Design and Performance Evaluation of a Prototype Vertical Axis Wind Turbines

Abstract

Vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) have recently attracted much attention as an efficient tool for harnessing wind energy. However, these wind turbine types face challenges affecting their overall performance. The Darrieus rotor has difficulty self-starting, while the Savonius rotor has low efficiency. We have designed and tested a novel solution, Hybrid VAWT, to address these issues. This system merges the Darrieus and Savonius rotors to generate high starting torque and enhanced efficiency. Our Research is significant in the context of the current state of wind energy technology as it presents a perfect solution to the performance limitations of conventional VAWTs. The turbine VAWTs were designed with Google sketch-up software solid tools and fabricated using locally available materials. The VAWTs were tested at four different wind speeds (V = 4.80 m/s, 4.50 m/s, 4.30 m/s and 3.90 m/s). The superior performance of the hybrid VAWT was demonstrated through a direct comparison with the conventional H-Darrieus VAWT under identical experimental conditions. The result revealed that experimental torque and mechanical power have an improvement on the same experimental conditions for hybrid VAWT as (87.4%, 8.8%, 5.6%, 21.61%) and (100%, 45.5%, 9.4% and 40.3%), respectively, compared to that of H-Darrieus VAWT. The percentage increment showed that the hybrid vertical-axis wind turbine significantly improved performance compared to the conventional vertical-axis wind turbine. Coupling the Icewind rotor (Savonious Rotor) with H-Darrieus VAWT (hybrid VAWT) yields greater self-starting and higher performance in the measured parameters than the conventional H-Darrieus VAWT.