In the context of energy crisis, extensive depletion of fossil fuel, and climate change, the vertical-axis Savonius-type wind or hydrokinetic turbines appear to be promising candidates to extract energy from wind or free-flowing water because of their superior self-starting capability and design simplicity. The present investigation focuses on comparative analysis between Savonius wind turbines (SWTs) and Savonius hydrokinetic turbines (SHTs) at the same input power. To accomplish this, two configurations are considered, viz., 2-bladed and 3-bladed turbine designs having semicircular blade profiles. Experimental studies revealed that the SWTs operate in a slightly wider range of tip-speed ratios than the SHTs. It is also observed that, like SHTs, 2-bladed SWTs result in an improved (47%) peak power coefficient (CPmax) than 3-bladed SWTs. In line with this, the computational studies, conducted to complement the experimental analysis, showed the superiority of 2-bladed SWTs over the 3-bladed SWTs. Both experimental and computational analyses reveal that the SHTs and SWTs show identical drag and lift characteristics for given kinetic energy of the inlet fluid stream.
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2018
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