Effect of additional cylinders on power-extraction performance of a Savonius vertical-axis wind turbine

To improve the power-extraction performance of the Savonius vertical-axis wind turbine(S-VAWT),additional cylinders,which are used to control the fluid flow around the wind turbine blade,were introduced into the blade design.In contrast to the traditional numerical method,a mathematical model in the form of a dynamical system was used in this study.A numerical calculation program that could effectively solve the equations of wind-induced rotation of S-VAWT was developed,and combined with the Taguchi experimental method to investigate the influence of additional cylinders on the power-extraction characteristics of the S-VAWT.The results showed that the additional cylinders have a significant impact on the power-extraction performance of the S-VAWT.At 4-m/s wind speed,the average power coefficient of the S-VAWT with additional cylinders is 15%higher than that of the conventional S-VAWT.After construction of the wind turbine prototype and power-extraction tests,the results showed that compared with a conventional S-VAWT,the output power was 29%higher for the S-VAWT with additional cylinders under the same particular conditions.