concepts of kinetics. The basic working principle of wind
turbine is converting kinetic energy into mechanical energy.
where
m = mass of air traversing
A = swept area of the rotating blades
ρ = Air Density
V = Air Velocity
Substituting equation (3) in equation (2)
From equation (4) it is observed that power output is
directly proportional to the swept area. Higher swept area
means higher output power.
The wind power output in equation (4) is the ideal power
output of Savonius wind turbine, where losses during the
conversion process are neglected. Practically during the
conversion from mechanical energy into electrical energy there
will be losses which cannot be neglected. It is impossible to
convert entire available wind energy into useful work. Only
45% of total energy is converted into useful work. Part of
energy may get lost in conversion process. i.e. gear box,
transmission, bearings etc. Considering this the maximum
power coefficient for the Savonius wind turbine is 0.45.
Considering losses and maximum power coefficient, the wind
power equation can be rewritten as:
Aspect ratio is one of the important criteria to be considered
for calculation of aerodynamic performance of Savonius rotor.
Considering the height (H) and the diameter (D) of a rotor, the
expression for aspect ratio is given by
⁄
Tip speed ratio (λ) is another important data to be
considered while designing the wind turbine rotor. It is defined
as the ratio of linear rotor blade speed (ω x r) to the
undistributed speed of wind (V).
The considered design parameters are as listed in the table I
below.
TABLE I. DESIGN PARAMETERS
Parameter Value
Power generated 100 Watts
Swept area 0.02 m2
Rated wind speed 10.5 m/s
Aspect ratio 2
Solidity 1.16
Diameter-Height 0.5 m – 0.5 m
Number of blades 3
V. RESULTS
The theoretical values of the wind power output for the
corresponding average wind speed are as listed in the table II.
The isometric view of the assembly of the designed vertical
axis wind turbine is as shown in figure 6. Figure 7 represents
the complete view of the assembly of designed vertical axis
wind turbine.
 TABLE II. THEORETICAL VALUES OF WIND POWER OUTPUT
Average wind speed Power output
in m/s in Watts
3.37 2.93
3.53 3.37
3.58 3.52
3.67 3.79
3.99 4.87
4.03 5.02
4.08 5.2
4.21 5.72
4.26 5.92
4.43 6.66
4.63 7.61
5.1 10.16

Fig. 6. Isometric view of designed vertical axis wind turbine

Fig. 5. Theoretical values of wind power output

VI. CONCLUSION
The designed VAWT model offers economically feasible
solution for energy requirement of remote places which are
away from the regular electricity grid systems. Design of wind
turbine rotor blades plays an important role in performance
evaluation and extraction of energy from turbine. To increase
the use of VAWT, the various associated problems such as Fig. 7. Complete view of designed vertical axis wind turbine
poor self-starting, low initial torque, low power coefficient,
poor building integration have to be overcome. Using vertical REFERENCES
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