Numerical study of savonius water turbine performance by adding deflector to advancing blade side

Abstract

As one of the best renewable energy sources, hydropower becomes more predictable source compared to wind energy and Savonius which its performance does not contingent to fluid flow direction. In this present, computational Fluid Dynamics acomplished by Finite Volume Method and unsteady RANS equation were applied to analyze the numerical simulation. The present study investigated the performance of Savonius Turbine by adding deflector plate installed to advancing blade side at 5, 10, 15, 30 and 45 of deflector angles in the direction of the fluid flow. The viscous turbulence model used realizable k-epsilon (RKE) and its descritization used second order upwind. The type of mesh was made from coarse to fine meshing with 8 (eight) types of meshing and the grid independency of the numerical simulation had been validated by the publish experimental data at TSR of 1,078. Grid independency occured at meshing G with the error lower than 5 % compared to published experimental data. The result of this study shows that the performance of Savonius turbine increased by adding deflector in advancing blade side with the maximum torque and power coefficient at 30 of deflector angle.