Review of passive methods to improve the performance of VAWTs

Savonius and Daarrieus turbines have been extensively studied to improve their problems
of low effeciency and low starting torque respectively. While several attempts have been
made to design hybrid turbines to create a win-win situation, much of the literature work
focuses on improvement of individual turbines, trying to eliminate their respective
shortcomings. Thus, passive methods to improve performance of individual as well as
hybrid turbines are discussed here.

Passive methods to improve the performance of Savonius turbine:

The Savonius turbine is a drag based turbine. Hence, numerous researchers have
attempted to improve the efficiency by using equipment which reduces the un-necessary
drag on the return the return side which does not produce any positive power. Before
getting in to that discussion, one more passive method to get possible improvement in
efficiency in discussed here.

In 1, the modified Savonius or the Bach turbine has been attempted which eliminates the
overlap loss between the two buckets. Numerical analysis has been done the same for tip
speed rations less than one and it has been found to increase the performance by 40-50 %
on an average. This technique can be an effective passive method while not affecting the
complexity. But experimental verification needs to be done.

In 4, the simplest form of deflector, a plate which diverts the away from the return bucket
in taken and the optimized angle for such a plate is found. The modified set up is found to
give a 20% improvement to maximum power increase of 80% over simple savonius rotor.

In 2, two curtains which are simple vertical deflector plates are placed to divert the air
away from return plate and towards the power producing blade or bucket. Several curtain
positions were tested numerically and optimized. The best curtain 1 here is found to give
more than twice the torque of conventional rotor in certain angles. The best curtain has
been experimentally verified.

In 3, the same deflecting principle is applied but with a single plate and a bucket shape
which has been optimized. The plate position was also optimized. The power output was
improved by 38%, but this method lacks the simplicity of blades which was retained in ref 2.

In 5, a complicated and closed guide box is chosen. The optimum ratio of inlet and outlet
area ratios are found and best possible performance improvement in power output of 23%.
But with the same configuration 50 % improvement was reported for three bladed rotor.
Both two bladed and three bladed turbine results are shown (left and right in same order)
In 7, simple end plate configurations are tested for performance improvements. It has been
observed that simplest circular end plates on top and bottom provided 24 % power
coefficient increase. The same group test different shapes of singe deflector plates (flat,
cylinder, conical) and reported that the simplest flat plate gives the highest improvement.

The above techniques focused on deflecting the air from return blade while making the
turbine set up more efficient for a particular wind direction. This has been highlighted in 6
after reviewing them. But the same can possibly be sorted out by mounting the guide set up
alone to a guiding vane which orients the turbine towards the wind ward side and need not
be calibrated every time.
Passive methods for darrieus turbine:

In 8, CFD analysis has been done for the effect of diffuser on performance improvement.
While the results show 1.32 times improvement in power coefficient, the same is
accompanied by 5 times the increase in frontal catchment area. This could be problematic
and looks less attractive than other techniques.

In 9, (work done at IIT Madras), effect of duct on efficiency is analyzed and more than 50%
improvement has been reported. The study also pointed out that the external shape which
gives maximum output is the simple angular duct showing best performance. Also the
convergence angle of the duct has been found to be optimum at 27 degrees. It has been
reported that duct reduces the torque fluctuations also. Similar conclusions are drawn in 12,
where 70% improvement in power was reported for a duct diameter 1.8 times turbine
diameter. It also reports up to 73% drop in torque fluctuations for tip speed ratios higher
than 3,

In 10, the effect of blockage on performance which was dealt with, which was not taken up
in 9. Its results show that as the blockage ration increases the power conversion facto
increases. The factor reaches theoretical limit as the turbine and channel area come closer
and closer as per simulations. It also shows that tip speeds at which the max power is
achieved reduces with channel width. Hence it recommends an optimum top speed for
getting maximum power with duct but not too low to get stalled.

While the above two experiments used conventional ducts/channels for studies, the ref 11
uses omni directional guide vane. The setup is reported to improve top speeds by 126% and
the efficiency by around 206% at tip speed ratio of 0.4. But the result has not been validated
experimentally.

Almost all of the above works concentrate on passive methods to improve the efficiency of
either the Savonius or the Darrieus turbine and much less literature is available on the
work done on improving the efficiency of hybrid turbine setup. That is partly due to the fact
that many researchers attempting to solve the issue of self-starting are adopting pitch
control to eliminate the issue, which is not a very great idea for a rural or remote setting.

In one such work, 13, hybrid turbine setup is taken with a two stage Savonius rotor placed
above the Darrieus turbine, with the simple deflector in front of the returning blade. This
set up which does not involve any attempts to place ducts or improve efficiency of Darrieus
turbine reported an increase in power and torque coefficient of 18 and 16% respectively.

Moreover, there have been attempts to design pitch without using complicated linkages and
reducing simplicity and reliability. One such attempt is 14, in which several passive pitch
control methods are considered like elastomeric compliance and inertial force based pitch
control. They have reported that the inertial force based control which has a particular for a
cam to roll which in turn controls the pitch showed significant performance improvement,
while also making the turbine self-starting. However the report also points out that further
performance gets affected by the compliance of the rolling cam mechanism. The study also
states that a majority of losses are caused due to the flow losses around attaching
mechanism and radial arms. Thus further improvement is very much needed and possible if
we were to adopt a simple pitch control method for a hybrid/darrieus turbine.

Summary:

As concluded by several research works on Savonius turbines, the simplest way to improve
the efficiency of Savonius turbine is to place the double deflector plates optimally and cover
the return buckets. Further significant improvement can be achieved if duct is used and
number of wings is increased. Alternatively Bach type blade can be adopted.But sheet
metal used should as cheap and light as the fiber or plastics used or one should adopt
techniques like 3D plastic printing to get the Bach turbine. As for the Darrieus, the only
major method is to use the duct with optimal placing and convergence angles. Pitch control
methods largely remain complicated though simplification of mounting can bring about
some improvement.

Thus for the hybrid configuration, much experimental work has not been yet as found in
literature. However, ducted set up can be done combined with deflector setup for Savonius.
Meanwhile, combined duct set up for hybrid turbine would potentially eclipse the benefits
of the duct itself since the ducted Darrieus or Savonius shows significant improvement only
after sufficient blockage ratios and combined duct would not allow that configuration. So a
ductless set-up of Savonius with duct for Darrieus could be one solution.

Also in any attempt, the whole set up needs to be receptive to all directions of incident wind.
Omni directional guide-vanes could be tested against conventional ducts with rotary guide
vane and optimum one can be chosen based on performance. Mounting the set up on rotary
wind based guide vane will lead to stronger mounting and bearings compared to fixed omni-
directional vanes which could be made of glass fibre/plastic. The performance advantage of
both needs to be studied in the same operating domain and the optimal one could be
concluded.

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