Four Decades of Research Into

the Augmentation Techniques of

Nur Alom
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
National Institute of Technology Meghalaya,
Shillong 793003, India
e-mail: nuralomme19@gmail.com
Ujjwal K. Saha
Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati,
Guwahati 781039, India
e-mail: saha@iitg.ernet.in
Savonius Wind Turbine Rotor
The design and development of wind turbines is increasing throughout the world to offer
electricity without paying much to the global warming. The Savonius wind turbine rotor,
or simply the Savonius rotor, is a drag-based device that has a relatively low efficiency.
A high negative torque produced by the returning blade is a major drawback of this rotor.
Despite having a low efficiency, its design simplicity, low cost, easy installation, good
starting ability, relatively low operating speed, and independency to wind direction are
its main rewards. With the goal of improving its power coefficient (CP), a considerable
amount of investigation has been reported in the past few decades, where various design
modifications are made by altering the influencing parameters. Concurrently, various
augmentation techniques have also been used to improve the rotor performance. Such
augmenters reduce the negative torque and improve the self-starting capability while
maintaining a high rotational speed of the rotor. The CP of the conventional Savonius
rotors lie in the range of 0.12–0.18, however, with the use of augmenters, it can reach up
to 0.52 with added design complexity. This paper attempts to give an overview of the var-
ious augmentation techniques used in Savonius rotor over the last four decades. Some of
the key findings with the use of these techniques have been addressed and makes an
attempt to highlight the future direction of research. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4038785]

Keywords: Savonius rotor, blade profiles, augmentation techniques, torque coefficient,

power coefficient, tip-speed ratio

1 Introduction
The Savonius rotor is a sort of vertical-axis wind turbine
(VAWT). A conventional turbine rotor, mounted on a rotating
shaft or framework, consists of several semicircular blades. The
rotor system may either be ground stationed or fastened in a float-
ing system. The Savonius rotor, invented by the Finnish engineer
Sigurd Johannes Savonius in 1925 [1,2], is one of the simplest
type of wind turbine. Aerodynamically, it is a drag-based device,
and consists of two or three scoops (also known as buckets or
blades). The top view of a two-bladed rotor looks like an “S”
shape in cross section [3,4]. The rotor blades experience less drag
when moving against the wind than when it moves with the wind
due to their curved shape. The differential drag force makes the
rotor to spin. Since the Savonius rotor is a drag-based machine, it
extracts lesser wind energy than a similarly sized lift-based devi-
ces like Darrieus rotor and horizontal-axis wind turbine (HAWT)
[5]. The HAWTs are actually acknowledged for their reasonably
higher CP than the Savonius VAWTs, and fundamentally have
been used for power generation [6]. However, the Savonius
VAWTs have various important rewards than the HAWTs owing
to their lesser fixing and preservation costs and the direction inde-
pendency [7–12]. Additionally, these rotors also do not need a
yaw control mechanism and over speed controller [13]. These
benefits make them attractive and appropriate for many applica-
tions. But the main disadvantage of the Savonius rotor is that it
produces negative torque in some rotational cycle of the rotor, and
as a result, the net positive torque of the rotor gets reduced
[14–17]. To improve its performance, various blade profiles such
as semicircular [18–22], Bach [23], Benesh et al. [24], twisted
[25], elliptical [23,26,27], fish-ridged rotor [28], modified Bach
type [14], Bronzinus [29], airfoil shape blade [30], multiple
Contributed by the Advanced Energy Systems Division of ASME for publication
in the JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY. Manuscript received November 5,
2017; final manuscript received December 11, 2017; published online January 22,
2018. Assoc. Editor: Esmail M. A. Mokheimer.
quarter [31], multiple miniature semicircular [32], and spline [33]
have been evolved. Besides using these blade profiles, the various
augmentation techniques have also been used to decrease the neg-
ative torque produced by the rotor. Several such techniques
find their applications, notable among them are V-shape wedge
deflector, curtains, concentrated and oriented jets, multistaging,
nozzle, venting slot, deflecting plate, guide vane, and others
[4,8–11,14–16].
1.1 Aim of This Study. Since its inception, several wind tun-
nel experiments have been carried and are being conducted to esti-
mate the performance characteristics of Savonius rotor. The main
objectives in these studies have been to optimize the various
parameters of the rotor for attaining suitable design configura-
tions. It is only during the last few decades that the investigators
have started following numerical studies with various numerical
methods, optimization techniques [34], and soft-computing tech-
niques to arrive at the same objectives. Though the experimental
researches have exposed more precise findings, however, the
numerical researches have provided the liberty to conduct an
extensive study with reduced experimental intimidations and
costs. Recently, Akwa et al. [17] and Roy and Saha [18] have pro-
vided a complete knowledge and beneficial evidence on the vari-
ous aspects of Savonius rotors. Till date, various turbulence
models and soft-computing techniques have been used by various
researchers to improve the efficiency of the rotor. As stated previ-
ously, various blade profiles have been developed, and at the same
time, various augmentation techniques have also been employed
to improve the all-round performance of the rotor. Uniting the
past experimental and numerical investigations, this review work
tries to make an analysis on the various augmentation techniques
applied [35–47] and makes recommendation of the future studies.
1.2 Evolution of Savonius Blade Profiles. To improve the
performance of Savonius rotors, few noticeable investigations are

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 found on the use of dissimilar category of blade shapes such as
conventional semicircular, Bach, Benesh, twisted, elliptical, fish-
ridged rotor, modified Bach, Bronzinus, airfoil shape blade, multi-
ple quarter, multiple miniature semicircular, and spline. All these
blade profiles are illustrated in Fig. 1. The performance indices of
these blade profiles are shown in Table 1. Rudimentary investiga-
tion with an elliptical profile has demonstrated its energy captur-
ing potential, hence, an improved CP than the conventional rotor
[23]. In a separate numerical study, an elliptical profile of differ-
ent design has shown a performance improvement of 10.7% over
the semicircular profile [26]. At a later stage, Alom et al. [27]
optimized the elliptical profile numerically and found a
performance gain of 18.18% than the semicircular-bladed Savo-
nius rotor. Thus, it is clear that the elliptical-bladed rotor can be a
strong contender in the future designs of Savonius rotor.
1.3 Geometric Parameters. Despite having a low efficiency,
the Savonius rotor has become popular for its good starting abil-
ity, design simplicity, and low cost. However, its performance can
be improved by optimizing the basic parameters like aspect ratio
(AR), overlap ratio, gap ratio, Reynolds number, and number rotor
blades [25]. The aspect ratio (AR ¼ H/D) of the rotor is defined
as the ratio of rotor height (H) to the overall diameter of the

Fig. 1 Various blade profiles used for Savonius rotors: (a) semicircular (1929), (b) semi-
circular (1930), (c) Bach (1931), (d) Benesh (1988), (e) Benesh (1996), (f) twisted (2004),
(g) elliptical (2013), (h) fish-ridged rotor (2013), (i) modified Bach (2014), (j) Roy profile
(2014), (k) Bronzinus (2014), (l) airfoil shape (2015), (m) multiple quarter semicircular
(2016) (n) multiple miniature semicircular (2017), and (o) spline (2017)

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 Table 1 Performance of various Savonius rotor profiles

Investigator(s) Year Blade profile CPmax

Alexander and Holownia [46] 1978 Semicircular 0.147

Owaga et al. [47] 1984 Semicircular 0.17
Grinspan et al. [25] 2004 Twisted 0.1159
Kacprzak et al. [23] 2013 Bach 0.178
Song et al. [28] 2013 Fish-ridged 0.23
Kacprzak et al. [23] 2013 Elliptical 0.172
Banerjee et al. [26] 2014 Elliptical 0.27
Roy et al. [14] 2014 Modified Bach 0.30
Roy et al. [14] 2014 Roy profile (New) 0.31
Gerardo and Molfino [29] 2014 Bronzinus 0.25
Tartuferi et al. [30] 2015 Airfoil shape 0.22
Alom et al. [27] 2016 Elliptical 0.33
Sharma and Sharma [31] 2016 Multiple quarter semicircular 0.2266
Sharma and Sharma [32] 2017 Multiple miniature semicircular 0.226
Mari et al. [33] 2017 Spline 0.2477

the pressure difference between concave and convex side of the

buckets at satisfactory levels over the height of the rotor [15]. The
Reynolds number is the most important nondimensional parame-
ter for defining the flow characteristics of fluid flow conditions. It
is reported that when the Reynolds number increases, the separa-
tion of boundary layer takes place on the lower side of returning
blade of the rotor. This reduces the drag force on the returning
blade considerably, and on the other hand, the lift force augments
the power of the rotor when the rotor angles are oriented at 0 deg
or 180 deg [17,18].

1.4 Performance Parameters. The performance of the Savo-

nius rotor is estimated from the power and torque coefficients
[11,15,33,48,49]. The power coefficient (CP) of the Savonius rotor
is defined as the ratio of the power generated by the rotor to the
available wind power and is given by

Pturbine T  xs 2pNT
Cp ¼ ¼ ¼ (1)
Pavailable 1 3 1
qAV 60  qAV 3
2 2

The CP is usually estimated from field or wind tunnel tests, and

Fig. 2 Basic parameters of Savonius rotor
rotor (D). This is illustrated in Fig. 2. Because of the consequence
of blade tips, the Savonius rotors have low losses at high ARs
[15]. A small rotor diameter always causes a fast diverging of air-
flow. When the diameter of the rotor increases, the produced tor-
que also increases, whereas the rotational speed of the rotor
decreases, and vice versa [17,18]. The overlap ratio (d ¼ e/d) is
defined as the ratio of overlap distance between the two blades (e)
to the chord length of the blade (d). A rotor with an overlapping
proves to have a better starting characteristic than the one without
overlapping. This is mainly caused by the improved pressure on
the concave part of the returning blade due to the flow through the
overlap distance [17,18]. The gap ratio (es ¼ e/s) of the rotor is
defined as the ratio of separation gap between the rotor blades (s)
to the chord length of the blade (d). When the spacing between
the blades are large, the wind does not strike properly on the con-
cave side of returning blade, thereby reducing the net power of
rotor [17]. By keeping a proper gap ratio, the torque coefficient of
the rotor can be enhanced as much as by 25%. An end plate as
shown in Fig. 2 is the simplest attachment that can be added to
improve its performance. The plates at the rotor tops avoid the
escape of wind from the concave side of the rotor blades, keeping
with the help of numerical techniques that solve the conservation
equations of the wind flow [7,35]. It has been proved that a turbine
can have the maximum possible CP of 59.3%. This limit is termed
as the Betz limit.
The torque coefficient (CT) is defined as the ratio of the actual
torque produecd by the turbine (Tturbine) to the theoretical torque
available in the wind (Tavailable) and can be expressed by
Tturbine Tturbine F  rp
CT ¼ ¼ ¼ (2)
Tavaialble 1 2 1
qAV R qAV 2 R
2 2
Under static condition, the net rotor torque is termed as static tor-
que which is mostly responsible for the starting capability of the
rotor. However, at rotating condition, the net rotor torque is
termed as dynamic torque and is mostly responsible for its power
converting capability [18]. The high static torque coefficient of
the Savonius rotor plays a crucial role in improving the starting
capability of vertical-axis Darrieus rotor [18,50,51].
The tip speed ratio (TSR), a significant dimensionless parame-
ter for relating the performance of a Savonius rotor, is defined as
the ratio of rotor tip speed (u) to the free stream wind speed (V)
[52]. It is important to find the optimum TSR to get the maximum
power output of the rotor. It is found that with the addition of
load, the revolving speed of the rotor decreases, and therefore,
with the increase of TSR, the CT decreases. However, the per-
formance is optimum at the intermediate range of TSR [26].

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Fig. 3 Lift and drag force on Savonius rotor
1.5 Aerodynamic Parameters—Drag and Lift. The drag
force (D) is usually defined as the force parallel to the direction of
the incoming airflow, whereas the lift force (L) is defined as the
force perpendicular to the direction of incoming airflow [53] and
is a consequence of pressure differential spreading between the
upper and lower blade surfaces (Fig. 3). Based on the rotor blade
design, the VAWTs are classified into lift- and drag-type devices.
Savonius and Sistan rotors are drag-based VAWTs, whereas H-
and Darriues rotors, composed of airfoil-shaped blades, are lift-
based VAWTs. In the lift-based turbines, the pressure differential
between the blade surfaces creates the aerodynamic lift that
causes the turbine to rotate. In comparison to the lift-based
VAWTs, the drag-based VAWTs have shown better self-starting
capabilities, however, their efficiencies are found to be lower
[17,18]. Moreover, their vertical rotational axis allows them to be
installed in multiple configurations in a restricted place. These tur-
bines equipped with an energy storage system can be used at the
top of buildings or communication towers or at the hilly locations
for decentralized small-scale electricity generation [5]. The wind-
mills and pumping devices, in general, have low-speed drag-based
rotors, though the recent rotors for electricity generation are of
high-speed lift-type. When the swept area is same, the power
extracted by a lift-based rotor is generally greater than the power
extracted from a drag-based rotor. However, for electricity gener-
ation, it becomes essential that the generator driving shaft works
at a significant speed (1000 or 1500 rpm). This together with
the much higher aerodynamic efficiency of lift-based rotor indi-
cates that the drag-based rotors are not favored for electricity
production [54].
2 Augmentation Techniques
The Betz limit shows the maximum productivity of a wind tur-
bine to be 59.3%; however, this limit can be exceeded by an aug-
mentation system. An augmenter concentrates the wind flow and
increases the mass flow through its area [16]. Since the power
generated by a wind turbine is proportional to the cube of the
incoming wind speed, a slight increase in the incoming wind
speed can significantly improve the turbine performance. The
wind pressure exerted to the concave part of the returning blade of
a Savonius rotor produces a high negative torque, and this drops
its total power. By means of an augmenter, the negative drag of
the rotor is decreased by avoiding the air from striking the return-
ing blade of the rotor. The starting capability of the Savonius rotor
is improved with the aid of these techniques. Hitherto, several
augmentation techniques like V-shaped deflector, nozzle, multi-
staging, twisted blades, valve, curtain plates, windshields, obstacle
shield, venting slot, flat plate shield, concentrator, flaps and guide
vanes, and others (Fig. 4) have been used to improve the CP.
It was sometime around 1978 that Alexander and Holownia
[46] used a combination of flat and a circular shields (Fig. 4(a))
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and reported a maximum CP of 0.243. Morcos et al. [55] also used
a wind shield in front of the rotor and reported a maximum CP of
0.34 (Fig. 4(b)). Ogawa et al. [56] and Huda et al. [57] also used
the deflector plate (Fig. 4(c)) and reported a maximum CP of
0.212 and 0.21, respectively. When multiple flaps are used in a
rotor blade instead of one without the flaps, the negative drag of
the rotor is reduced [58] (Fig. 4(d)). The use of V-shaped wedge
deflector (Fig. 4(e)) at the upstream of the rotor harnessed about
19.7% more power than a standard rotor without a deflector [21].
Shikha et al. [8] used a convergent nozzle (Fig. 4(f)) at the front
of advancing blade of a six-bladed Savonius rotor to enhance the
power extraction at low wind speeds. The use of two-stage rotor
(Fig. 4(g)) developed an improved torque and power coefficients
in comparison to a single-stage rotor [59]. Twisted bladed
(Fig. 4(h)) rotor has proved to have a better self-starting capacity
than the semicircular bladed rotor [25]. Again, the use of valves
(Fig. 4(i)) in semicircular blades reduces the negative torque on
the rotor [60]. Circular windshield (Fig. 4(j)) has been also
employed to reduce the wind pressure that exerts on the returning
(or driven) blade of the rotor [61]. The use of curtain plate
(Fig. 4(k)) at the rotor front allows a maximum amount of wind to
impinge on the advancing blade thereby reducing the negative tor-
que [10]. It is reported that the use of obstacle shield (Fig. 4(l)) at
the front of returning blade improves the rotor performance up to
30% [9]. Golecha et al. [62] used a deflector plate (Fig. 4(m)) in
front of the advancing blade and reported a 50% increase in per-
formance than the semicircular bladed rotor. It was also reported
that with the use of shield (Fig. 4(n)) in a six-bladed Savonius
rotor, the CP could reach upto 0.52 [37]. Abraham et al. [11] stud-
ied the effect of venting (Fig. 4(o)) on a Savonius rotor both
experimentally and numerically to reduce drag on the returning
blade. Roy et al. [14] employed concentrators (Fig. 4(p)) in the
rotor front and reported a maximum CP of 0.32. Guide vane
(Fig. 4(q)) also improves the performance of the rotor [15]. The
conveyor–deflector curtain (Fig. 4(r)) in a conventional Savonius
rotor improved the CP up to 0.30 [30]. The summary of various
augmentation techniques employed till date with their correspond-
ing Cpmax is shown in Table 2 in a chronological manner. These
techniques are discussed briefly in Secs. 2.1–2.14.
2.1 Wind Shields. The obstacle shields are usually installed
ahead of the returning blade of the rotor. This may be of flat or cir-
cular type or both to decrease the active pressure on it. Alexander
and Holownia [46] performed experiments in a low-speed wind
tunnel and found a performance improvement of 74% with a
shielded Savonius rotor of high AR (Fig. 4(a)). Morcos et al. [55]
also used similar type of shields to cover the returning blade of
the rotor and reported a maximum CP of 0.34 (Fig. 4(b)). Hu et al.
[61] carried out a numerical simulation using renormalized (RNG)
k–e turbulence model around a conventional Savonius rotor with a
circular shield. The simulation was carried out for different incli-
nation angle, b ¼ 90 deg, 45 deg, 0 deg, 15 deg, 30 deg, 45 deg,
and 60 deg to optimize b (Fig. 4(j)), and found an improvement of
107% at b ¼ 30 deg. Similarly, Mohamed et al. [9,63] used the
obstacle shield (Fig. 4(l)) in front of the returning blade to reduce
the negative torque of the rotor. It was reported that optimally
placed (b ¼ 100.83 deg) obstacle shield improves the CP by
27.3% for the two-bladed system at TSR ¼ 0.7 (Fig. 5).
2.2 Deflector Plates. Usually, the deflecting plate is placed in
front of the returning blade (Fig. 4(c)) to reduce the reverse force
acting on it [56,57,62]. In this regard, Ogawa et al. [47,56] carried
out several wind tunnel experiments with a rotor set at d ¼ 0.20,
and by varying the deflector angle (b) in the range 0–75 deg. They
found that the CP to improve by 27% at b ¼ 30 deg (Fig. 6). Inter-
estingly, in the recent past, the deflector plates have also been
used in water turbine applications where Golecha et al. [62] per-
formed experiments with a modified Savonius rotor in an open
water channel at a Reynolds number of 1.32  105. Eight various
Transactions of the ASME
 Fig. 4 Various types of augmentation techniques: (a) wind shields [46], (b) wind shields [55],
(c) defector plate [56], (d) slatted blade [58], (e) V-shaped defelector [21], (f) nozzle [8], (g) multi-
staging [59], (h) twisted blades [25], (i) valve [60], (j) circular windshield [61], (k) curtain plates
[10], (l) obstacle shield [9], (m) deflector plate [62], (n) shield [37], (o) venting slots [11], (p) con-
centartors [14], (q) guide vane [15], and (r) conveyor–deflector curtain [30]

location of the plate was used by varying the geometric parame- plate angle (b) is influenced by these parameters. The least value
ters viz., X1, X2, and Y1, and by fixing Y2 at 145 mm (Fig. 4(m)); is selected such that the plate does not block the end plates of the
whereas X1, X2, and Y1 are varied in the range of 135–230 mm, turbine during rotation. It was reported that the deflector
135–230 mm, and 0–108 mm, respectively. Thus, the deflector plate located at the optimum location (X1 ¼ 152 mm X2 ¼ 135 mm,

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 Table 2 Various augmentation techniques and observation

Investigators Year Augmenter used Observation

Alexander and Holownia [46] 1978 Wind shields CPmax ¼ 0.243

Morcos et al. [55] 1981 Wind shields CPmax ¼ 0.34
Ogawa et al. [56] 1984 Deflector plate CPmax ¼ 0.212
Reupke and Probert [58] 1991 Slatted blade CPmax ¼ 0.18
Shaughnessy and Probert [21] 1992 V-shaped deflector 19.7% increase of CP from the conventional rotor.
Huda et al. [57] 1992 Deflector plate 20% increase of CP from the conventional rotor.
Shikha et al. [8] 2003 Nozzle Increase of wind speed by 2 to 3 times.
Menet [59] 2004 Multi-staging Improved CP than the single stage rotor.
Grinspan et al. [25] 2004 Twisted blade CPmax ¼ 0.1159
Rajkumar and Saha [60] 2006 Valve Reduces negative torque.
Irabu and Roy [68] 2007 Guide box tunnel Increase in CP by 1.5 times for three-bladed and 1.23 times for two-bladed rotors.
Hu et al. [61] 2009 Circular shield Reduces wind pressure on the returning blade.
Altan and Atilgan [10] 2010 Curtain design CPmax ¼ 0.38
Mohamed et al. [9] 2011 Obstacle shielding CPmax ¼ 0.258
Golecha et al. [62] 2011 Deflector plate 50% increase of CP from the conventional rotor.
Emmanuel and Jun [37] 2011 Shield CPmax ¼ 0.50
Abraham et al. [11] 2012 Venting slots Reduces negative torque.
Roy et al. [14] 2014 Concentrators CPmax ¼ 0.33
El-Askary et al. [15] 2015 Guide vane CPmax ¼ 0.52
Tartuferi et al. [30] 2015 Conveyor–deflector curtain CPmax ¼ 0.30

Fig. 7 CP versus TSR for various flaps [58]

Fig. 5 CP versus TSR for obstacle and without obstacle [9]

Fig. 6 CP versus TSR for various deflector azimuthal angle [47]
Y1 ¼ 5 mm, and b ¼ 101 deg) improved the CP up to 50% at
TSR ¼ 0.82.
2.3 Slatted Blades. In 1991, Reupke and Probert [58] pro-
posed the practice of multiple flaps instead of using a continuous
rotor blade (Fig. 4(d)). These flaps are open when moving into the
wind, thus reducing the negative drag force on the rotor blades.
The flaps are hinged in place of the curved parts of the blades to
augment its harnessing effectiveness. The flaps open automati-
cally when the rotor advance toward the wind thereby exerting
more wind pressure on the advancing blade. Due to this, the static
torque of the rotor is enhanced significantly. The investigation has
been made with 16-hinged and 32-hinged flaps in a two-bladed
rotor system. This rotor system demonstrated a better static torque
than the conventional Savonius rotor; however, its performance
was found inferior. The efficiency of the flapped system (modified
Savonius) was found to be 5% as compared to the efficiency of
18% of a conventional system (Fig. 7). The modified system, thus,
was found unacceptable for harnessing power. Tabassum and Pro-
bert [64] has used four hinged flaps in a Bach type rotor and found
an improvement of 35% in the static torque in comparison to the
original rotor of similar geometry under identical wind speed of
6.67 m/s (Fig. 8). The torque produced in the complete rotation is
found to be positive, which is not the case with the semicircular-
bladed rotor without flaps. This reduced the amplitude of oscilla-
tion in the average torque produced during the complete rotation
of the turbine.
2.4 V-Shaped Deflectors. In practice, the V-shaped deflector
is placed in front of the Savonius rotor (Fig. 4(e)), so that the
wind flow resistance is encountered by the returning blade of the
rotor. A series of wind tunnel experiments have been carried out
by varying the deflector wedge semi-angle between 5 and
–45 deg. With the optimally inclined deflector, the rotor extracts
about 20% more power than the conventional Savonius rotor (Fig.
9). Such an important enhancement, achieved by a simple design,

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 Fig. 8 Static torque versus angle of rotation for various flaps [64]
Fig. 9 CP versus various deflector plate angle [21]
recommends that the practice of partly blocked wedges is
extremely suitable. When the deflector plate is placed in the opti-
mal location with wedge semi-angle of 37 deg, the rotor operates
over a wider range of TSR [21].
2.5 Nozzles. The application of nozzle is another idea to mag-
nify the wind velocity before it encounters the blades of a Savo-
nius rotor [8]. When a convergent nozzle (Fig. 4(f)) is employed,
the negative torque of the rotor is reduced, and the effective wind
speed is augmented. Wind tunnel experiments with five nozzle
models are conducted for two-, four-, and six-bladed conventional
Savonius rotor having overlap ratios of 1/3 and 1/6. The wind
velocity at the nozzle inlet is varied from V1 ¼ 0.6 to 0.9 m/s to
amplify the outlet velocity to V2 ¼ 3 to 3.5 m/s when the length of
the nozzle is 55 cm. When the nozzle length is increased to 80 cm,
the inlet velocities are varied from V1 ¼ 0.6 to 0.8 m/s to obtain
outlet velocities from V2 ¼ 2 to 2.9 m/s. The six-bladed Savonius
rotor is found to enhance the power extraction at low wind speed
under the application of convergent nozzle at the rotor front.
2.6 Multistaging. The conventional Savonius rotor mainly
has two disadvantages on torque characteristics. First, it has a
large fluctuation of torque at some initial rotation of the turbine,
and second, it has some angular positions where the torque
becomes negative or even very small thereby reducing the rotor
performance. As a result, the starting torque of a conventional
Savonius rotor would be so low that the rotor cannot start on its
own. Hence, to improve its static torque characteristics, staging of
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Fig. 10 CP versus velocity for various configuration [65]
rotor (Fig. 4(g)) has been done [4,43,57,59,65]. As the staging of
rotor is increased from 1 to 2, the CP becomes higher; but when
the number of staging is increased from 2 to 3, the CP reduces due
to the increased inertia of the rotor. Wind tunnel experiments
demonstrates the optimal number of staging of the rotor to be 2
[65]. The CP for two- and three-stages conventional rotor is found
to be 0.29 and 0.23, respectively [65]. This is accomplished by
setting the phase lift at an angle 90 deg to each other for the two-
stage, and at 120 deg for the three-stage rotor, as shown in Fig. 10.
These arrangements increase the starting capability of the rotor.
Hayashi et al. [4] noticed that a lower peak CP of a three-stage
rotor in comparison to its corresponding single-stage rotor. Stag-
ing results in the reduction of AR of the individual stages of a
three-stage rotor as compared to that of a single-stage design. The
three-stage rotors are better at low wind speeds as they have the
uniform coefficient of static torque. Experimentally, it has been
reported that the multistaging has shown a reduction of power and
dynamic torque for the same rotor. Thus, the multistaging of
rotors seems to provide a better starting ability at low speeds with
some reduction in performance [66].
2.7 Twisted Blades. The twisted bladed rotor (Fig. 4(h)) is
used in order to reduce the negative torque and to improve the
self-starting characteristics of a single-stage Savonius rotor sys-
tem [6,25,60,65–67]. Wind tunnel experiments are carried out for
twisted bladed rotor at a fixed twist angle 10.28 deg and varying
the gap width (i.e., separation gap) from S ¼ 14 to 67 mm [25].
The aerodynamic performance of these blades has been evaluated
MAY 2018, Vol. 140 / 050801-7
 based on starting torque, power output, and the rotational speed at
various twist angles and gap widths. Later experimental investiga-
tion with a twisted-bladed rotor (twist angle is 12.5 deg) shows a
CP of 0.19 as opposed to Cp of 0.18 for the conventional Savonius
rotor [60,65]. Kamoji et al. [66] investigated a twisted-bladed
rotor with a twist angle of 90 deg in a low-speed wind tunnel. The
experiments were conducted by varying d from 0.0 to 0.16 and
the AR from 0.88 to 1.2. The maximum CP of the twisted bladed
rotor (AR ¼ 0.88) was found to be 0.179 at d ¼ 0.0 when the
Reynolds number was 1.5  105. Experimental investigation dem-
onstrated a higher potential of the twisted bladed rotor in terms of
smooth running, higher CP and self-starting capability than that of
the semicircular-bladed rotor (Fig. 11).

2.8 Valves. This new concept (Fig. 4(i)) has been incorpo-
rated in a twisted bladed Savonius rotor and is named as the
valve-aided twisted Savonius (VATS) rotor [60,65]. The rotor
with valves has been tested in a low-speed wind tunnel to calcu-
late its performance. The mechanism is found to be independent
of wind directions, and shows suitable for large machines. When
the blade advances toward the wind, the valve opens automati-
cally due to the wind pressure and hence experiences a lower flow
resistance. The valve gets closed automatically by the centrifugal
force during the power-harnessing part of the cycle. This tech-
nique significantly improves the static torque of the rotor. Keeping
the simplicity of the rotor intact, the VATS rotor can increase the
power coefficient. VATS mechanism also helps to make direction
independence of the rotor. In addition to this, damage to the rotor
at high speed can be reduced. In the mechanism of VATS, a small
deflecting plate is hinged on the concave side of the rotor blade in
front of a hole. When the wind is on the concave side, this deflect-
ing plate is enforced to cover the hole. But when this blade returns
with its convex side to the wind, the hole is uncovered, allowing
more air to flow. As a result, it reduces the drag on the returning
blade and increases the performance without significantly disturb-
ing the simplicity of the rotor. It is found that when the blade is
oriented at a ¼ 0 deg (Fig. 4(i)), the valve is aligned with the wind
and is thus oriented at a ¼ 0 deg in the coordinate system with the
valve surface coinciding with the wind flow direction. Again,
when the rotor is at a ¼ 90 deg, the valve is perpendicular to the
flow giving a maximum drag force. The orientation of a ¼ 180 deg
is similar to the orientation of a ¼ 0 deg. The centrifugal force is
self-regulating orientation, and it is a function of the mass of the
valve, its radius of rotation, and the angular velocity. Properly
aligned valves with minimum frictional losses would improve the
performance of VATS mechanism. Saha et al. [65] also used
valves in twisted as well as in semicircular bladed rotors. The
two-stage three-bladed Savonius rotor with valves has demon-
strated higher CP than the rotor without valves (Fig. 12).
Fig. 12 CP versus velocity for various valve-aided Savonius
rotor [65]
2.9 Guide Box. About a decade ago, Irabu and Roy [68] used
the guide box tunnel augmentation technique to improve the out-
put power and to prevent the rotor from a wind disaster. The guide
box tunnel is a passage in which the test rotor is involved. In order
to adjust the input power, the area ratio between the inlet and out-
let is varied from 0.3 to 0.7 [68]. Various experiments were con-
ducted at Reynolds number of 6.05  104 and 9.08  104 to obtain
the adequate configuration that would provide the maximum CP.
It was found that the maximum CP with guide box of the area ratio
0.43 was increased by 1.5 times in three-bladed system, and 1.23
times in the two-bladed system. Further, with the use of guide box
tunnel there was no negative torque in the complete rotation of the
rotor when the guide box entrance opening angle was in between
60 deg and 90 deg.
2.10 Curtain Plates. Altan and Atilgan [10,69] used a novel
arrangement of curtains at the rotor front with the intention of
improving its performance by preventing the negative torque that
opposes the rotor rotation. Experiments with three different cur-
tains, oriented at varying inclinations (Fig. 4(k)) were carried out
in a low-speed wind tunnel with d ¼ 0.15 and the gap distance of
2.6 cm. The highest rotor power (P) has been found from curtain 1
(a ¼ 45 deg and b ¼ 15 deg) at around 8 W. There was 16%
improvement of performance in case of curtain 1 as compared to
curtainless rotor (Fig. 13).
2.11 Shield. Sometime during 2011, Emmanuel and Jun [37]
used a different type of shield arrangement (Fig. 4(l)) in a six-
bladed Savonius rotors. This arrangement is slightly different
from the types used by Alexander and Holownia [46], Morcos

Fig. 11 Revolution per minute versus velocity for various gap

width of twisted bladed rotor [25] Fig. 13 Power versus RPM for various curtain design [10]

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 Fig. 14 Variation of CP with TSR for various rotor configura-
tions [37]
Fig. 15 Variation of power versus wind speeds for a vented
and capped rotor [11]
et al. [55], and Hue et al. [61]. The goal of the investigators [37]
was to suppress the pressure exerted on the convex part of the
rotor. In this connection, various configurations of the six-bladed
rotor have been examined using two-dimensional (2D) unsteady
simulation with RNG k–e turbulence model. In the study, the six-
bladed rotor without shield is found to have lower efficiency but
still higher than a conventional two-bladed Savonius rotor. The
six-bladed rotor with shields and with stator have indicated maxi-
mum CP of around 0.4 and 0.5, respectively; however, this occurs
at dissimilar TSRs (Fig. 14).
2.12 Venting Slots. Abraham et al. [11] and Plourde et al.
[70] have used venting slots which is found more effective and
Fig. 16 Vents at three different positions on the semicircular-bladed profiles [71]: (a) design-
I, (b) design-II, and (c) design-III
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Fig. 17 Variation of CP with TSR [71]
simpler in design than the valves used by the past investigators
[65,70]. The rotors have been tested without and with venting
slots to minimize the thrust loading on the returning blade. Wind
tunnel experimentations are carried out to determine the power
versus load parameterized with various wind speeds. At each
wind speed, the generator is connected to a resistive load that
could be effortlessly varied. The load resistances have been varied
from 20 X to approximately 1000 X to determine the resulting
power curve (Fig. 15). They have observed a very weak depend-
ence on electrical load for the unvented and uncapped case; how-
ever, the performance is found strongly linked to the electrical
system for the capped and vented case. This suggests that the elec-
trical system should be designed appropriately while linking to
the rotor.
Inspired by the work of Abraham et al. [11] and Plourde et al.
[70], Alom and Saha [71] used the venting slots on a two-bladed
semicircular Savonius rotor. In order to arrive at the optimum
position of the venting slots, three different configurations are
designed and tested numerically (Fig. 16). The 2D unsteady simu-
lation is carried out using shear stress transport (SST) k–x turbu-
lence model at d ¼ 0.20. Among the configurations studied,
design-II at TSR ¼ 0.80 has shown a maximum CP of 0.292
(Fig. 17). There is an improvement of 7.53% with this design over
the semicircular profile. In design-II, the magnitude of velocity on
the concave side of returning bucket is found more in comparison
to the semicircular profile (Fig. 18). Thus, it is clear from this
numerical investigation that the venting slots, as demonstrated in
Fig. 16(b), can be used in an advanced blade profile (such as the
recent elliptical type) to bring more effectiveness into the rotor
design.
2.13 Concentrators. Roy et al. [14] have studied and investi-
gated the performance and starting characteristics of Savonius
MAY 2018, Vol. 140 / 050801-9
 Fig. 18 Velocity contour of the conventional Savonius rotor [71]: (a) design-II with slots and
(b) design without slots
Fig. 19 Orientation of the concentrators [14]
rotor employing concentrators (Fig. 19), a technique similar to
those of nozzle (Fig. 4(f)) and curtain plates (Fig. 4(k)). This aug-
menter is used so that the major portion of the wind is incident on
the concave side of the rotor. The experiments are conducted in
a low speed wind tunnel at the wind velocity of 6.2 m/s, where
loads are applied progressively with respected to the corresponding
Fig. 20 CP versus TSR at various orientations of the concentrators [14]
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rotational speeds. With the augmenters placed a ¼ 40 deg, and
b ¼ 10 deg, the rotor obtains a peak CP of 0.32, a value competitive
to that of a lift-type turbine. This shows an overall performance
improvement of 47.5% as compared to a semicircular-bladed Savo-
nius rotor without concentrators (Fig. 20).
2.14 Guide Vane. The main idea of using guide vane in
Savonius rotor is to improve the wind harvesting capacity of
incoming air at the cost of structural complexity. Three designs,
as illustrated in Fig. 21, have been investigated by El-Askary et al.
[15]. The purpose is to minimize the negative torque and increase
the exerted positive torque by guiding the incoming air effectively
and smoothly. In this context, the design-III is found to give an
adequate developing length and reduced entrance effect. Numeri-
cal analysis using finite volume method (FVM) solver ANSYS
FLUENT with SST k–x turbulence model is carried out for each of
the design. As seen from Fig. 22, the design-III shows a peak CP
of 0.52 at TSR ¼ 2.2. The novel designs needs more special treat-
ments from the point of noise generation as they produced robust
vortex shedding and large eddies behind and around the rotors.
3 Wind Tunnel Tests at a Glance
Wind tunnel experiments of model turbines represent an
inexpensive and effective way for examining the wind turbine
aerodynamics saving expenses, time, and uncertainties related to
full-scale experimentation. As evident from the present review
Transactions of the ASME
 Fig. 21 Different guide vane designs by El-Askary et al. [15]: (a) design-I, (b) design-II, and
(c) design-III

deflector plates, valves either in front of the returning blade or

inbuilt into the rotor blades. The summary of these tests in aug-
mented rotors is shown in Table 3.

4 Numerical Studies at a Glance

Fig. 22 CP versus TSR for various guide vane position [15]
work, wind tunnels (both open and closed-circuit types) have been
used extensively to evaluate the performance characteristics of
augmented Savonius rotors. Tests have been carried out by
employing multistaging, venting slots, oriented jet, wind shields,
The flow field around a Savonius rotor is time dependent in
nature; and flow separation and vortex formation are common
phenomena. Therefore, the complex unsteady flow characteristics
around the rotor is often impossible to explore over the classical
aerodynamic tools such as blade element theory. Several numeri-
cal techniques such as FVM, finite difference method and finite
element method have been used for discretizing the governing
equations around the rotor; however, the FVM is preferred due to
complex numerical geometry. On the other hand, FVM-based
commercial codes (e.g., ANSYS FLUENT, CFX, STAR CCMþ) have
shown an outstanding potential for predicting the flow behavior
and performance of Savonius rotor. In the numerical methods, the
selection of turbulence models (S–A model, realizable k–e, stand-
ard k–e, RNG k–e, k–x transition, k–x SST, v2–f) and the selec-
tion grid size around the rotor are the most important criteria

Table 3 Literature reported experimental work on augmentation techniques

Augmentation Rotor dimensions No. of

technique Researcher(s) (H  D) (m  m) TSR blades Observation

Multistaging Hayashi et al. [4] 0.23  0.33 0.75 2 CT is higher in the single stage rotor than the three-stage rotor
0.074  0.184
Frikha et al. [43] 0.20  0.173 — 2 CP increases with the increase of number of stages.
Menet [59] 0.1025  0.445 — 2, 3 Improved CP in two-stage, two-bladed rotor than the
single stage rotor.
Golecha et al. [62] 0.170  0.245 0.82 2 The single-stage modified Savonius rotor is found
better as compared to two- and three-stage modified
Savonius rotors.
Saha et al. [65] 0.173  0.109 — 2, 3 CPmax ¼ 0.29 for two-stage, two-bladed rotor.
0.122  0.077 CPmax ¼ 0.26 for two-stage, three-bladed rotor.
0.10  0.063 CPmax ¼ 0.23 for three-stage, two-bladed rotor.
CPmax ¼ 0.20 for three-stage, three-bladed rotor.
Kamoji et al. [72] 0.208  0.208 0.83 2 Static CT is lower in three-stage rotor than the one- and
0.226  0.113 two-stages rotor.
0.289  0.096
Venting slot Abraham et al. [11] 1.1  1.32 — 2 Reduces the negative torque
Oriented jet Roy et al. [14] 0.230  0.209 0.70 2 CPmax ¼ 0.23
Wind shields Alexander and Holownia [46] 0.46  0.19 0.72 2 CPmax ¼ 0.234
Deflector plate Shaughnessy and Probert [21] 0.58  0.45 0.44 2 19.7% increase of CP from the conventional rotor.
Ogawa et al. [56] 0.175  0.3 0.86 2 CPmax ¼ 0.212
Huda et al. [57] 0.185  0.32 0.72 2 20% increase of CP from the conventional rotor.
Golecha et al. [62] 0.170  0.245 0.82 2 50% increase of CP from the conventional rotor.
Valve Rajkumar and Saha [60] 0.220  0.250 0.669 3 Reduces negative torque.
Curtain Altan and Atilgan [69] 0.32  0.32 — 2 The optimum curtain angle has been found as
a ¼ 45 deg and b ¼ 15 deg

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 Table 4 Literature reported numerical work on augmentation techniques

Augmentation Computational fluid No. of Observation

techniques Researcher(s) dynamics methodology blades

Obstacle shield Mohamed et al. [9] FVM with 2D realizable k– model 2, 3 CPmax ¼ 0.258
Venting slot Abraham et al. [11] 2D and three-dimensional k–x SST model 2 Reduces the negative torque.
Alom and Saha [71] 2D k–x SST model 2 7.53% increase of CP from conventional rotor
without venting slots
Guide vane El-Askary et al. [15] 2D k–x SST model 2 CPmax ¼ 0.52 for design-III
Conveyor–deflector Tartuferi et al. [30] FLUENT and MATLAB, v2–f, FVM and 2 20% more power than the conventional rotor.
response surface method turbulence flow
Wind shield Enamuel and Jun [37] 2D RNG k–e 2, 6 Six-bladed rotor with shield and stator is found better.
Multistaging Frikha et al. [43] FVM with three-dimensional modified 2 The dynamic CT and the CP enhanced as the number of
k– model stage increased.
Curtain Altan and Atilgan [69] FVM with 2D standard k– model 2 The optimum curtain angle has been found at
a ¼ 45 deg and b ¼ 15 deg

[62–80]. The various numerical methods used in augmented Savo- axis of the rotor blade. The venting slots are easier to be
nius rotors are summarized in Table 4. incorporated in rotor blades.
 Among the blade profiles evolved, the elliptical-bladed Savo-
nius rotor has proved to harness wind energy more effi-
5 Conclusions ciently. The gain in CP for an optimally designed elliptical-
Wind turbine designers are always being challenged to search bladed rotor profile is found 18.18% higher than a
for the resolution to use a smaller wind rotor in harvesting a semicircular-bladed Savonius rotor.
higher power output while maximizing the cost saving and simpli-  The foregoing analysis suggests the use of deflector plate(s),
fying the structural complexity. Lesser self-starting capacity, poor valves, and especially the venting slots in an elliptical-
starting torque, and lesser coefficient of power, are some of the bladed rotor to improve the CP without bringing much com-
main drawbacks of Savonius VAWTs. It is proven that the aug- plexity to the turbine system. The location of augmenters in
mentation techniques increase the self-starting capability and CP the elliptical-bladed rotor blades can be optimized with the
of Savonius rotors. This review paper makes an attempt to analyze help of numerical methods followed by wind tunnel
the four decades of research into the augmented Savonius rotors. experiments.
The key findings along with direction of research are summarized
below:
Nomenclature
 The augmentation techniques (with additional cost and com-
plexity to the rotor system) enhance the self-starting capabil- A¼ swept area (m2)
ity, amplify the wind speed, improve the visual impact, CP ¼ power coefficient
prevent blade cracking, and stop bird assaults. Other advan- CT ¼ dynamic torque coefficient
tages include mounting of additional features to the system CTS ¼ static torque co-efficient
such as rainwater harvester and solar panel. d¼ chord length of the blade (m)
 The augmenters such as V-shaped wedge deflector, curtain, D¼ drag force (N)
obstacle shield, shields reduce the exerted wind pressure on D¼ rotor diameter (m)
the returning blade of rotor and hence raise the net positive DO ¼ end plate diameter of the rotor (m)
torque. With the use of deflector plate at the rotor front, the e¼ overlap distance between rotor blades (m)
CP can be enhanced up to 20–50% than a rotor without the H¼ rotor height (m)
deflector. On the other hand, the use of shield in a six-bladed k¼ turbulence kinetic energy (m2/s2)
Savonius rotor can improve the CP up to 0.50. These aug- L¼ lift force (N)
menters do not offer much structural complexity to the rotor n¼ number of time step
system. N¼ rotor rotational speed (rpm)
 With the employment of guide box tunnel and convergent P¼ rotor power (W)
nozzle, the CP of a semicircular-bladed rotor may increase Pavailable ¼ power available in the wind (W)
up to 1.5 and 3 times. The convergent nozzle cuts down the Pturbine ¼ power produced by the turbine rotor (W)
negative torque and increases the wind harvesting capacity S¼ separation gap/gap width (m)
of the turbine rotor. The guide box increases the rotor system Tavailable ¼ theoretical torque available in the wind (N  m)
complexity resulting in a lesser CP; however, the nozzle TS ¼ static torque (N  m)
makes the rotor lesser complex with a gain in CP. An opti- Tturbine ¼ actual torque produced by the turbine rotor (N  m)
mally designed guide vane can bring a maximum CP of 0.52; u¼ rotor tip speed (m/s)
however, there is a chance of strong vortex shedding, and V¼ wind velocity (m/s)
high wake is generated around and behind the rotor leading
to high noise generation.
 The use of hinged flaps in a Bach type Savonius rotor can Greek Symbols
increase the static torque by 35% relative to the one without a, b ¼ angle of curtain plate (deg)
flaps. However, the hinged flaps increase the structural d ¼ overlap ratio
design complexity of the rotor system. e ¼ energy dissipation rate
 The venting-slots, if properly designed and oriented, can es ¼ gap ratio
raise the CP by 7.5% over the conventional rotor without h ¼ rotor blade angle (deg)
slots. The performance is found to be maximum when the l ¼ dynamic viscosity (N s/m2)
venting slot is oriented at 30 deg above and below the central  ¼ kinematic viscosity (m2/s)

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 q ¼ density of air (kg m3/s)
x ¼ specific dissipation rate
Abbreviations
AR ¼ aspect ratio
FVM ¼ finite volume method
HAWT ¼ horizontal axis wind turbine
RNG ¼ renormalized
RPM ¼ revolution per minute
S–A ¼ Spalart and Allmaras
sc ¼ semicircular
SST ¼ shear stress transport
TSR ¼ tip speed ratio
tw ¼ twisted
VATS ¼ valve-aided twisted savonius
VAWT ¼ vertical axis wind turbine
wv ¼ with valves
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