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Energy
EnergyProcedia
Procedia141 (2017) 000–000
00 (2017) 383–388
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4th International Conference on Power and Energy Systems Engineering, CPESE 2017, 25-29
4th International Conference September 2017,
on Power and Berlin,
Energy Germany
Systems Engineering, CPESE 2017, 25-29
September 2017, Berlin, Germany
Review Theof15th savonius
International wind turbine
Symposium designHeating
on District and performance
and Cooling
Review of savonius wind turbine design and performance
M.ZEMAMOU *, M.AGGOUR , A.TOUMIb
a, a

Assessing M.ZEMAMOU the feasibility a,

*,of using thea, heat
M.AGGOUR A.TOUMI demand-outdoor
LR2E,University Ibn Tofail, Avenue de L'Université, Kénitra, Morocco
a
b

temperature b
function
laboratory of international forofIbnrabat,Technopolis
university
LR2E,University
a
aTofail,
long-term
Avenue deShore district
Rocade
L'Université, 11100 heat
Sala
Kénitra, demand
Al Jadida,
Morocco forecast
Rabat, Morocco
b
laboratory of international university of rabat,Technopolis Shore Rocade 11100 Sala Al Jadida, Rabat, Morocco

I. Andrića,b,c*, A. Pinaa, P. Ferrãoa, J. Fournierb., B. Lacarrièrec, O. Le Correc

Abstract
a
IN+ Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research - Instituto Superior Técnico, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Abstract b
The world adopts
c
a policy Veolia Recherche
of energy & Innovation,
transition, which 291 Avenue
refers toDreyfous Daniel, 78520
the substitution of Limay,
fossil France
fuels by renewable energies
to reduce Département Systèmes Énergétiques et Environnement - IMT Atlantique, 4 rue Alfred Kastler, a44300 Nantes, France
The worldCO 2 emission,
adopts a policyhowever the transition,
of energy major issuewhich
is to develop
refers toathe
wind turbine which
substitution has fuels
of fossil simple design,
by renewable a relatively
energies
lowreduce
to operating
CO2 speed and however
emission, independent wind directions,
the major issue is to the savonius
develop a windrotor appears
turbine to behas
which promising
a simplefor such aconditions,
design, relatively
but suffers
low from
operating major
speed anddrawbacks:
independent low efficiency
wind and the
directions, high negativerotor
savonius torque.so
appearsfartoseveral scientific
be promising for researchers aims
such conditions,
toAbstract
butimprove the performances
suffers from major drawbacks:of savonius turbine, by
low efficiency andoptimizing the effects
high negative of different
torque.so geometric
far several scientificparameters
researchers and by
aims
developing
to improve thenewperformances
design. The range of the power
of savonius coefficient
turbine, valuesthe
by optimizing foreffects
the conventional
of differentSavonius
geometric rotors is between
parameters and0.1
by
and 0.25 .The
developing new
District heating
installation
design.
networksThe
of several
arerange of extra
commonly
set leads
theaddressed
power to new values
coefficient designs
in the literature
which
asforone
achieve
theofconventionalan improvement
Savonius
the most effective
infor
rotors
solutions
the coefficientthe
is between
decreasing0.1
of
andperformance
0.25 .The of 27.3%
installation compared
of several to the
extra conventional
set leads to rotor.
new designs which achieve an improvement in
greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector. These systems require high investments which are returned through the heat the coefficient
©
of 2017 The Authors.
performance Published
of 27.3% by Elsevier
compared Ltd.
to the conventional rotor.
©sales. DueAuthors.
2017 The
Peer-review
to the changed
Publishedclimate conditions
by Elsevier Ltd. and building renovation policies, heat demand in the future could decrease,
© 2017 The under
prolonging
Peer-review
responsibility
Authors. Published
the investment
under
of Elsevier
by
return
responsibility
the organizing
ofperiod.
committee of CPESE 2017.
Ltd. committee
the scientific of the 4th International Conference on Power and Energy
Peer-review
Systems
The main under responsibility
Engineering. of the organizing committee
scope of this paper is to assess the feasibility of CPESE
of using the heat2017.
demand – outdoor temperature function for heat demand
Keywords:Power coefficient; Savonius rotor; torque coefficient;Wind turbine.
forecast. The district of Alvalade, located in Lisbon (Portugal), was used as a case study. The district is consisted of 665
Keywords:Power
buildings that coefficient;
vary in bothSavonius rotor; torque
construction coefficient;Wind
period and typology.turbine.
Three weather scenarios (low, medium, high) and three district
1.renovation scenarios were developed (shallow, intermediate, deep). To estimate the error, obtained heat demand values were
Introduction
compared with results from a dynamic heat demand model, previously developed and validated by the authors.
1.The
Introduction
results showed that when only weather change is considered, the margin of error could be acceptable for some applications
Wind turbines fall into two main categories: HAWT horizontal axis wind turbines and VAWT vertical axis wind
(the error in annual demand was lower than 20% for all weather scenarios considered). However, after introducing renovation
turbines. HAWT
Wind turbines
scenarios, the errorare
fallthe
intomost
value twowidespread
main
increased they(depending
upcategories:
to 59.5% are generally
HAWT more
horizontal
on the efficient
axis and
weather windthan VAWT
turbines
renovation andat VAWT
leastcombination
scenarios forvertical
laminarconsidered).
winds
axis wind of
high speeds.
turbines. HAWT However,
are thethey operate
most poorly
widespread in
theyunstable
are winds
generally or uncertain
more directions.
efficient than VAWTOn the
at other
least hand
for
The value of slope coefficient increased on average within the range of 3.8% up to 8% per decade, that corresponds to the Savonius
laminar windswindof
turbine
high which
speeds.
decrease is number
in the classified
However, they among
operate
of heating thepoorly
hours VAWT have during
a simple
in unstable
of 22-139h theconstruction
winds or uncertain
heating seasonoperate independently
directions.
(depending Ononthe
theother ofhand
the direction
combination Savonius of the
wind
of weather and
wind
turbineand
renovationstarts
which isatclassified
lowconsidered).
scenarios windamong
speedOn
itthe
was developed
VAWT
the other have and
hand, patented
afunction
simple by S.J.
construction
intercept Savonius
operate
increased in the 1920s
independently
for 7.8-12.7% according to savonius
of the (depending
per decade direction ofonthe
the
the
wind best
andofscenarios).
coupled his rotors
starts at low had
Thewinda maximum
values suggested
speed it wasefficiency
could beofused
developed 31%
and to while theby
modify
patented maximum
the function
S.J. efficiency
in theof
parameters
Savonius the
theprototype
for1920s scenarios
accordingwas
to 37%
considered, [1].
savonius and
improve
the best ofthe
hisaccuracy of heat
rotors had demand estimations.
a maximum efficiency of 31% while the maximum efficiency of the prototype was 37% [1].
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +6-064-477-23.
Cooling.
E-mail address:author.
* Corresponding zemamou.mounia@gmail.com
Tel.: +6-064-477-23.
E-mail address: zemamou.mounia@gmail.com
Keywords: Heat demand; Forecast; Climate change
1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review
1876-6102 ©under
2017responsibility
The Authors. of the organizing
Published committee
by Elsevier Ltd. of CPESE 2017.
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of CPESE 2017.

1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and Cooling.
1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 4th International Conference on Power and Energy
Systems Engineering.
10.1016/j.egypro.2017.11.047
384 M. Zemamou et al. / Energy Procedia 141 (2017) 383–388
M.ZEMAMOU et al. / Energy Procedia00 (2017) 000–000

Despite its various qualities savonius turbine suffer from a major drawback of low efficiency, over the years, extensive
studies experimental, theoretical or numerical have been reported to identify a new design and they have proved a
deep improvement at the level of power coefficient compared to conventional Savonius rotors [2],which have range
values of power coefficient between 0.1 and 0.25[3].

Nomenclature

ρ density of air ( = 1.225 kg/m3) T actual torque develop by the rotor (N.m)
Tw theoretical torque available in the wind (N.m)
S swept area of blades (m²)
H rotor height (m)
V wind speed (m/s) .
AR aspect ratio H/D
PT maximum power obtained from the wind (watt)
Cm torque coefficient
PA total power available from the wind (watt) R radius of rotor (m)
Cp coefficient of power λ tip speed ratio
ω angular velocity of rotor (1/s) D rotor diameter (m)
E overlap ratio e/D θ rotor blade angle(degree)

2. Working principle:
The Savonius wind turbine is a simple vertical axis device having a shape of half-cylindrical parts attached to the
opposite sides of a vertical shaft (for two-bladed arrangement) and operate on the drag force, so it can’t rotate faster
than the wind speed. This means that the tip speed ratio is equal to 1 or smaller [4].As the wind blows into the
structure and comes into contact with the opposite faced surfaces (one convex and other concave), two different forces
(drag and lift) are exerted on those two surfaces. The basic principle is based on the difference of the drag force
between the convex and the concave parts of the rotor blades when they rotate around a vertical shaft. Thus, drag force
is the main driving force of the savonius rotor [5]. Fig.1.(a) shows characteristic parameters of a savonius wind
turbine with two semi circular profile blades.
(a) (b)

Figure.1. (a) two-bladed Savonius rotor, (b) Conventional Savonius rotor performance [6]
Butaud and Besnard have highlighted the concept of drag wind turbine for Savonius turbine. The dynamic analysis of
its operation shows the influence of lift force. The Savonius can’t really be classified into one or the other of these
categories. Its efficiency at starting is in fact mainly due to drag force, but its maintenance in rotation is mainly due to
the force of lift[7].

3. Performance of Savonius turbine

The performance of Savonius wind turbine can be expressed in the form of coefficient of power Cp Eq.(4) and
torque coefficient Cm Eq.(5) in comparison with the tip speed ratio (TSR) λ Eq.(1). TSR is a ratio between the speed
of tip blade and wind speed through the blade obtained by Eq.(1)[8].
Vrotor R (1)
  
V V
 M. Zemamou et al. / Energy Procedia 141 (2017) 383–388 385
M.ZEMAMOU et al. / Energy Procedia00 (2017) 000–000

1
PA Kinetic energy  mass flow rate= V ²   SV (2)
2

PT  T(watt ) (3)

PT PT
C
p  (4)
PA 1
 SV 3
2

T 4T
C
m  (5)
TW  SV ²

Conventional Savonius rotor is a rotor with the geometrical parameters a and e are respectively equal to 0 and
D/6.This rotor has been largely studied [9]. The values of Cp and Cm are experimentally determined as a function of
the velocity coefficient λ, Fig.1 (b).

4. Parameters that affect the performance of Savonius wind turbine

4.1. Effect of blades number
The number of blades have an important impact in the rotor's performance. U.K. Saha and S. Thotla[10] conclude
that the optimum number of blades is two for the Savonius rotor whether it is single, two or three stage,M.Hadi Ali
[11] also conclude that the two blades Savonius wind turbine is more efficient, it has higher power coefficient
under the same test condition than that of three blades Savonius wind turbine Fig.2.(a).
(a) (b)

Figure.2. (a) The Cp variation with the TSR for two & three blades.[11], (b) Variation of Cp with wind speed for different aspect ratios[12]

4.2 effect of Aspect Ratio

The aerodynamic performance of the Savonius rotor depends strongly on the aspect ratio (AR). N.H. Mahmoud
[12] tested different configurations for aspect ratios (noted α) of 0.5, 1, 2,4,5 by keeping other parameters constant,
the results show that the power coefficient increases with the rise in aspect ratio Fig.2.(b),Lately, studies with various
designs of changed Savonius rotor having low ARs have been reported out. According to Kamoji [13] The rotor with
an aspect ratio of 0.7 is having a maximum Cp equal to 0.21. Modi [14] also conclude that an AR of 0.77 leads to
386 M. Zemamou
M.ZEMAMOU et al. /etEnergy
al. / Energy Procedia
Procedia00 141 000–000
(2017) (2017) 383–388

a maximum Cp of 0.24 However, several studies on Savonius new rotors use AR near to 1 [15], generally the use
of ARs within the range of 1.5–2.0 set good results on the performance of the Savonius rotor.
4.3 Effect of overlap ratio
The overlap ratio is a major parameter that influences the structure of the flow inside the rotor and
consequently its aerodynamic performances, the influence of the overlap ratio has been widely investigated, however
there is not an accord among the outcomes acquired in previous studies. According to Blackwell [16] the optimal
value of overlap ratio is in the range of 0.1 to 0.15. J.Menet [17] indicate that the primary overlap ratio must be
between 0.15 and 0.3 and the optimal value equal to 0.242.Akwa [18] has also done a detailed investigation on the
effect of overlap ratio and indicate that the configuration of Savonius rotor that shows the best performance is the one
where the overlap ratio equal to 0.15, which gives an averaged power coefficient equal to 0.3161 for the TSR of 1.25.
5 New design
Recently scientific research have introduced new rotor designs by adding extra sets to the conventional rotor reach
a to a better performance .The following part clarifies the different new design developed:
5.1 Obstacle shielding returning blade with optimized blade shape design:
The installation of obstacle plate shields partly the returning blade of a savonius turbine and that optimizes the
wind direction toward the advancing blade, the new design improves the self-starting capability for Savonius rotor.
While the conventional savonius turbine shows a negatives values for the static moment in some range of rotation
angle, the obstacle leads to a positive static moment value at any angle. The idea of introducing an obstacle in the
design of the turbine was developed later in order to specify the optimal position of the obstacle to achieve better
performance. The optimal position of obstacle plate is (X1/R = -1.2383, Y1/R = -0.4539, X2/R = -1.0999 and Y2/R = -
1.1770, which leads to an angle β = 100.8° fig.3.(a), this optimal configuration leads to a peak power output coefficient
of 0.258 at λ= 0.8[19]. In order to reach the maximum power coefficient a complementary study has been established,
the obstacle plate is kept fixed in the optimal position and they investigate the optimization of the blade shape, the
optimization is used to find the best blade shape while taking into account the obstacle shielding the returning blade
in the optimum position. The free design variables considered for the optimization thus describe the blade skeleton
line for a constant blade thickness of 2 mm. For this purpose, six parameters are considered (X P1, YP1, XP2, YP2, XP3
and YP3, Fig.3.(b), so the optimal shape is found for following values X P1/r=0.6909,
YP1/r=0.0386,XP2/r=0.3940,YP2/r=-0.6067,XP3/r=0.6389,YP3/r =0.6357 fig.3.(b).This optimization procedure is able
to identify considerably better configurations than the standard Savonius turbine, leading to a relative increase of the
power output coefficient by 38.9% at λ= 0.7. This positive effect is also observed for the torque coefficient. The
absolute performance increase is even higher for smaller values of λ, while the highest relative increase (75.4%) is
observed at λ = 1.4 [20].
5.2 blade Curtaining design
To improve the performance and increase the efficiency of Savonius rotor without changing the basic structure of
the Rotor, a curtain arrangement made up from wind deflecting plates has been designed and placed in front of the
rotor, there are four variables on the curtain arrangement. These are lengths of the curtain blades (l 1 and l2) and the
angles of the blades (α and β) fig.3.(c) the minimum value of α has been determined as 30°which can prevent the
wind force on the convex blade. The angle has been increased up to 60° with 5° increments in the study, β angle has
been considered in the range of (0–30°). The lengths of the curtains have been initially adjusted to cover the effective
flow field. Then, l1 and l2 lengths have been increased gradually to find the optimum lengths which generate maximum
torque, power and power coefficient. Experiments have been conducted by using the arrangement of Savonius wind
rotor without curtain and with three different curtains at different angles (α and β). The highest power coefficient has
Been obtained with the curtain 1 arrangement (l1 =45cm, l2=52 cm, α = 45° and β= 15°) with an increase38%[21].
 M. Zemamou et al. / Energy Procedia 141 (2017) 383–388 387
M.ZEMAMOU et al. / Energy Procedia00 (2017) 000–000

(a)
(a) (b)
(b)

(c) (d)

(f)

(g)
(e)

Fig. 3. various new design of savonius rotor: (a) ostacle shielding returning blade[19] , (b) Obstacle shielding with optimized blade shape design
[20],(c) Curtain design [21]. (d) V-blade [22] , (e) quarter blade[23], (f) conveyor-deflector curtain[24] (g) combined blade[25].

Table 1: comparison of the maximum power coefficient obtained for new design of Savonius rotor
Author new design Cp max
M.H. Mohamed,D. Thévenin [19] Obstacle shielding 27.3% increase from the conventional rotor
M.H. Mohamed, D. Thévenin[20] Obstacle shield optimized blade 38.9% increase from the conventional rotor
B. D.Altan , M.Atılgan [21] Curtain design 38 % increase from the conventional rotor
H. E. Gad,A. A. Abd El-Hamid [22] V-shaped blade 0.37
S.Sharma,R. Kumar [23] Multiple quarter blades 8.89% increase from the conventional rotor
M.Tartuferia,,V.D'Alessandro[24] Conveyor-deflector curtain system 20% increase from the conventional rotor
A. Sanusi ,S.Soeparman [25] Combined Blade 11 % increase from the conventional rotor
Y.X. Yao, Z.P. Tang [26] Tower cowling 0.48
G. Kailash [27],,Ogawa [28] Deflector plate 0.35, 24% increase from the conventional rotor
S.Iio , Y.Katayama[29] Shield Plat 0.47
388 M. Zemamou et al. / Energy Procedia 141 (2017) 383–388
M.ZEMAMOU et al. / Energy Procedia00 (2017) 000–000

5.3 V-shape Blade

The study includes seven shapes of modified blade in addition to the conventional Savonius rotor. The results
showed that the Modify 4 fig.3 (d) rotor has the best values of average torque and average Cp at TSR up to 0.9 [22].
Conclusion
The Savonius rotor has proven its performance due to its simple design, low cost and low starting torque at low
wind speed despite its low efficiency caused by the negative torque applied to the returning blade, for years several
researches aim to improve the design of Savonuis rotor in order to achieve better performance. This paper aims to
compare several results of published articles on performance of new designs of Savonius rotor. It is intended to
provide an important background for future studies on this type of wind turbine.
According to this review result we conclude that over the years, the development of the shape of Savonius rotor
blade remains a very promising research field in order to improve the performance of the rotor, It is perceived that
research on parameters such as AR, overlap ratio and number of blade can be more studied to arrive at a satisfactory
level of performance, although adding an extra set like obstacle shielding, curtain or conveyor deflector improve the
performance of Savonius these developed designs of Savonius have made this rotor system very complex and
dependent on the direction which represent a major drawback of this studies, in this context the search for a
compromise between rotor efficiency and system simplicity is a promising area of research for future works.
References.
[1] “Savonius SJ. The S-rotor and its applications.Mech Eng,” 1931.
[2] “A.Al-Faruk, A.Sharifian, ‘Flow field and performance study of vertical axis Savonius type SST wind turbine’, Energy Procedia 110 ( 2017)
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[3] F.Jamati, étude numérique d’une éolienne hybride asynchrone. 2011.
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[21] B.D.Altan, and ,M.Atılgan, “An experimental study on improvement of a Savonius rotor performance with curtaining,” 1673–1678,2008.
[22] H. E. Gad, and A.Abd El-Hamid, “A New Design of Savonius Wind Turbine: Numerical Study,” 6(4) 2014.
[23] S.Sharma,and R. Kumar Sharma, “Performance improvement of Savonius rotor using multiple quarter blades ” (2016) 43–54,2016.
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