Analysis of Savonius Rotor with Multiple Blades for Hydrokinetic Application

The investigation is in high speed of using wind turbine for hydro kinematic application; among wind turbine, vertical axis turbine such as Savonius is best suited for harnessing hydroelectric power as a zero head turbine. Savonius rotor works with drag forces not lift forces as generally in many wind turbine does. However, the Savonius rotor is having the lowest efficiency when it is used as an aerodynamic application because power coefficient (Cp) is lowest. many research works are going on to increase the power coefficient of Savonius rotor by different methods such as providing guiding blade, providing cross over the path between the blades, etc. It is also being proved that the speed of Savonius rotor in WECS reduces with increase in the number of blades, but the characteristics of the speed of Savonius rotor in hydrokinetics is not known. In this paper, an attempt is made to investigate the performance of the Savonius rotor with various blade arrangements in hydrokinetic applications. A rotor prototype is made with PVC pipe, and model is tested in the free-flowing river, and speed differences of various arrangements are observing and presented in this paper and also validates with the theoretical results.