Inflatable Savonius wind turbine with rapid deployment and retrieval capability: Structure design and performance investigation

Faced with the increasingly severe issue of the greenhouse effect, wind power emerges as a sustainable solution. However, the large size, heavy weight, and high risk associated with traditional wind turbines restrict their widespread deployment in urban, rural, and outdoor settings, wasting a vast amount of untapped wind energy resources. To address these challenges, this paper proposes an inflatable structure for the Savonius wind turbine and explores a double-layer fabrication process to manufacture the inflatable Savonius wind turbine (ISWT). 2D simulations are carried out on ANSYS-Fluent. Within predetermined parameter ranges, this paper successfully identifies the optimal geometric parameters for the ISWT model, with a blade thickness of 7 cm and a blade arc angle of 120°. This model exhibits the maximum power coefficient (C_p) of 0.1912 at the tip speed ratio (λ) of 0.7. The manufactured ISWTs are fabricated based on the optimal geometric parameters. Due to deformation after inflation, the actual blade arc angle of the first ISWT sample is only 89.7°. Therefore, by adjusting the fabric template, an approximate blade arc angle of 120° is achieved for the second ISWT sample. Both ISWT samples are subjected to open-section wind tunnel tests. The results revealed that while the C_p curves of Sample 1 and Sample 2 display trends similar to those in numerical results, the overall performance is lower. The reasons for the deviation include the simplification of vertical flow in 2D simulation and the lack of endplates. Specifically, Sample 2 also achieves the highest C_p value of 0.1486 at λ = 0.7. Due to an inflation time within 60 s to the required pressure of 1.4 bar and a compressed volume lower than 0.021 m³, the ISWTs demonstrate rapid deployment capability during installation, portability during transportation, and storability during severe weather.