Review of the Recent Power Augmentation Techniques for the Savonius Wind Turbines

Abstract

Savonius wind turbine appears to be attractive and promising for electric generation in urban areas and low wind speed regions. Although the advantages of the Savonius rotor such as low-cost, simplicity and reliability, it suffers from low efficiency when it compared with other vertical axis wind turbines. For this reason, numerous studies have been performed to enhance the power characteristic of this turbine. In this field, a lot of innovative augmentation techniques have been implemented to improve the rotor performance, such as deflector plates, nozzles, guide vanes, windshields, and curtain plates. This paper reviews the most recent and effective power augmentation systems for the Savonius wind rotor in order to provide the researchers with a comprehensive view of current augmentation techniques. It is found that the augmentation systems contributed to the power coefficient enhancement for the conventional and modified Savonius rotors. The proposed designs used to overcome the negative torque created on the returning blade.