Author(s): Trefiletti L. ; Pipitone G. ; Adamo G. ; Tumino D. ; De Marchis M.

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Keywords: Energy recovery; Savonius; Micro-generators; Ansys Fluent; CFD

Abstract: Nowadays the energy production with alternative or ecological method is a fundamental issue relating to the health of our planet. The possibility of using non-recyclable systems and products becomes significant, especially if it concerns wastewater. Savonius is a typical wind turbine able to produce energy with low costs. The proposed research is mainly aimed to investigate on the possibility of recovering energy in open channel flow, as wastewater ducts or irrigation channels, using Savonius turbines. The analysis is carried out by means of Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) technique. To this aim the commercial code ANSYS Fluent was used. Several numerical experiments have been performed in order to analyse the fluid dynamic characteristics of Savonius micro-generators, in order to evaluate the behaviour of a Savonius turbine with vertical axis in terms of performance coefficient (Cp) and tip speed ratio (TSR) .Bidimensional simulations have been carried out, considering some geometrical parameters and boundary conditions. In particular, turbines with different values of blades eccentricity, of asymptotic fluid flow velocity and different values of the rotational velocity have been studied. This first results showed that the performance coefficient achieved in water channel are clearly higher than those observed in air, thus showing the attractiveness of Savonius turbines in hydraulic applications.

DOI:

Year: 2015