Conceptual Design of Inflatable Savonius Wind Turbine and Performance Investigation of Varying Thickness and Arc Angle of Blade

Facing the increasingly severe greenhouse effect and energy crisis, wind power generation technology receives more attention and application. Traditional Savonius wind turbines are made of hard materials which make them difficult to transport and install. Blades may also cause harm to the surrounding environment. In the present work, the design and fabrication method of the inflatable Savonius wind turbine (ISWT) is proposed, which can improve the portability of the wind turbine during transportation and safety during operation. The models of ISWT with different thicknesses and arc angles of the blade are constructed. The performance of ISWT is numerically analyzed by using ANSYS-Fluent to investigate the effect of different thicknesses and arc angles of the blade. The results show that the power coefficient (Cp) increases with the decrease in thickness. The Cp value firstly increases and then decreases with the arc angle decrease from 180° to 100°. The model of ISWT with a thickness of 70mm and arc angle of 120° shows the highest Cp value of 0.1912.