Analyzing the Impact of a Curved Stator on the Performance of a Savonius Wind Turbine using CFD

The use of renewable energy is becoming increasingly important as we strive to reduce our carbon footprint and decrease our reliance on fossil fuels. Wind energy is one of the most promising renewable energy sources, and wind turbines are being widely used to harness this energy. Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) are an attractive option due to their ability to operate in changing wind directions and their lower noise levels compared to Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs). This paper presents a numerical study evaluating the effectiveness of flat and curved stator blades on a VAWT under 2- dimensional, viscous, turbulent, and steady flow over the Savonius turbine. Using FLUENT, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software, and the Reynold s Averaged Navier-Stokes Equations (RANS) solver with an unstructured mesh, turbulence was modeled with the K-ε model and compared to experimental data. The study investigated the impact of Reynolds number and stator blade shape on the aerodynamic behavior of the rotor and stator blade, including the examination of turbine torque by measuring the pressure distribution on the blade surfaces for different stator blade shapes. The results of pressure and torque were compared for four cases, and the data showed that curved stator blades improved the VAWT s performance and torque.