Experimental and numerical analysis of vaned wind turbine performance and flow phenomena

One feature in the ongoing energy transition is that the energy is more often produced close to its final utilizer. The operated device should be reliable to use and it should not annoy the people. Also, the size of the power production module may have limits that are not to be exceeded. One of the solutions is to use vaned Savonius turbines with a low-solidity vane design. It provides a relatively small physical size with low flickering and noise emissions, in addition to its improved starting behaviour in low winds. However, the performance of such a turbine is not well documented in the relevant literature and its internal flow physics are not well known. From this background the current study presents an experimental test case, coupled with validated numerical simulations, for a vaned Savonius turbine and performs what is so far the most complete fluid dynamic analysis of its performance and flow phenomena. The key novelties are that separate experimental and numerical results are presented with and without the stator in order to study the stator-rotor interaction, including accurate static pressure measurements inside the turbine. In addition, a general flow model is presented. •The influence of stator-rotor interaction is examined.•Experiments are conducted including separate results with and without a rotor.•A generic flow model for a vaned Savonius turbine is presented.