Experimental study the performance of a 6-bladed Savonius vertical axis wind turbine using polyvinyl chloride material

Abstract

The Savonius U type wind turbine is a vertical axis turbine that can operate at low wind speeds. In general, the performance of this turbine is influenced by several factors, one of which is the shape of the turbine blade. This research aims to test the design results of a 6 blade Savonius turbine with a blade length of 50 cm made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) by varying the dimensions of the blade diameter. The variables that vary between blade length and blade diameter are D/L=0.10, D/L=0.13, D/L=0.18, and D/L=0.20. The aim of this research is to determine the effect of variations in the parameters above on turbine rotation and the electrical power produced in a direct current (DC) generator at each variation in wind speed. From the research results, it is known that the trend graph of the relationship between turbine rotation and wind speed has a linear correlation. In simple terms, this turbine can be applied to DC voltage loads such as lighting using light emitting diode (LED) lamps with a maximum power capacity of ± 16 watts, while the overall efficiency (OE) is 50.25%.