Experimental Investigation of Savonius Wind Rotors in Open and Bounded Flows

The common practice of operating a Savonius rotor 1s m an open environment;
however there are times when the rotor is fixed in a bounded environment and there
might be changes in the performance of the rotor. The project aims to investigate the
possible changes in the performance of the rotor. Three different rotors models are
design in this project. The project is conducted experimentally to compare the
performance of the Rotors in bounded environment against open environment. The
different environments that are tested namely partially bounded environment, li.!lly
bounded environment and open environment. Rotors are found to have better starting
capabilities when operated in bounded environment, Rotor I starts at 1.7m/s and
2m/s in partially bounded environment and fully bounded environment as compared
to 2.7m/s in open environment. Rotor 2 starts at approximately 3.4 m/s for both
partially and fully bounded environment as compared to open environment. Rotor 3
starts at 2m/s and 1.8m/s for partially bounded and fully bounded environment as
compared to 3m/s for open environment. Apmt from that, all rotors manage to
achieve higher power coefficient at a higher TSR as compare to open environment
and better torque coei1icient as well in bounded environment as compare to open
environment.