Performance of Savonious Rotors for Utilizing the Orbital Motion of Ocean Waves in Shallow Waters

Ocean wave energy conversion technology is gaining a lot of attention due to its reliability and worldwide availability. This paper presents an experimental study on the performance of the Savonious rotor for utilizing energy from ocean waves moving in circular/elliptical orbits called orbital motion in shallow waters. Three, four and five vaned rotors were considered in this work and their performance under different submergence conditions was studied. The performance parameter selected for study was the rotor RPM. The experiment was carried out in the Wave Flume facility in the Department of Applied Mechanics at NITK Surathkal, India. From the experimental results it was found that the number of vanes on the rotor influences the output rotor RPM. Also, the rotor RPM was influenced by the depth from the still water level at which the rotor was immersed.