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CPOTE2020 logo
CPOTE2020
6th International Conference on
Contemporary Problems of Thermal Engineering
Online | 21-24 September 2020

Abstract CPOTE2020-1093-A

Book of abstracts draft
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Optimisation of the shape of the Savonius wind turbine blades using Evolutionary Algorithm and Bezier functions

Tomasz KRYSIŃSKI, Silesian University of Technology, Poland
Zbigniew BULINSKI, Silesian University of Technology, Poland
Łukasz MARZEC, Silesian University of Technology, Poland
Jakub TUMIDAJSKI, Silesian University of Technology, Poland
Andrzej NOWAK, Silesian University of Technology, Poland

The unrestricted access to the energy sources is one of the most important elements conditioning fast development of civilisation. However, in view of the climate changes caused by unlimited use of fossil fuels further development is greatly dependent on the effective utilisation of renewable energy sources. One of the most important energy source which utilisation is relatively easy which is not burden significantly the environment is the wind energy. Nowadays, energy production from wind is dominated by huge horizontal axis units (horizontal axis wind turbines – HAWT) which possess relatively high efficiency, however this construction suffers from high starting wind speed and relatively low cut off wind speed. Moreover, this type of wind turbines generates high noise and have significant impact on the environment. Finally, connecting this type of wind turbines into the energy system is very problematic due to random character of energy production. Some alternative to huge HAWTs may be drag-based vertical axis units (Vertical Axis Wind Turbine – VAWT) like the Savonius wind turbine.The Savonius wind turbine offers low efficiency but their availability to produce electric power is higher than traditional HWAT, because they starts at lower wind speeds and can still operate at higher wind speeds comparing to HAWTs. Moreover, this wind turbine is omnidirectional, completely insensitive on the wind turbulence, it produces energy at lower rotational speeds, that is why it can be considered as a power generation units for municipal computations. Paper presents methodology of optimisation of the shape of Savonius wind turbine blades using Bezier splines and Evolutionary Algorithm. This methodology allowed us to increase significantly the rotor performance comparing to the traditional solutions which are considered as an experimentally optimised.

Keywords: Savonius wind turbine, Optimisation, Evolutionary algorithm, Computational fluid dynamics (CFD), Municipal renewable energy sources
Acknowledgment: The research has been supported by National Science Centre within OPUS scheme under contract UMO-2017/27/B/ST8/02298.