ROBUST DESIGN OF SAVONIUS WIND TURBINE

Vishaal D1*, Ranjana Meena2, Piyush Jadhav3, Palaniappan Ramu4, Arul Prakash5
1, 2, 3, 4 Dept. of Engineering Design, IIT Madras, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India
Email: visiitm2011@gmail.com; ranjanameenaiitm@gmail.com; piyushjadhav13@gmail.com; palramu@iitm.ac.in
5 Dept. of Applied Mechanics, IIT Madras, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India
arulk@iitm.ac.in

ABSTRACT

Savonius Wind Turbine, a class of VAWT, is simple and provides a better cost-benefit ratio. It works on the principle of
differential drag and is effective in rooftop and ground mounting. Despite such a certain number of advantages of Savonius
wind rotors; they are not preferred so much due to their low aerodynamic performance levels. To eliminate this unfavorable
quality of Savonius wind rotors, several experimental and numerical studies are being done in recent years in order to improve
their aerodynamic performance. The primary aim of this work is to provide a simple methodology for the robust optimal design
of Savonius wind turbine. In the parameter design stage, the performance of the turbine is maximized using the traditional
Taguchi method. An L27 Orthogonal array is built considering five factors of three levels each, which affect Cp. Wind speed is
considered to be the noise factor. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Signal-Noise ratio (SNR) techniques are used to find
the optimal settings for robust design. To accomplish this, Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) studies are carried out to
eliminate the high cost and time required for the multiple prototypes. The aerodynamic performance of the turbine is
investigated through dynamic CFD models of the design sets. The numerical models used for the simulations are also
discussed.

1. INTRODUCTION:
Currently, majority of the energy requirements are fulfilled by conventional energy sources. As a
consequence, resource depletion and environmental degradation happen at a rapid rate. To overcome the potential
threat of running out of energy sources in the backdrop of increasing energy needs, efforts are made towards
harnessing renewable energy sources. Wind is considered as one of the most important such source of energy.
Researchers have widely worked on developing effective power generation systems from wind energy. One of
the integral members of such a system is the wind turbine. Savonius wind turbine is one of the simplest and
cheapest wind rotor which was developed by Finnish engineer, Sigurd Savonius in 1925 [1]. It features advantages
like low starting torque, relatively low operating speed and ability to capture wind in all direction etc.,
Researchers have investigated the effect of various parameters on the efficiency of Savonius rotor. The
parameters include overlap ratio, aspect ratio, end plates, curtains, separation gap between rotors, presence or
absence of support shaft, tip speed ratio (), Reynolds number (Re) and other geometrical parameters [2-4]. Effect
of number of rotor blades, twisted blades and helical blades were also investigated [5].The performance is
expressed in terms of static torque (Ts), torque (T), power (P), coefficient of torque (Ct) and coefficient of power
(Cp). Literature reports both numerical and experimental studies of Savonius rotor. Researchers performed
qualitative analysis of the rotor through pressure distribution plots and flow visualizations [6-7]. Recently, Kamoji
et al. [8] investigated the effect of geometry parameters, aspect ratio, and Reynolds number on the performance
and reported a correlation between Ct, and Re.
Savonius rotors convert wind energy into mechanical energy which can further be preserved in some
form or used to perform work. Generators are employed to use the stored energy and are rated per their capacity.
In the context of the Savonius turbine, the output is the rpm and the generator capacity is chosen according to the
expected rpm. However, the rpm is dependent on wind speeds which vary and the generator can work effectively
only for a band of rpm. Therefore, it is desirable to have a robust design of the turbine. That is, the rpm does not
vary much in spite of variation in wind speed. The idea is to minimize the effect of the cause of variation without
eliminating the cause itself. The cause of variation is the wind speed and the design variables include geometric
parameters of the turbine. Literature does not report much work in the robust design of Savonius turbine. This
work focuses on an orthogonal array based characterization of rpm. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and SignalNoise ratio (SNR) techniques are used to find the optimal combination of design variables that will minimize the
variation in the rpm subject to input variation in the wind speeds.

2. MODEL DETAILS:
1.

CAD MODEL:

A mono stepped bach type [11] (also referred as modified design in literature) Savonius wind rotor is used for this
study. The parametric details of the geometry used are presented in this section. By modifying certain parameters,
the interest is to minimize the variation in performance subject to randomness in the wind speeds. Hence, these
parameters need to be identified first. This is also referred to as parametric design. Coefficient of power Cp is a
metric for the performance of the rotor. The Cp is influenced by the shape of the rotor and as well as the Reynolds
number. Five geometrical parameters are indentified that completely define the cross section of the rotor. These
chosen parameters are the design variables for the robust design problem and are shown in Fig.1, where d is
perpendicular distance between the blade extensions, r is blade arc radius, is blade rotation angle depicting the
angle by which the blades are rotated with respect to the arc centre and not the blade centre, is blade arc angle
and D is the diameter of the blade. The diameter of the turbine is Dt which is not a design parameter and is required
for the explanation of geometry later. The design variable space was explored extensively, and combinations of
the design variables were worked out such that only positive overlap ratios were possible and Table 1 shows the
resultant lower and upper bounds of the design variables.

Dt

d
r

Blade arc radius

Blade arc angle

Blade rotation angle

Diameter of the blade

Perpendicular distance

Turbine diameter

Dt

Fig.1 Geometry of Blade Profile

2.

NUMERICAL MODEL:

The CFD model is developed based on the geometry described above. The outer domain of the CFD
model was taken to be 5Dt and the inner domain was taken to be 2 Dt as in Fig.2. These are based on the upper
limits of Dt. This size of the domain avoids reflections of the fluid from the walls does not affect the rotors. Care
was taken to make the fidelity of the mesh higher in the vicinity of rotor blades and lower radially towards the
outer domain. The exponential mesh law is followed with a ratio of 1:5 along the rotor blades to the domain
boundaries. The mesh and solver model details are summarized in Table.1.
Table.1 Mesh and Solver Details
Type of mesh element used
No of mesh elements
Meshing Package
Solver Model
Algorithm
Solver Package

Quadrilateral elements
150,000
ANSYS ICEM
K-
COUPLED
FLUENT

The mesh quality is well within the constrained limit required to qualify as a good mesh. A mesh
convergence study was done by authors in [10] using four different mesh sizes of a particular profile to obtain a

computationally cost and time effective mesh model. The same mesh model is used for all the simulations. The
finite volume mesh as generated is shown in Fig 3. In the robust design framework, new meshes were generated
for each design. Since it was done using a script, there was a trade-off in the element quality. Though other
algorithms are reported to be superior in solution capabilities, we have used K- because it worked well with
average element quality also. Advantages of K- is that it is proven to be stable and numerically robust. A
secondary interpolation method is used. Pressure and velocity distributions are calculated with COUPLED
analysis algorithm. The models were iterated till the values of the residuals converged to a value of 10 -4.

Velocity inlet

Outer domain
2Dt

Inner domain

5Dt

Pressure outlet

Fig.2 Computational inner and outer domain of the model

Fig.3 Mesh model used for CFD study

3. ROBUST DESIGN:
The study uses the taguchi method of orthogonal arrays (OA) to investigate the effect of different parameters on
turbine performance. The objective is to maximize the Cp while minimizing its variation owing to the uncertainties
in wind. This is done by identifying the optimal settings of control factors which would maximise Cp with
minimum variation due to uncertainties in wind speed. The quality characteristic of interest here is Larger the
Better (L-type) and hence the following SNR is used. Maximizing SNR is equivalent to minimizing the variance
and improving the mean.

S
1 n 1
10log10 2
N
n i 1 yi

(1)

Where yi is the response of each of the runs for a particular experimental set up, n is the number of runs. The
numerical levels for the different design variables along with their SI units are specified in Table 2.
Table.2 Design parameters with their levels

A
B
C
D
E

Design Variable
Perpendicular Distance
Blade arc radius
Blade arc angle
Blade rotation angle
Blade diameter

Unit
mm
mm
deg
deg
mm

Level 1
40*
100
115
7*
235

Level 2
50
107.5
122.5*
11
250

Level 3
60
115*
130
15
265*

An important feature of the savonius class turbines is that its performance is independent of the wind direction.
Here, the only external factor which affects the performance of the turbine is wind velocity (v). In order to
understand the sensitivity of the performance characteristic with respect to uncertainties in v, it has been
considered as a noise factor in the study.

1. Orthogonal array:
Orthogonal arrays are fractional factorial designs that allow one to compute the main and interaction effects via a
minimum number of experimental trials. Choice of a suitable OA depends on the number of experiments (or
computer runs) that can be conducted and the factor, interaction effects that can be studied. In order to account
for the variation of wind, an external array is considered to this OA. Each experiment is realized at every
occurrence from the outer array. Here, our outer array is the wind velocities which are three levels at 4, 6.5 and 8
m/s. The inner array is made of the design variables and each of them has three levels. From a time constraint
perspective, we limit our study to 100 computer simulations. To this end, with 3 levels in the outer array, the best
we can do is L-27 OA. That is a total of 81 simulations. Any other choice of OA with 3 level factors would mean
more simulations.
The parameter design for this study uses two matrices the design parameter matrix and the noise matrix - as
shown in Table 3. The fractional factorial design uses a standard L27 OA for the inner loop and a 3x1 array for
each outer loop. A standard L27 OA for 5 factors and 3 levels contain 13 columns, allowing the investigation of 5
main and 4 interaction effects. For this study, only the interactions of perpendicular distance with blade arc angle,
blade arc radius and blade rotation angle are considered. Table.2 shows both the inner array and the outer array.
Each experiment in the inner array is run for the three elements in outer array. Hence, 81 (27x3) runs are carried
out for the experimental design.

Table .3 L27 OA for inner loop and noise array for outer loop

Exp.
v(m/s)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27

A(1)
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
60
60
60
60
60
60
60
60
60

1
4
B(2)
100
100
100
107.5
107.5
107.5
115
115
115
100
100
100
107.5
107.5
107.5
115
115
115
100
100
100
107.5
107.5
107.5
115
115
115

AXB(3)
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
3
3
2
2
2
3
3
3
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
2
2
2

2
6
C(5)
115
122.5
130
115
122.5
130
115
122.5
130
115
122.5
130
115
122.5
130
115
122.5
130
115
122.5
130
115
122.5
130
115
122.5
130

AXC(6)
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
3
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2

3
8
D(8)
7
11
15
11
15
7
15
7
11
7
11
15
11
15
7
15
7
11
7
11
15
11
15
7
15
7
11

AXD(9)
1
2
3
2
3
1
3
1
2
2
3
1
3
1
2
1
2
3
3
1
2
1
2
3
2
3
1

E(11)
235
250
265
265
235
250
250
265
235
235
250
265
265
235
250
250
265
235
235
250
265
265
235
250
250
265
235

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS:

As mentioned above, 81 numerical experiments are carried out in total with respect to the L27 OA. Ct values are
extracted from CFD studies for each run and Cp for the different noise levels are evaluated using the eqs (2-6)
mentioned below.

Ct

4T
D2 Hv2

C p xCt =

v
T
0.5 Av 2

Ct
0.0107 0.0149
Re0.3

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

Re

Dv

(6)

The results are then used to compute the values with respect to larger the better characteristic as defined in eq.1.
The computed values corresponding to each of the 27 combinations are indicated in Table.4. Table 5 provides
the factor wise average of SNR.

Table.4 Signal-to-Noise Ratios for the 27 experiments

Expt.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

-11.952
-11.465
-12.278
-11.189
-11.53
-11.309
-11.48
-10.915
-11.627

Expt.
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

-11.604
-11.565
-12..385
-11.093
-11.424
-11.385
-11.795
-11.185
-11.381

-11.29
-11.637
-12.547
-11.178
-11.515
-11.466
-11.36
-11.076
-11..407

Expt.
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27

Table.5 Factor wise SNR values

SNR
1
2
3

A
-11.53
-11.54
-11.50

B
-11.86
-11.34
-11.35

C
-11.44
-11.37
-11.75

D
-11.35
-11.39
-11.81

E
-11.53
-11.50
-11.54

It is observed from Table.5 that the optimal combination of design settings A3, B2, C2, D1 and E2 offers a robust
profile for the Savonius with larger-the better quality characteristic. A corresponding CFD analysis was done on
this profile and results are summarized in Table.6.

Table.6 Performance at the optimum design

Design
variable

Perpendicular
distance

Optimum
Best of 27

60
40

Blade
arc
radius
107.5
115

Blade
arc
angle
122.5
122.5

Blade
rotation
angle
7
7

Blade
diameter

Mean
Cp

(Cp)

250
265

0.287
0.286

0.014334
0.022072

-10.8897
-10.915

The optimum profile is observed to have a mean Cp of 0.287, same as the best geometry from L27. It is also
observed that there is a reduction in variance of Cp by 35% in comparison to the best profile.

1. SNR Analysis:
One by-product of the robust design is to understand the effect of each factor on the objective. This can be
observed by plotting the SNR for different factors as presented in Fig. 4

-11
A1

A2

A3

B1

B2

B3

C1

C2

C3

D1

D2

D3

AD2

AD3

-11.1
Average
-11.2
-11.3
-11.4
-11.5
-11.6
-11.7
-11.8
-11.9

-11.4
E1
-11.42

E2

E3

AB1

AB2

AB3

AC1

AC2

AC3

AD1

Average

-11.44
-11.46
-11.48
-11.5
-11.52
-11.54
-11.56
-11.58
-11.6

Fig.4 Signal-to Noise Ratio response plots for the main effects and interactions

From the SNR plots, it is observed that factor B has the largest effect on C p among all the design parameters.
Levels 2 and 3 have almost the same SNR values. But when the factor setting is changed to level 1, there is a large
increase in the SNR value (of about -50 dB) which suggests that it can affect the performance of the turbine in a
dramatic way. Factor D has the next largest effect on the performance of turbine. Similar to factor B, D has a
difference of only about -4 dB between levels 1 and 2, and when the setting is changed to level 3, the SNR
decreases by around 42 db. Factor C is the next most significant factor owing to the -31 dB or -38dB decrease in

the S/N ratio value when the setting is changed from level 1 or 2 to level 3. Factors A and E are the least significant
factors as they maintain roughly the same SNR values among all the three settings. Hence when the setting is
changed from one level to another, the performance is not affected much.

2. ANOVA:
Though the behaviour of the model can be interpreted through SNR plots, a better understanding of the relative
effects of different factors can be obtained through the ANOVA method.
Hence, the L27 OA design is subjected to an ANOVA analysis and the results are presented in Table.7.The Fstatistic values or the P- values are used to identify the significance of the design variables. Lesser the P-value,
the corresponding parameter is more statistically important. The factors and the 3 two-factor interactions are then
ranked according to the P-value starting from the smallest.
Table.7 Results of ANOVA
Parameter

Sum of
squares
(SS)
0.00714

Mean of squares
(MS)

Degrees of
freedom (DoF)

P (Prob>F)

Rank

0.00357

0.07

0.9358

Perpendicular distance
(d)
Blade arc radius (r)

1.54516

0.77258

14.58

0.0145

C
D

Blade arc angle ()

Blade rotation angle ()

0.76045
1.16409

0.38022
0.58204

2
2

7.18
10.99

0.0475
0.0237

3
2

E
AxB
AxC
AxD

Blade diameter (D)

dxr
dx
dx
Error
Total

0.00872
0.05837
0.14672
0.04621
0.2119
3.94877

0.00436
0.01459
0.03668
0.01155
0.05298

2
4
4
4
4
26

0.08
0.28
0.69
0.22

0.9225
0.8802
0.6348
0.9153

7
5
4
6

It is evident from Table.7, that blade arc radius with the least P value is more statistically important than its
counterparts. The blade rotation angle stands at rank two with next lowest P- value, followed by blade arc angle
which has a slightly higher P-value. These three factors having P<0.05 are considered the most significant
parameters which should be taken care of while designing a blade profile. The other two factors, namely
perpendicular distance and blade diameter have very high P-values and are the least significant. Among the
interactions, the interaction of perpendicular distance with blade arc angle is observed to influence the
performance more.

5. CONCLUSIONS:
1.
2.
3.

4.

The present work provides an orthogonal array based procedure for designing robust savonius wind
turbines under realistic conditions wherein wind velocity is considered an uncertainty.
The performance of the savonius is maximized using the taguchi method with around 8% increase in Cp
and 38% decrease in performance variation.
Blade arc radius is observed to have the best influence on the rotor performance, followed by blade
rotation angle and blade arc angle. Hence, these parameters require to be chosen wisely in the design
stage.
Perpendicular distance and blade diameter are observed to be the least statistically significant parameters.

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