Energy Reports 7 (2021) 6069–6076

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journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/egyr

Research paper

Performance enhancement of a Savonius turbine under effect of frontal

guiding plates
∗
Mohamed H. Mohamed a,b , , Faris Alqurashi c , Dominique Thévenin d
a
Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering EL-Mattaria, Helwan University, P.O Box:11718, Cairo, Egypt
b
Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering and Islamic Architecture, Umm Al-Qura University, P.O. 5555, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
c
Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, University of Bisha, Bisha, Saudi Arabia
d
Lab. of Fluid Dynamics & Technical Flows, University of Magdeburg ‘‘Otto von Guericke’’, Germany

article info a b s t r a c t

Article history: From some decades, the world has a deep problem which called energy crisis. Therefore, a considerable
Received 6 July 2021 effort has introduced in the field of renewable energy to cove and solve this problem especially
Received in revised form 8 September 2021 wind energy. Some attempts succeeded to improve the wind turbine to convert the wind energy
Accepted 10 September 2021
into mechanical energy. However, rare designs are available to convert the low-speed wind energy.
Available online 23 September 2021
Savonius turbine is one of promising converters for low wind speed energy. In the present work, an
Keywords: important improvement in the power output coefficient has been achieved as well as an interesting
Enhancement increase in the static torque coefficient which shows the self-starting capability. A modification
Turbine has been performed on the conventional design by adding a couple of frontal guiding plated to
Savonius reduce the negative torque increase the positive torque. An optimization technique based on in-house
Wind energy optimization library called OPAL coupled with CFD is utilized in the current work. The main objective
of this optimization study is to maximize the turbine power coefficient. An interesting increase in
the Savonius turbine performance has been gained (typically 39.8% relative increase of the power
coefficient).
© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

1. Introduction
Wind energy is a promising clean source of energy due to its
abundantly availability as well as it is pollution-free. It is clear
that the wind energy can reduce the depending on the fossil fuel.
Several countries nowadays take the wind energy as essential
source of energy. Moreover, developing countries realized in the
last decade the importance of the wind energy. Furthermore,
these developed countries realized that the renewable energy is
an indication to civilization for its effective utilization in power
production with zero emissions.
There are many constraints face the power generation from
wind energy, however, the commercial market of the wind tur-
bines is increased with up to 31% annually. It is estimated that
ten million MW of wind energy on earth are continuously avail-
able (Gupta et al., 2008). By 2020, the wind power has captured
∗ Corresponding author at: Mechanical Engineering Department, College of
Engineering and Islamic Architecture, Umm Al-Qura University, P.O. 5555,
Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
E-mail address: mhmohamed@uqu.edu.sa (M.H. Mohamed).
URL:
http://www.uni-magdeburg.de/isut/LSS/Mitarbeiter/Thevenin/Thevenin.htm
(D. Thévenin).
around 5% of the world electricity market. The wind power gen-
eration still has essential problems such as storage and distribu-
tion during the electricity generated quantity did not match the
demands due to the varying of the wind continuously.
In the remote and urban areas, the electricity generated from
wind energy would be a good solution for the energy problem. A
drag turbine which called Savonius rotor appears basically to be
particularly promising for such low wind speeds and it has simple
and compact design.
In the second decade of the 20th Century, S.J. Savonius in-
vented the vertical axis Savonius turbine. Savonius turbine con-
sists of two semi cylinders. As in Fig. 1 the two semi cylinders
shifted partially to generate a concave and convex shapes accord-
ing the flow direction as in Fig. 2. With respect the wind flow
direction, the concave semi-cylinder is called advancing blade,
however, the convex semi-cylinder is called returning blade. A
positive torque is generated on the advancing blade (concave
blade) and instantaneously, a negative torque is affected on the
returning blade (convex blade) as shown Fig. 2. The generated
torque on the turbine shaft is the difference between the positive
and the negative torques on the rotor blades.
As in Fig. 1, Savonius turbine is a vertical axis wind turbine
based mainly on drag forces which generated on the turbine
blades. Therefore, it is compatible with low speed wind up to 5

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2021.09.021
2352-4847/© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
M.H. Mohamed, F. Alqurashi and D. Thévenin Energy Reports 7 (2021) 6069–6076

Nomenclature
Cm Torque coefficient [–]
Cms Static torque coefficient [–]
Cp Output power coefficient [–]
D Turbine diameter [m]
e Blade overlap distance [m]
H Blade height [m]
M Turbine torque [N m]
P Turbine power output [N m/s]
R Turbine radius [m]
U Wind speed [m/s]
β Obstacle angle [◦ ]
γ Deflector angle [◦ ]
λ Speed ratio [–]
θ Turbine rotation angle [◦ ]
ρ Air density [kg/m3 ]
ω Turbine angular velocity [1/s]

Fig. 2. Flow characteristics around Savonius turbine.

In the next parts, a Savonius turbine is called a conventional

Fig. 1. Conventional Savonius rotor.
m/s. This type of wind turbine suffers from low efficiency, it is less
than 18% for the conventional design. Savonius turbine has some
features over several types of wind turbines such as low cost due
to simple design and it has a good self-starting capability. Sequen-
tially, Savonius turbine will be a very interesting complementary
source of mechanical energy from wind energy especially in the
remote areas, if a higher performance would be obtained.
(standard) Savonius turbine if the internal spaces factors a and
e are equal to 0 and D/ 6, respectively. These reference design
parameters of the turbine has been extensively investigated (see
citations in Menet and Nachida, 2004; Menet et al., 2001).
The power coefficient and torque coefficient are related math-
ematically with all the parameters affecting the Savonius turbine
performance. Therefore, the coefficients of Cp and Cm have been
calculated as a function of the speed ratio λ for the conventional
Savonius turbine, allowing by comparison a validation of the
numerical procedure developed during the current work.
3. Innovation of the current work

2. Performance of a Savonius turbine A deep literature review is the first step to compare between
the different ideas which considering the improvement of the
Several parameters affect the performances of Savonius tur- Savonius turbine efficiency as main objective. The main drawback
bine as in Fig. 2, the speed ratio is defined as: of Savonius turbine is the low efficiency as published in a lot of
ωR publications, e.g., Menet and Nachida (2004), Menet et al. (2001),
λ= (1) Menet (2004) and Kamoji et al. (2009). So, several modifica-
U
tions and developments have been introduced in the literature
Savonius rotor with a height H, and under the effect of a wind
to improve the performance of this type of wind turbine (see
velocity (U), the output power P and the generated torque M on
e.g. Mohamed et al., 2008a; Kamoji et al., 2009; Huda et al.,
the shaft of the Savonius rotor will be calculated, then these toque
1992; Saha and Rajkumar, 2006; Irabu and Roy, 2007; Menet,
and power can used to define the non-dimensional coefficients
2007; Hayashi et al., 2005). Table 1 summarized some important
which called generated torque coefficient (Cm ) and output power
modification proposals to improve the turbine performance. Due
coefficient (Cp ), respectively shown as follow:
to the highest interest of the Savonius rotor, it is important that
P the developments and modifications should not involve an ex-
CP = (2)
1
2
ρ DHU 3 ceedingly complex or expensive design to keep the main feature
of the turbine which is simplicity of the design. In this work, a
and modified configuration of the Savonius rotor is utilized, involving
M simultaneously an obstacle plate and a flow deflector. Obstacle
Cm = (3)
1
4
ρ D2 HU 2 and deflector are guiding plates used as simple idea to increase
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M.H. Mohamed, F. Alqurashi and D. Thévenin Energy Reports 7 (2021) 6069–6076

Table 1
Improving the performance of a conventional Savonius turbine.
Design
Helical designs (Kamoji et al., 2009)
Deflector plate (Huda et al., 1992)
Twisted-blades (Saha and Rajkumar,
2006)
Guide-Box design (Irabu and Roy, 2007)
Modified Savonius (Menet, 2007)
Guide Vanes (Hayashi et al., 2005)
Obstacle plate (Mohamed et al., 2008a)
Shield plate (Iio et al., 2011)
Ducted nozzle (Elbatran et al., 2017)
Frontal baffle (Kailash et al., 2012)
Thick blade (Kerikous and Thévenin,
2019)
Conveyor–deflector curtain
system (Tartuferi et al., 2015)
Combined blade (Sanusi et al., 2016)
Dual splitters (Patel and Patel, 2021)
S-shape Savonius turbine with two
deflectors (Ramadan et al., 2021)
Frontal plates with three-blade Savonius
turbine (Salleh et al., 2021)
Only Obstacle plate (Mohamed et al.,
2010)
Array of Savonius rotors (Belkacem and
Paraschivoiu, 2016)
Savonius turbine for roof mounted
integration (Larin et al., 2016)
Set of deflector plates (Storti et al.,
2019)
Sizing the rotor guide plates
configuration (Antar and Elkhoury, 2019)
Bach-type Savonius turbine (Haddad
et al., 2021)
Gain Description and comments
Enhance the self-starting Deeply complexity, higher cost
20% Not clear design
About 27% relative to standard Deeply complexity, higher cost
50% (three blades rotor) Deeply complexity, higher cost
60% in the self-starting Expected vibration problem
Depends on tip speed ratio value Not so good for large tip speed ratio
15% increase in the power coefficient Only narrow parameter space considered
80% increase in the power coefficient Using a flat shield plate when the clearance ratio is 0.73
An increase of 78% in power coefficient (maximum Cp = 0.25) has been recorded for the ducted
nozzle turbine at TSR = 0.73
Maximum C p = 0.35 Savonius water turbine with two upstream deflector
plates
12% relative increase in output power A thick-bladed hydraulic Savonius turbine at TSR = 1.1
coefficient
A relative increase in Cp of 20% Rotor with conveyor–deflector curtain system
An increase up to 11% An increase in output power coefficient can be achieved
through the application of combined blades
An enhancement around 7.3% with comparison The study is limited to the Savonius hydrokinetic rotor
to standard Savonius
84% percent increase of power coefficient The performance is improved for the rotor with two
guiding deflectors to be 0.24 at a tip speed ratio at 0.7
Increasing the static torque The deflectors improved the self-starting ability and
increased the power coefficient of the turbine under
different conditions.
27.3% relative increase in the efficiency of the Two and three blades Savonius turbines have been
two blades rotor studied under the effect of the shielding obstacle plate.
Two times the conventional Savonius wind In this work of an array of 11 turbines with a distance
turbine of 1.4R in between them are used in the simulations.
An improvement in the power coefficient from A horizontal configuration of a Savonius wind turbine is
0.043 to 0.24 proposed to be mounted on the upstream edge of a
building.
30% increase in efficiency using a genetic algorithm combined with an artificial
neural network
Turbine was casing better than the caseless Optimized casing dimensions
one
Performance of the turbine with additional Concentric blade (additional inner blades) inside the
inner blades is increased by 22.39% at TSR original rotor blade
equals 0.75

the performance of Savonius turbine but mainly rise of cost and

design complexity. Therefore, in the current paper, a numerical
optimization of a combined configuration between the obstacle
and the deflector is performed. Sequentially, the deflector will
improve the flow characteristics on the advancing blade and
increases the positive torque while the obstacle deflects the flow
away from the returning blade to reduce the negative torque
(Fig. 3).
The deflector plate redirects the flow toward the advancing
blade to increase the positive torque, while the obstacle plate
redirects the wind flow away to do not attach the returning blade
and this will reduce the reverse torque. Consequently, the net
torque of the turbine (torque difference between the positive
torque on advancing and the negative torque on returning blade)
will be increased. The optimal position of the shielding obstacle
has been considered extensively in a previous publication (Mo- Fig. 3. Geometry and free optimization parameters Xd1 , Yd1 and Xd2 using a fixed
hamed et al., 2008a, 2010). The optimal position results found in position of the shielding obstacle.
Mohamed et al. (2008a) will be kept fixed in the present work,
so that X1 /R = −1.29265, Y1 /R = −0.4412, X2 /R = −1.58823 and
Y2 /R = −1.176, which leads to an angle β = 68.1◦ . Now, the and the obstacle plates are illustrated in Fig. 3. After checking
position and the resulting angle γ of the deflector plate, leading the impact of the design modification, a small study on the static
to the best possible flow conditions for the advancing blade, will torque of the optimum angle and position of this deflector will
be optimized. All parameters describing the position of deflector performed.
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M.H. Mohamed, F. Alqurashi and D. Thévenin
4. Optimization technique
The optimization techniques are still new field especially in
turbomachinery (for a recent overview, see Van den Braembuss-
che, 2008). The mathematical optimization is used in this work to
get the optimal position and angle of the deflector plate under the
effect of the obstacle plate to maximize the power output coef-
ficient of the modified Savonius rotor. The main objective in the
improving Savonius turbine is the maximization of the turbine
efficiency and by sequence high power output. However, the off-
design performance should be studied since turbomachines often
operate outside the nominal (or design) conditions.
Therefore, after the optimization the new design for the peak
power output coefficient, it is known to obtain at a tip speed ratio
λ = 0.7, the off-design range of effective tip speed ratios can be
taken in consideration.
Optimization methodology attempts to determine the n design
variables Xi (i = 1, . . . , n) which maximize a target objective
function. This function is denoted OF (V (Xi );X i ), however V (Xi ) is
the output calculated solution of the flow field equations which
got by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) (Mohamed et al.,
2008a). Therefore, in the current work, the free design parameters
taking in the consideration for the optimization can illustrate the
deflector position. So, to achieve this target, three variables are
taken in the consideration (Xd1 , Yd1 and Xd2 ), and keeping a con-
stant value for Yd2 are appropriate to obtain a clear geometry for
the obstacle plate (see Fig. 3). Furthermore, the target objective
function takes in the consideration just one aim of the simulations
that must maximize as high as possible which is the output power
coefficient.
5. Optimization methodology
Until recently, the trial-and-error is used in the literature to
denominate ‘‘optimization’’ with manual method at the variation
of a real, mathematical optimization. Thus, this is now exchanging
rapidly and several of automatic optimization is used. Therefore,
In the current work, the optimum position and angle of the
deflector will be the target under the mathematical optimization
automatically, as a new step in the direction of a deep and full
optimization of all parameters influencing the performance of the
Savonius turbine.
To get the optimum configuration, a suitable algorithm must
be chosen. Furthermore, a appreciable experience is available
in our group concerning the mathematical optimization based
on CFD evaluations (Thévenin and Janiga, 2008). Thus, it is em-
ployed our own optimization library, OPAL (for OPtimization
ALgorithms), consisting several optimization methods. OPAL has
already been coupled with several CFD solvers (Fluent, CFX, and
several CFD solvers) and was utilized successfully to enhance
a lot of engineering designs, such as heat exchangers (Hilbert
et al., 2006), turbomachinery (Mohamed et al., 2008a,b) or burn-
ers (Thévenin et al., 2005; Janiga and Thévenin, 2007). For the
current design, Evolutionary Algorithms are employed, and all
the used parameters are listed as follow: in this work the opti-
mization methodology used twenty population size of first gen-
eration and twenty generations. Evolutionary Algorithm utilized
survival probability equals 50%, Average probability is around
33.3%, crossover probability is 16.7% and mutation probability
equals 100% as well as mutation magnitude is 30% (i.e., ±15%),
however, this value will reduce in every generation by factor 0.8.
A fully automatic optimization finally takes place, using OPAL
(decision-maker for the configurations to investigate), the com-
mercial tool Gambit for geometry and grid generation (including
quality check) and the industrial CFD code ANSYS-Fluent to com-
pute the flow field around the turbines. As a result of the CFD
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Energy Reports 7 (2021) 6069–6076
computation the objective function(s) is determined, and stored
in a result file. The procedure is automated using journal scripts
(to restart Gambit, Fluent) and a master program written in C
(Algorithm, calling all codes in the right sequence. By checking
the values stored in the result file, OPAL is able to decide how to
modify the input parameters before starting a new iteration. The
fully coupled optimization procedure is a complex task, which
has been described in detail in previous publications of the au-
thors (Thévenin and Janiga, 2008; Hilbert et al., 2006; Thévenin
et al., 2005; Janiga and Thévenin, 2007).
OPAL is the optimizer or in the other words the decision-
maker is used to introduce a fully automatic optimization. It is
linked with a commercial tool mesh generator call Gambit for
geometries and mesh generation (includes quality checker) and
the CFD solver ANSYS-Fluent to calculate the flow field char-
acteristics inside the Savonius rotor. The optimization objective
(power output coefficient) is calculated and by sequence stored
in a result file for every configuration. For automation of this
procedure, scripts for the preprocess and solver should be written
as text interface and a C programing language is used to write
the main program which calls all codes in the right sequence.
Consequently, after the check the values stored results in the
result file, OPAL has the ability to take the decision how to
generate and modify the new input parameters, before the start
of the new generation. It should be clear that the fully coupled
optimization methodology is a difficult manner, which were illus-
trated in detail in previous papers., So, it easy to check and refer
the interested reader to Thévenin and Janiga (2008), Hilbert et al.
(2006), Thévenin et al. (2005) and Janiga and Thévenin (2007) to
get a complete illustration of the procedure.
6. CFD methodology
The CFD leads indeed to precise and accurate flow charac-
teristics around and inside the turbine. In sequence, optimiza-
tion methodology will obtain the right solution depending the
accurate results of the Computational Fluid Dynamics.
The flow simulation around the Savonius rotor is very difficult
and challenged task due to high time dependent conditions, in ad-
dition, the flow separation plays a considerable role for the power
coefficient of the rotor. Thus, accurate numerical procedure is
needed and deep check of the model and the full numerical
procedure by validation is the first step to trust the results. All
the simulation in this work has been taken place by ANSYS-Fluent
software. Due to the unsteadiness of the flow characteristics
around the Savonius turbine, the unsteady Reynolds-Averaged
Navier–Stokes equations are calculated utilizing the SIMPLE al-
gorithm for pressure–velocity coupling. Furthermore, a second-
order upwind scheme is used to solve the different variables and
turbulent values are discretized in a Finite-Volume formulation.
To model turbulence parameters, the realizable k-ε model is
used, where this model is normally recommended for rotating
zones. In the present work, 2D calculations are suitable (as 3D
Savonius turbine with end plate), so that very accurate mesh
can be used. Sliding Mesh Model (SMM) is used in this work to
solve the unsteady flow characteristic. By using a constant time-
step, four complete revolutions are always computed. The effect
of the time step on the CFD simulation should be studied. For
this purpose, four different values of time steps equivalent to
azimuthal angular steps of 0.25◦ , 0.5◦ , 1◦ , and 3◦ are included
in this investigation. The difference in Cp is less than 1.2% for
0.5◦ , and 1◦ azimuthal angular steps, while it exceeds double
this ratio for 3◦ azimuthal angular step. Therefore, an azimuthal
angular step of 1◦ has been systematically retained for the rest
of the CFD simulations in this work. The first revolution is uti-
lized to initiation the perfect flow field solutions; however, the
M.H. Mohamed, F. Alqurashi and D. Thévenin
Fig. 4. Mesh-independency evaluation for the torque coefficient.
turbine performance (power coefficient and torque coefficient) is
calculated by averaging the rest three revaluations. In addition, it
has been checked that the results approximately constant after
4 revolutions (one revolution for initializing the flow field +3
revolutions to calculate the objective function)
On a regular PC, 1 assessment (i.e., four complete revolutions
for one specific shape) will be computed in about 360 min of
calculation time. In the CFD work, the first step in the deep and
accurate simulation is the grid-independency study which has
been carried out and the results is presented in Fig. 4. Several
2D grids of increasing density and quality, within range of 5500
up to 121,000 nodes, were examined for the Savonius rotor with
a prescribed deflecting plate position (choosing Xd1 /R = −0.596,
Yd1 /R = 1.191 and Xd2 /R= −0.516 at λ = 1.0). in addition, it
is clear to note that from Fig. 4, a large deviations of torque
coefficient is appeared for the six coarsest grids. However, all
rest tested grids using more than 81,000 nodes which lead to a
variance of the torque coefficient less than 1.33%. The acceptable
mesh range between 86,000 and 95,000 nodes was retained in
this work due to computation time of the simulation which
obviously will increase speedily with the increasing of number
of grid cells. The domain which has 27 times the rotor radius has
been retained for all further Savonius computations in this work,
therefore, the blockage ratio equals 3.7%.
7. Results and discussions
7.1. Validation
As mentioned before, the first step in the numerical work is
the validation of the different models working in the optimization
loop, in particular the turbulence model with published experi-
mental results (Hayashi et al., 2005) of a standard Savonius rotor
(Fig. 5). So, the results revealed that a considerable agreement
between the CFD and experimental works for this conventional
design, especially for λ > 0.4. In addition, it is clear in Fig. 5
that the torque coefficient as well as the power coefficient are
extremely close to the experimental work. Consequently, the
developed CFD model would now be utilized as an authoritative
assessment step for the optimization procedure.
7.2. Self-starting capability
An essential feature in the wind turbine that it should has
self-starting capability, since this leads to low-cost operation.
Therefore, in this section, the static torque is investigated to check
the self-stating capability of the turbine under the effect of the
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Energy Reports 7 (2021) 6069–6076
guiding plates. To study this manner, the static torque employed
on a Savonius rotor at a constant angle was calculated by compu-
tational fluid dynamics as a function of different azimuth angles
(θ ).
In Fig. 6, three different positions of the deflector plate have
been studied and compared with a Savonius turbine without
guiding plates, in addition, an experimental measurement of
Hayashi et al. (2005) for the conventional Savonius turbine was
taken in the consideration. Due to periodicity, the results have
been only plotted for azimuth angle θ between 0 and 180◦ . The
results indicated that the guiding plates is improved the static
torque and a considerable and positive effect is appeared as
shown in Fig. 6.
It is noted in Fig. 6 that the conventional turbine gives a
negative values around azimuth angle θ = 150 to 170◦ (no
self-starting), while for all studied positions involving a frontal
guiding plate, the negative torque zone completely vanish, with
a lower value of Cms systematically higher than 0.17. Furthermore,
the gain in the static torque as a function of azimuth angle θ
is similarly that of the standard Savonius rotor. Therefore, in
general, utilizing deflector and obstacle plates enhance noticeably
the self-starting properties of the Savonius turbine, leading to
self-starting ability (Cms > 0) at all azimuth angles, which is a
major advantage.
7.3. Optimization of deflecting plate position
At the end step in this work, the mathematical optimization
process mentioned previously (Evolutionary Algorithms relying
on automated evaluations through CFD) is used to obtain the
optimum position of the deflector plate. The work is performed
for a speed ratio λ = 0.7, taking in the consideration a constant
incident wind velocity U = 10 m/s.
The speed ratio λ = 0.7 is retained in this optimization work
because it is known in the previous publications corresponds to
the maximum power coefficient of the standard Savonius rotor.
The optimizer (OPAL) takes in the consideration three free
parameters (three degrees of freedom): Xd1 and Yd1 to define the
lower tip deflecting plate as well as Xd2 is suitable to get the
position of the upper tip since Yd2 is taken constant, with Yd2 /R =
2.235 (see Fig. 3). By these free three parameters, it is perfectly
determined the deflector plate angle γ and obtain the accurate
position of this deflector. After some preliminary computations,
the parameters space considered in the optimization is taken as
(−1.176:0.0) for (Xd1 /R), (1.018:2.12) for (Yd1 /R) and (−1.88:0.0)
for (Xd2 /R). With these parameters, there is no possibility that the
plate touches the turbine (|| Yd1 || > R). Finally, the optimization
procedure thus includes jointly three free factors (three degree
of freedoms): Xd1 , Yd1 and Xd2 . For all geometrical configurations,
only a single objective (power coefficient) is calculated by CFD
simulations, and must be maximized by the optimization cycle. In
addition, in Fig. 7, the results indicated that the three parameters
(Xd1 , Yd1 and Xd2 ) has a deep effect on the considered objective
(power coefficient). As a whole, 210 various tested configurations
were investigated by CFD, needing 41 days of total computing
time on a normal PC. It should taken in the consideration that
the user-waiting time could be nevertheless much shorter, if the
CFD evaluations are carried out in parallel, as demonstrated in
Thévenin and Janiga (2008).
Normally, the highest point in the right column in Fig. 7
shown with symbols is selected as optimal configuration under
the condition of tip speed ratio λ = 0.7. This optimum config-
uration corresponds to the deflector position Xd1 /R = −0.9332,
Yd1 /R = 1.543 and Xd2 /R = −0.7405, which leads to an angle
γ = 105.6◦ and the corresponding optimum power coefficient
of this optimum configuration equals Cp = 0.2821 with a torque
M.H. Mohamed, F. Alqurashi and D. Thévenin
Fig. 5. Model Validation of present work, (a) torque coefficient of the Savo-
nius rotor, (b) power output coefficient, with comparison to experimental
results (Hayashi et al., 2005).
Fig. 6. Static torque coefficient with the variation of the azimuth angle θ using
three various values of Xd2 chosen as Xd1 /R = −0.956 and Yd1 /R = 1.19.
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Energy Reports 7 (2021) 6069–6076
Fig. 7. By using parallel coordinates, three input parameters of the optimization
and the power coefficient. The optimal configuration are connected with a thick
red line. The power output coefficient of the standard Savonius is represented
with a red circle.
coefficient Cm = 0.403. With a deep comparison with the con-
ventional Savonius turbine, the optimum configuration has been
obtained by the optimization process corresponds simultaneously
to increasing of the power output coefficient with 0.1 and of the
torque coefficient by 0.143 at λ = 0.7. Additionally, the relative
increase of the power coefficient is estimated as 35.5% compared
to the conventional Savonius turbine.
Note that the authors have been at first surprised to obtain
an optimal geometry leading to γ >90◦ . However, after a deep
flow field analysis, as presented in Fig. 8, it is clear to note
that the new deflector position indeed leads to an optimum air
direction toward the advancing blade pointing straight onto it,
and therefore to a maximum torque and maximum power output.
Finally, the off-design study should introduce to see the en-
hancement across the operating range as a function of λ (several
tip speed ratio). The performance (power and torque coefficients)
of this optimum configuration was calculated for the full operat-
ing range of suitable speed ratios λ, as presented in Fig. 9. The
results reveal that the enhancement of power output coefficient
is noted throughout for all values of speed ratios λ. Furthermore,
a wider operating range compared to the conventional Savonius
turbine is gained with using the optimum guiding plates. In
addition, the absolute gain for power coefficient increases slightly
with λ, however, the relative increase raised rapidly at the large
values of λ.
8. Conclusions
In present work, precise CFD calculations of the transient
behavior of a standard Savonius rotor were carried out, after
validation of the numerical methodology against published ex-
perimental data. A CFD-tool (ANSYS-Fluent) working based on
the realizable k-ε turbulence model can be used for qualitative
and quantitative analyzes of the power and torque coefficients,
provided a sufficiently fine grid is utilized.
The Savonius rotor is a promising drag converter for low
speed wind energy but suffers from a low power output and
efficiency. Therefore, one of the essential objectives of the current
evaluation is to distinguish an enhanced design, which leads to
higher values of the power coefficient and of the static torque of
the Savonius rotor, thus obtaining a higher power coefficient and
better self-starting ability. For this purpose, two guiding plates
M.H. Mohamed, F. Alqurashi and D. Thévenin Energy Reports 7 (2021) 6069–6076

Fig. 8. Comparison of the incident flow direction with (top row) and without deflector (bottom row) at different times for λ = 0.7, Zoom on the vicinity of the
turbine (CFD domain is larger).

have been introduced. These guiding plates consist of an obstacle

that shields the returning blade and of a deflector that leads to
the best possible inflow conditions for the advancing blade.
The installation of the frontal guiding plates enhances the self-
starting ability for all shapes. However, the standard Savonius
rotor introduces negative values for the static torque in a range of
azimuth angles, the guiding plates lead to a positive static torque
at all positions.
Finally, the optimum position of the deflecting plate is ob-
tained by a fully automatic optimization technique (The optimiza-
tion relies on Evolutionary Algorithms) taking in the consider-
ation the maximization of the power coefficient. Therefore, we
emphasis that all the designs have been studied in an automatic
issue by CFD. The used optimization methodology can distinguish
an extremely better configurations than the conventional Savo-
nius rotor. The optimum configuration of the modified Savonius
rotor has a relative increase of efficiency by 35.5% at λ = 0.7.
In consequence manner, the same gain has been obtained in the
torque coefficient and is even higher for larger values of the tip
speed ratio. Furthermore, the optimum design which obtained in
this study has a maximum power coefficient of 0.311 at λ = 0.9,
and wider operating range than the conventional rotor, therefore,
it seems promising for wind energy generation in urban areas.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Mohamed H. Mohamed: Methodology, Validation, Software,

Writing – original draft. Faris Alqurashi: Conceptualization,
Methodology, Writing – original draft. Dominique Thévenin:
Supervision, Conceptualization, Software, Data curation, Writing
– review & editing.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing

Fig. 9. Off design performance of the optimal configuration with comparison to
the standard Savonius rotor, (a) torque coefficient (top) and (b) power coefficient
(bottom).
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments

The project is supported financially by a bursary of the Uni-

versity of Bisha, Saudi Arabia.
6075
M.H. Mohamed, F. Alqurashi and D. Thévenin
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