Iranica Journal of Energy and Environment 6(1): 1-4, 2015

Iranica Journal of Energy & Environment Technical

Journal Homepage: www.ijee.net Note

IJEE an official peer review journal of Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, ISSN:2079-2115

Design, Development and Testing of a Combined Savonius and Darrieus Vertical

Axis Wind Turbine
M. Abid1*, K. S. Karimov2, H. A. Wajid3, F. Farooq4, H. Ahmed, O. H. Khan4

1Interdisciplinary Research Center, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Wah Cantt, Pakistan.
2Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi, KPK, Pakistan
3Department of Mathematics, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
4Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi, KPK, Pakistan

PAPER INFO A B S T R A C T
With a growing focus on renewable energy, interest in design of wind turbines has also been
Paper history: expanding. In today’s market, the horizontal axis (windmill) turbine is the most common type in use;
Received 12 November, 2014
but, vertical axis (Darrieus) turbines have certain advantages. Darrieus turbines, which are lift-
Accepted in revised form 22December 2014
driven, have a higher power potential than the horizontal, or drag-driven turbines. The main flaw
with their design is their inability to self-start. Darrieus turbines require an external energy source to
Keywords: bring the device to a minimum rotational speed. This paper presents design, construction and testing
Vertical axis of a vertical axias (Darrieus) wind turbine with 3 blades, starting solely from the low energy of the
Wind turbine wind. A separate drag device (Savonius type turbine) on the top of an existing Darrieus turbine was
Wind power mounted to make the turbine self start at low wind speed. The cut-in speed of the turbine was 3 m/s,
Wind speed cut-off speed was 20 m/s and power obtained was 50 Watts at wind velocity of 6 m/s. The testing
Renewable energy with primiarly available permanent magnetic generator sponsored by industry resulted in 35 Watts at
9m/s.
doi: 10.5829/idosi.ijee.2015.06.01.02

INTRODUCTION designed and used for wind and water power conversion
into electric power. A vertical axis water turbine was
Wind power is one of the most important part of also designed to supply energy for underwater mooring
renewable energy resources [1]. Wind power (P)
platform [3]. The combination of Darrieus-Savonius
depends on wind speed (v), density of air (ϱ), for a
turbine intercepting a cross-section (A) and efficiency turbine was used in an irrigation canal [4]. It was
factor (C) as given in Eq. 1. At the same time particular observed that due to Savonius rotor the torque was
construction of the wind turbines contribute to the wind increased at a lower speed; however at the same time,
power through efficiency factor. power coefficient was decreased. The performance of a
P = CA ϱv3/2 (1) hybrid vertical axis wind turbine comprised of Savonius
wind turbine, combined with a three bucket H-rotor
A vareity of turbines have been designed for the wind turbines with DUW200 airfoils was investigated
generation of electric power using wind energy [1-6]. [5]. It was concluded that when H-rotor and Savonius
For the small-scale wind energy, a portable turbine with were combined, a higher performance was obtained as
efficiency of 21% and output electrical power of 9.8 W compared to the H-rotor only. The performance of a
at wind speed of 10 m/s [2] was fabricated and is three-bladed combined Darrieus-Savonius rotor was
considered as one of the most efficient small power investigated with Darrieus mounted on top of Savonius
wind turbine. Sometimes the same kind of turbines were rotor, for overlap variations from 10.8 to 25.8% [6].
*Corresponding author: Muhammad Abid.
The importance of vertical axis wind turbines has
E-mail: [email protected] been encouraged by the quick development of wind

Please cite this article as: M. Abid, K. S. Karimov, H. A. Wajid, F. Farooq, H. Ahmed, O. H. Khan, 2015. Design, Development and Testing of a
Combined Savonius and Darrieus Vertical Axis Wind Turbine, Iranica Journal of Energy and Environment 6 (1): 1-4
 Iranica Journal of Energy and Environment 6(1): 1-4, 2015

power generation and by the need for a smarter NACA0012, and in the NACA0030 the forces are
electrical grid with a decentralized energy generation, 150%higher than in NACA0012.The thicker blades are
especially in the urban areas. The lift type vertical axis able to provide the wind turbine the self-start
wind turbines (Darrieus wind turbine) performance capabilities, while the thinner blade wind turbines are
prediction is a very complex task, since its blades move observed most likely unable to self-start [14, 15].The
around the rotor axis in a three dimensional NACA0030 present 26% better performance than
aerodynamic environment that lead to several flow NACA0012 [13].
phenomena, such as, dynamic stall [7], flow separation,
flow wake deformations [8] and their natural inability to Design, construction and testing
self-start. These issues can be overcome with the use of Based on detailed study and calculation, the diameter of
several more or less complex solutions, being one of the turbine calculated is almost 1.5m with 50~100 Watts
them the development of a blade profile capable of of power, at wind speed of 5~7 m/s. Structure was made
making the wind turbines self-start [9].This paper of fiber glass, aluminum and cast iron to ensure high
focuses on presenting a methodology for the strength to weight ratios and durability. The base made
development of self-start capable Darrieus wind from cast iron with proper supports keeps it stable. Two
turbines with the improvement in the blade design and roller bearings were used in the base to support the
the integration of savonius device [10, 11]. shaft. A Savonius-type drag device was made from
With a 3-bladed vertical-axis wind turbine aluminum sheet and mounted to the main shaft. The
(VAWT), there are no in-plane and out-of-plane rotor VAWT developed is shown in Figure 1. All the tests on
vibrational modes which is observed in 2-bladed and 4- the turbines were performed in the sub-sonic wind
bladed configurations [12]. The symmetrical loading of tunnel laboratory as shown in Figure 2. Digital
a 2-bladed VAWT rotor can be eliminated entirely by Anemometer and tachometer were used to measure the
the inclusion of a third blade. In addition to an increase wind speed and revolutions per minute of the turbine.
in the dynamic structural stability of the rotor, the third The turbine attained about 60 rpm at 3m/s, which was
blade reduces torque ripple in the rotor’s torque output, further reduced to 2.5 m/s after attaching the Savonious
thus reducing the compliance that must be built into the blades (see Figure 3). The cut off velocity of VAWT is
drive train of a 2-bladed VAWT. It was found that the 20 m/s. Theoretically, the calculated power of the
thicker the blades the higher the drag contribution to the generator is around 50 Watts at the rated wind velocity
forward movement of the wind turbine blades [13]. In of 6m/s (see Table 1).
the NACA0025 airfoil the drag forces contributing to
the tangential force are 110% higher than in

(a) (b)
Figure 1. Vertical axis wind turbine developed, (a) Image, (b) Photo

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 Iranica Journal of Energy and Environment 6(1): 1-4, 2015

In order to generate electric power primarily an

available customized generator that works on the
principle of magnetic flux was used with the turbine.
This generator had a cut in velocity of 3.5 m/s; this
means that the turbine will start at 2.5 m/s but the
generator will start taking the load when the wind
velocity reaches 3.5m/s. The startupwind speed was
found to be 4m/s. The turbine produced the maximum
power of 35 watts at about 9 m/s.The turbine took the
load at about 5m/s.As the generator was 10 years old,
therefore a reasonable difference was observed between
experimental and theoretical results. Experimental
results are given in Figure 4. The assembly was directly
connected to the generator which reduced the
manufacturing complexity. The mounting mechanism
improved the stability without having any effect on the
cut in speed.
Figure 2. Testing of vertical-axis wind turbine

160 160

140 140

120 120
100 100
RPM

80
RPM

80
60 60
40
40
20
20
0
0
2 3 4 5 6 7 2 3 4 5 6 7
Wind Speed (m/s) Wind Speed (m/s)

(a) (b)
Figure 3. RPM Vs starting wind speed: (a) Without Savonius blades, (b) with Savonius blades

35
30
Power (Watts)

TABLE 1. Theoretical power calculations [16]

25
Parameters Wind Densit = 1.243 kg/m3
Diameter = 1.25 m 20
Length = 0.9m 15
Sweep Area = Dia x Length = 1.125 m2 10
Vavg = 6m/s
5
Generator Efficiency = 80%
0
Turbine Efficiency = 42% 4 5 6 7 8 9
Wind Power = Pmax Pmax = (1/2)pAv3= 151 Watts Wind Speed (m/s)
Attainable Power = P P = 0.8 x0.42 xPmax= 50 Watts Figure 4. Experimentally calculated power using available
permanent generator from industry

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 Iranica Journal of Energy and Environment 6(1): 1-4, 2015

CONCLUSIONS 6. Sharma, K.K., A. Biswas and R. Gupta, 2013. Performance

Measurement of a Three-Bladed Combined Darrieus-Savonius
Rotor. International Journal of Renewable Energy Research
The Darrieus VAWTdesigned, fabricated and tested (IJRER), 3(4): 885-891.
proved to function as a self-starter. The combination of 7. Ferreira, C.S., G. van Kuik, G. van Bussel and F. Scarano, 2009.
NACA 0030 airfoil and Savonius device provided the Visualization by PIV of dynamic stall on a vertical axis wind
functions required for a starting mechanism. It was also turbine. Experiments in Fluids, 46(1): 97-108.
concluded that the Savonius and Darrieus blades should 8. Ferreira, C.S., G. van Bussel, F. Scarano and G. van Kuik. 2008,
have different assemblies to perform effectively. PIV visualization of dynamic stall VAWT and blade load
determination. in 46th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and
Savonius and Darrieus blades were observed Exhibit.
responsible for the low start up speed and high rpm, 9. Islam, M., D.S.-K. Ting and A. Fartaj, 2008. Aerodynamic
respectively. Furthermore, the blades with NACA 0030 models for Darrieus-type straight-bladed vertical axis wind
airfoil provided the high thickness which resulted in an turbines. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 12(4):
increase in the self-start capability of the turbine. 1087-1109.
10. Wakui, T., Y. Tanzawa, T. Hashizume and T. Nagao, 2005.
Hybrid configuration of Darrieus and Savonius rotors for
stand‐alone wind turbine‐generator systems. Electrical
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Persian Abstract
DOI: 10.5829/idosi.ijee.2015.06.01.02
‫چکیده‬
)‫ تًربیه با محًر افقی (آسیاب بادی‬،‫ در باسار امزيس‬.‫ عالقٍ بٍ طزاحی تًربیه َای بادی ویش در حال گستزش است‬،‫با تمزکشی ري بٍ رضد بز اوزصی َای تجدید پذیز‬
‫ کٍ َدایت اس طزیق باال‬، Darrieus‫ تًربیه‬.‫( دارای مشایای خاظ می باضىد‬Darrieus) ‫ تًربیه َای محًر عمًدی‬،‫ اما‬.‫رایج تزیه وًع مًرد استفادٌ می باضد‬
ٍ‫ وقع اغلی طزاحی آوُا واتًاوی در ضزيع خًد ب‬. ‫ دارای تًان بالقًٌ ی باالتزی اس تًربیه َای افقی یا َدایت اس طزیق کطیدٌ ضدن می باضىد‬،‫بزودٌ می باضىد‬
‫ ساخت ي آسمایص یک‬،‫ ایه مقالٍ طزاحی‬.‫ بٍ یک مىبع اوزصی خارجی بٍ دستگاٌ بزای حداقل سزعت چزخص ویاس دارود‬Darrieus ‫ تًربیه َای‬.‫خًدی آوُا است‬
‫ )در باالی‬Savonius ‫ دستگاٌ کطیدن جداگاوٍ (تًربیه وًع‬.‫ غزفا ضزيع با اوزصی کم اس باد را وطان می دَد‬،ٍ‫ تیغ‬3 ‫( با‬Darrieus) ‫تًربیه بادیمحًرعمًدی‬
ٌ‫ ي تًان بٍ دست آمد‬02 m/s‫ سزعت بزش‬،‫ي‬3m/s ‫ سزعت ضکافته تًربیه‬.‫ سًار ضدٌ تا تًربیه در سزعت باد کم ضزيع بٍ کار وماید‬،‫ مًجًد‬Darrieus ‫تًربیه‬
.‫ضد‬9m/s‫ يات در‬30 ٍ‫ تست باصوزاتًر ابتدایی مغىاطیسی دائم در دستزس با حمایت مالی غىعت مىجز ب‬.‫ بًد‬6m/s‫ يات در سزعت باد اس‬02