Development of a Smart Highway Median Integrated Spiral Wind Turbine with Vehicle-Induced Airflow Enhancement

Author(s)	Dr. S Kumarappa
Country	India
Abstract	The increasing demand for sustainable energy had created opportunities to harvest renewable energy from unused airflow around highways. This study presented a Smart Highway Median with an Integrated Spiral Wind Turbine that utilized ambient wind and vehicle-induced airflow for decentralized power generation. A three-dimensional spiral vertical-axis wind turbine was developed and analyzed using ANSYS Fluent with the SST k–ω turbulence model at a reference wind speed of 6 m/s. The aerodynamic performance was evaluated based on velocity, pressure distribution, streamlines, turbulence intensity, torque, and power coefficient. The CFD results indicated effective flow acceleration around the spiral blades and aerodynamic torque generation, with an optimum TSR of 6 and a maximum predicted power coefficient (Cp) of approximately 0.54. Experimental evaluation of rotor speed, torque, electrical power, and Cp was conducted for validation. The system demonstrated promising potential for powering low-energy highway applications such as LED lighting, traffic sensors, warning indicators, and IoT monitoring systems, thereby providing a compact and sustainable renewable-energy solution.
Keywords	Smart highway, spiral vertical-axis wind turbine, CFD, vehicle-induced airflow, renewable energy.
Field	Engineering
Published In	Volume 17, Issue 3, July-September 2026
Published On	2026-09-08

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