Numerical Analysis of Three Vertical Axis Turbine Designs for Improved Water Energy Efficiency

Derya Karakaya, Aslı Bor () and Sebnem Elçi
Additional contact information
Derya Karakaya: Department of Civil Engineering, Izmir Institute of Technology, Izmir 35430, Turkey
Aslı Bor: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway
Sebnem Elçi: Department of Civil Engineering, Izmir Institute of Technology, Izmir 35430, Turkey

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 6, 1-24

Abstract: A hydrokinetic turbine with a vertical axis is specifically designed to harvest the kinetic energy from moving water. In this study, three vertical axis water turbines, namely Gorlov, Darrieus, and Savonius turbines, were compared for their efficiency via numerical modeling for steady-state conditions via the ANSYS 2022 R2 Fluent model. The Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure-Linked Equations (SIMPLE) was implemented with an SST k-ω turbulence model. The dynamic mesh technique, which allows modeling according to changes in angular velocity at each time step, was used to simulate flow around the turbines for six different velocities (from 0.5 to 3 m/s). The efficiency of the turbines was compared and the results were analyzed. The pressure, velocity, and turbulence kinetic energy distributions around the rotor were measured at different rotational angles and results indicated a wider operating range for the Darrieus and Gorlov turbines compared to the Savonius turbine. The highest power coefficient of 0.293 was achieved in the model featuring a Darrieus turbine, corresponding to a TSR value of 1.34, compared to 0.208 for the Gorlov and 0.257 for the Savonius turbine, at TSR values of 1.3 and 1.06, respectively. Numerical modeling results pointed to a significantly higher self-starting capacity for the Savonius turbine compared to the others.

Keywords: renewable energy; hydrokinetic energy; vertical axis water turbine; dynamic mesh; efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/6/1398/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/6/1398/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:6:p:1398-:d:1356972

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().