Computational study of a newly developed parabolic blade profile of a Savonius wind rotor

The two-dimensional (2D) computational analysis is done on a newly proposed parabolic blade profile of a Savonius wind rotor that is specifically designed for the small-scale power generation. The geometry of the blade profile is obtained by optimizing the section cut angle (theta) of a parabola that varies from 27.5 degrees to 45 degrees. The simulations are performed using ANSYS Fluent software to solve the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations. The two-equation eddy viscosity shear stress transport (SST) k-omega model is solved to find the torque and power coefficients (C-T, C-p) of the blade profile. The effects of tip speed ratio (TSR) and Reynolds number (Re) on the performance are also investigated. The blade profile generated at theta = 32.5 degrees has showcased an increment of performance coefficient (C-pmax) by 20% against the conventional semicircular blade profile. The parabolic profile has shown an improvement of drag coefficient (C-Dmax) by 18.18% over its semicircular counterpart. The best performance of the parabolic profile is obtained at TSR of 0.8 and at Re of 0.97 x10(5).