Abstract
In the pursuit of exploiting wind energy, the drag-based Savonius wind rotors have been extensively used in the low wind velocity regions. These type of rotors, as small-scale stand-alone systems, are characterized by their direction independency, ease of fabrication and the absence of yaw-mechanism. Over the past few decades, various blade profiles/shapes and augmentation techniques have been developed to improve the performance of the Savonius rotors. In recent times, in the quest of further improvement, the nature-inspired (such as golden spiral) and the biomorphic (such as fish-ridge) blades have also been evolved. Some researchers have also studied bio-inspired blade shapes (such as sea-pen) to utilize the organism’s strategy of optimized vortex induced feeding. In the present paper, the starting torque characteristics of a sea-pen bladed Savonius rotor is explored experimentally. The rotor blades are derived from the reported data of the Orange sea-pen (Ptilosarcus gurneyi). Wind tunnel experiments are conducted in the range of 5 m/s to 8 m/s. In order to have a direct comparison, the starting torque characteristics of a conventional semicircular bladed rotor is also obtained in the same range of velocities. The present investigation demonstrates the enhancement of starting torque characteristics of the sea-pen bladed wind rotor at specific rotor angles.
