Numerical study on the effect of out-of-phase wavy confining walls on the performance of Savonius rotor

Power generation using renewable energy, specifically from wind power is reliable, affordable and pollution-free energy. Turbine is the basic component in a wind energy conversion system. This research article, is on Savonius vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) installed on building rooftops targeting power extraction from low wind speed. The novel idea proposed in this work is attachment of channel confinement with local waviness to increase drag on the advancing blade. The study has been carried out using ANSYS Fluent 2019 R3 software. The systematic study conducted on the effect of location of turbine in the wavy channel has been presented. The new configuration has improved the turbine output significantly. The maximum increase in power coefficient is 44.67% for waviness confinement channel than plain confinement channel. •Present method aims to improve the performance of Savonius rotor with confined wall.•The novelty reported is channel confinement with local waviness near the rotor.•Numerical results are presented in the form of flow and performance characteristics.•Overall improvement for the waviness wall has been found to be 44.6% than plain wall.