Experimental investigation of an innovative configuration for new marine current turbine

Abstract

The numerous benefits of Savonius turbine including simplicity in structure, appropriateness of its self-start ability, operating in relatively low velocity, independency from flow direction and its low environmental burdening have caused the Savonious to gain momentum in recent Marine Current Turbine research. However, the turbine suffers from low efficiency as compared with other water turbines. This paper proposes a novel Savonius turbine configuration design for marine currents. The new model design was tested in the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in the low-speed wind tunnel at different speeds while measuring parameters such as pressure and performance. The experiment was conducted by measuring the pressure distribution on blade surfaces. Various angles of the new rotor were tested at different speeds in the low-speed wind tunnel. The comparison revealed substantial improvement in turbine efficiency for the new configuration in comparison with the conventional design.