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 Performance Improvement in Savonius Wind Turbine by Modification of Blade Shape Author(s): Ramarajan J, S Jayavel Keywords: Computational study, Savonius turbine, Wind turbine, Power coefficient, Blade shape, Performance improvement Wind energy is one of the abundantly available renewable energy resources. Savonius vertical axis wind turbine is better suited for small scale power generation applications with many advantages. The turbine operates independent of wind direction with good starting torque and less noise. But, the power coefficient of the turbine is less. The shape of the turbine blades plays an important role in the performance of the turbine. In this present two-dimensional numerical study, an attempt has been made to improve the turbine performance by considering four types of blade shapes. The complete design details of the proposed new blade shapes are presented. The simulations are carried out using ANSYS Fluent 15.0 with SST K-$\omega$ turbulence model. The power coefficient of the modified blade is found to have increased by 20\% compared to conventional blade shape. The effect of tip-speed-ratio on power coefficient has also been studied and reported.

## Journal of Applied Fluid Mechanics

The Journal of Applied Fluid Mechanics (JAFM) is an international, peer-reviewed journal which covers a wide range of theoretical, numerical and experimental aspects in fluid mechanics. The emphasis is on the applications in different engineering fields rather than on pure mathematical or physical aspects in fluid mechanics. Although many high quality journals pertaining to different aspects of fluid mechanics presently exist, research in the field is rapidly escalating.