ANSYS Analysis

5.1 Introduction

ANSYS Fluent is the prominent CFD tool, induced to hold out stream flow analysis and pressure
variation. In this chapter, the fluent analysis is being conducted which gives the velocity and pressure
based solutions for the blades.

Computational Fluid Dynamics

It is common practice to conduct aerodynamic performance tests for products like a turbine inside wind-
tunnels. However, methods exist for purely numerical studies using Computational Fluid Dynamics or
CFD simulators. They are sensitive to domain size, turbulence models used, and the complexity
developed by the air flow.

5.2 Computational Modelling

Two-dimensional computational domain has been made for the three-blade Savonius rotor. Since the
vertical axis wind turbine is naturally a 2-D device, where the blades rotate in the same plane as the
approaching wind, a two-dimensional simulation is deemed to be adequate for this application.
Figure 5.1: Fluid domain for two blade rotor(Without overlapping blade)

Figure 5.2: Fluid domain for two blade rotor(overlapping blade)

Figure 5.3: Fluid domain for three blade rotor

 As shown in figure, velocity inlet and outflow were taken on the left and right boundaries
respectively. The top and bottom boundaries of the fluid domain are made similar to the shape of two silos,
both curve are 18 meter in diameter similar to silo diameter and had symmetry conditions on them. The
blade are set to standard wall condition.

5.3 Mesh Modelling

The governing equations are then discretized and solved inside each of these sub domains. The sub
domains are often called elements or cells, and the collection of all elements or cells is called a mesh or
grid.

5.4 Meshing of Three Blade Savonius Rotor

On the four surrounding edges of the fluid domain, uniform grid spaces were taken. However, uniform
meshing was done on the blades. The density of mesh is high near the blades peripheries tips, and it
decreases away from the rotor. This was done to capture the separated rotor wakes. Each mesh element
is considered as a control volume. All dependent variables are calculated at the centroid of the control
volumes. Uniform (course) meshing was done on the face external to the rotor as shown in figure .

Figure 5.4: Boundary condition for wind-turbine(Without overlapping blade)

The number of total elements generated during mesh is 194980 and number of nodes generated during
mesh modelling of savonius rotor is 196312 the smoothing of mesh is medium and max face size is equal to
1.00 e-0003 as shown in figure.

Figure 5.5: Boundary condition for wind-turbine(Without overlapping blade)

5.5 CFD Fluent Analysis

ANSYS Fluent is a powerful and flexible general-purpose computational fluid dynamics software
package used to model flow, turbulence, heat transfer, and reactions for industrial applications. The
physical models allow accurate CFD analysis for a wide range of fluids problems - from airflow over an
aircraft wing to combustion in a furnace.

5.6 Solution setup in CFD Fluent

In the CFD analysis, there are two approach to solve the problem

1. Pressure based approach: In the pressure based approached the pressure field is extracted by
solving a pressure or pressure correction equation which is obtained by manipulating continuity
and momentum equation.

2. Density based approach: In the density based approach, the continuity equation is used to obtain
the density field while the pressure field is determine from the equation of state.
The pressure based approach was developed for low speed incompressible flow while density based
approach was mainly used for high speed compressible flows. So in this fluent solution pressure based
approach is use as shown in figure because flow is incompressible and velocity is also 3m/s.

Figure 5.6: Meshing Details

5.6.1 Governing Equations

There are the mathematical statement of three fundamental physical principle upon which fluid dynamics
is based:

1. Mass is conserved

2. F = ma (Newtons’s second law)

3. Energy is conserved
 The simplest and the most widely use two equation turbulence model is the standard K-s model that
can solved two separate transport equation to allow the turbulent kinetic energy and its dissipation rate to
independently determined. The first transported variable is turbulent kinetic energy, k. The second
transported variable in this case is the turbulent dissipation, s. It is the variable that determines the scale
of the turbulence, whereas the first variable, k, determines the energy in the turbulence.

Different k-s model

1. Standard k-s model

2. Realizing k-s model

3. RNG k-s model

Standard k-s model

The simplest ”complete models” of turbulence are two-equation models in which the solution of two separate
transport equations allows the turbulent velocity and length scales to be independently determined.
The standard k -s model is the basic k - s turbulence model and more suitable when flow is fully
turbulent and has given better results than SA model for turbine analysis. So standard K- s model is use
in the fluent solution as shown in figure.

Figure 5.7: Selection of k-s model

5.6.2 Boundary conditions given in CFD fluent

In a CFD analysis, many boundary conditions is assign to “define” how the system operates. Out of many
boundary condition inlet, outlet, wall, symmetry, a wall boundary condition is the most commonly used
boundary condition in a CFD analysis.
Inlet boundary condition
Here the inlet boundary condition means the value of magnitude of inlet velocity of air that is flowing
through the fluid domain. This boundary condition is measure physically by tachometer and the value of
magnitude of air velocity is 3m/s and this is shown in figure below.

Figure 5.8: Inlet boundary condition

Outlet boundary conditions

Here the outlet boundary condition means the value of magnitude of gauge pressure of air that is
flowing through the fluid domain. The gauge pressure is a pressure measure by a pressure measuring
device which is the amount by which the pressure measured in a fluid exceeds that of the atmosphere.
And here that mount is equal to zero so the outlet boundary condition (value of gauge pressure) is equal
to zero as shown in figure below.

Figure 5.9: outlet boundary condition

Boundary condition on walls

Here the walls refers to the silo walls in between savonius rotor is going to attach so this boundary is rigid
boundary and because of that reason stationary wall condition is given in fluent solution and shear
condition is given as no slip condition as shown in figure.
 Figure 5.10: wall boundary condition

5.7 Contour plots

The contour plot analysis gives an idea about the flow physics of a wind rotor and its power production
mechanism. Relative velocity magnitude (velocity of the rotor relative to wind) and static pressure
contours of the Savonius rotor are analysed.

5.8 Results from CFD analysis

In this section results from CFD fluent analysis is discuss and this results is compare with the
theoretical results. Static torque of rotor and force on the rotor by wind is found at the end of CFD
fluent.From this results, three blade rotor is selected which gives better performance than two blade
rotor. The following value is discuss below in brief.

5.9.1 Force due to wind on rotor blades

Inlet boundary condition is taken as 3m/s magnitude of wind velocity flow through x direction and as shown
in figure. Force due to wind of velocity of the 3m/s on the savonius rotor is 27.967194
N. From the theoretical calculation 28.87 N of force is excreted by wind on the savonius rotor. so force is
under limit.
 Figure 5.17: force value due to wind on rotor

5.9.2 Torque of the three blade savonius rotor blades

Due to the inlet boundary condition which is magnitude of velocity of wind flowing through
the fluid domain wind excerpts some force on the savonius wind turbine and due to that force
some amount of torque is produce on the wind rotor. The value of the torque that comes from
fluent analysis is 18.670153 N m as shown in figure and the value of torque that comes from
theoretical calculation is 20.80 N m so value is under limit.

Figure 5.18: Torque on the three blade savonius rotor

5.9.3 Sliding Mesh :

The mesh system of the BAWT is divided by two parts. One is a rotational mesh and the
other is a stationary mesh system. The rotational region mesh system, including the rotor with
blades. Hexahedral mesh is used for the convergence and precise aerodynamic power output
calculations. The mesh density of the rotational region is much higher than that of the stationary
region for a more precise power output calculation. The rotational direction of the rotor is
clockwise and the rotational phase of each wind turbine is synchronized.

Permanent-Magnet DC Generator :
Permanent-magnet DC machines are widely found in a wide variety of low-power
applications. The field winding is replaced by a permanent magnet, resulting in simpler
construction. Chief among these is that they do not require external excitation and its associated
power dissipation to create magnetic fields in the machine the space required for the permanent
magnets may be less than that required for the field winding, and this machine may be smaller,
and in some cases cheaper, than their externally excited counterparts. The rotor of this machine
consists of a conventional DC armature with commutator segments and brushes. The interaction
between the axial current carrying rotor conductors and the magnetic flux produced by the
permanent magnet results in the generation of the torque.

Battery Overcharge Controller :

 A battery stores the charge and then supply that charge to power up any electronics device.
The improper handling of batteries shortens their life and may even lead to explosion. A Zener
diode based circuit will be designed to protect a battery from over charging. When a battery is
charged, its terminal voltage, i.e. voltage between the anode and cathode of the battery increases.
For full charging, the terminal voltage reaches a peak value which is an indication of 100 percent
charging. Charging a battery beyond its full level leads to permanent or temporary damage to the
battery. It is possible that over charging can cause the battery to lose the ability to recharge again
or even the battery can explode due to overcharging. The percentage or level of charging of a
battery is therefore estimated by its terminal voltage. The battery must be disconnected from the
charger circuit once the peak terminal voltage is detected or the battery is once fully charged
Therefore, there should be a protection circuit which can monitor the level of charging of the
battery by detecting the terminal voltage and protect the battery from over-charging by cutting
off the battery connection with the charger. In this, a power circuit is designed which will detect
the upper limit of the terminal voltage by the use of a suitable Zener diode and will cut off the
battery connection with the load device with the use of a relay. The circuit includes an LED
indicator section also which will light up the LED as the battery charges to a peak value and does
not require recharging. The Li-ion batteries are used with 13.2 V of the peak limit of the terminal
voltage. The protection circuit cuts off the battery from the charger when the battery voltage
goes beyond 13.2V. So, a Zener diode circuit having a drop of 13.2 V in reverse bias condition
is used to detect the cut off limit in the design of the circuit. The diode circuit will be used to
drive a switching transistor which will operate the relay. As the terminal voltage of the battery
will go above the 13.2 V, the diode circuit will go in conduction state, triggering the switching
transistor and changing the relay state to cut off the supply from the charger.