Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 236–242

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Energy Conversion and Management

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Optimal blade shape of a modified Savonius turbine using an obstacle shielding

the returning blade
M.H. Mohamed, G. Janiga, E. Pap, D. Thévenin *
Lab. of Fluid Dynamics and Technical Flows, University of Magdeburg ‘‘Otto von Guericke”, Germany

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Due to the worldwide energy crisis, research and development activities in the field of renewable energy
Received 15 September 2009 have been considerably increased in many countries. Wind energy is becoming particularly important.
Received in revised form 15 June 2010 Although considerable progress have already been achieved, the available technical design is not yet ade-
Accepted 29 June 2010
quate to develop reliable wind energy converters for conditions corresponding to low wind speeds and
Available online 29 July 2010
urban areas. The Savonius turbine appears to be particularly promising for such conditions, but suffers
from a poor efficiency. The present study considers a considerably improved design in order to increase
Keywords:
the output power of a classical Savonius turbine. In previous works, the efficiency of the classical Savo-
Savonius rotor
Wind energy
nius turbine has been increased by placing in an optimal manner an obstacle plate shielding the returning
Optimization blade. The present study now aims at improving further the output power of the Savonius turbine as well
Evolutionary Algorithms as the static torque, which measures the self-starting capability of the turbine. In order to achieve both
objectives, the geometry of the blade shape (skeleton line) is now optimized in presence of the obstacle
plate. Six free parameters are considered in this optimization process, realized by coupling an in-house
optimization library (OPAL, relying in the present case on Evolutionary Algorithms) with an industrial
flow simulation code (ANSYS-Fluent). The target function is the output power coefficient. Compared to
a standard Savonius turbine, a relative increase of the power output coefficient by almost 40% is finally
obtained at k = 0.7. The performance increase exceeds 30% throughout the useful operating range. Finally,
the static torque is investigated and found to be positive at any angle, high enough to obtain self-starting
conditions.
Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
From an emerging energy source 20 years ago, wind energy has
evolved into a mature and booming global business. Associated
costs have fallen dramatically over the last 15 years, moving closer
to those of conventional energy sources. Modern wind turbines
have improved considerably in their peak power, efficiency and
reliability. There is a huge and still growing global demand for
emission-free wind power, which can be installed quickly, virtually
everywhere in the world. Over the past 10 years, global wind
power capacity has continued to grow at an average cumulative
rate of over 30%, and 2008 was another record year with more than
27 GW of new installations, bringing the total up to over 120 GW.
The United States passed Germany to become the number one
market in wind power, and China’s total installed capacity doubled
for the fourth year in a row. The wind industry also creates many
new jobs: over 400,000 people are now employed in this branch,
and that number is expected to be several millions in the near
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 391 67 18570; fax: +49 391 67 12840.
E-mail addresses: mohamed.mohamed@st.ovgu.de (M.H. Mohamed), janiga@
ovgu.de (G. Janiga), elemer.pap@ovgu.de (E. Pap), thevenin@ovgu.de (D. Thévenin).
future. Wind energy is perhaps the only power generation technol-
ogy that can deliver the necessary cuts in CO2 during the critical
period up to 2020, when greenhouse gases must begin to decline
in order to avoid dangerous climate change. It has been estimated
that the 120.8 GW of installed wind capacity will produce
260 TW h and save 158 million tons of CO2 every year [1].
The storage and distribution of electrical power is still a major
problem, in particular when the generated quantity is varying con-
siderably with time and location, like is the case for wind energy. A
local electricity production, within urban areas, would help solve
this issue. The Savonius turbine appears in principle to be particu-
larly promising for such conditions, since it is a slow-running ma-
chine with a very compact design.
S.J. Savonius initially developed the vertical axis Savonius rotor
in the late 1920s. The concept of the conventional Savonius rotor is
based on cutting a cylinder into two halves along the central plane
and then moving the two half cylinders sideways along the cutting
plane, so that the cross-section resembles the letter S (Fig. 1).
The Savonius rotor, which is a slow-running vertical axis wind
machine (typically used for k ’ 1.0 or below), see later Eq. (1)
has unfortunately a poor efficiency when considering the standard
design: theoretically, Cp ’ 0.2 at best [2]. Nevertheless, it presents

0196-8904/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2010.06.070
 M.H. Mohamed et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 236–242 237

Nomenclature

A projected area of rotor (DH) (m2) Rsh shaft radius (m)

Cp power coefficient = (P/[1/2qA U3]) r blade radius of semi-cylindrical blade (m)
Cm torque coefficient = (T/[qR2H U2]) T output torque (N m)
Cms static torque coefficient = (Ts/[qR2H U2]) Ts static torque quantifying self-starting capability (N m)
d blade chord (2r) (m) U wind velocity in axial direction (m/s)
D turbine diameter (2R) (m) b obstacle angle (°)
H blade height (m) h rotor angle (°)
N rotational speed of rotor (rpm) q density (kg/m3)
P output power = (2pNT/60) (W) x angular speed (1/s)
R tip radius of turbine (m)

many advantages for specific applications, in particular due to its
simplicity, resulting robustness, compactness and low cost. If a
higher efficiency could be obtained, the Savonius rotor would be-
come a very interesting complementary source of electricity from
wind energy.
Obviously, both approaches can be combined, which is the purpose
of the present project. An exergy analysis of Savonius turbines can
additionally be found in [4].
3. Objectives

2. State of the art
Savonius turbines show many drawbacks compared to conven-
tional turbines, in particular a low efficiency sometimes associated
with poor starting characteristics. Therefore, many authors have
tried in the past to identify the best principles of operation and
to improve the characteristics of Savonius turbines. Different ideas
have been introduced for this purpose, as summarized in Table 1.
Recent developments concerning Savonius turbines have been re-
viewed in a recent publication [3] and are therefore not repeated
here. Nevertheless, Table 1 contains also additional, very recent
developments. In principle, most improvements rely either (1) on
guiding plates or vanes placed in front of the turbine to improve
flow conditions, requiring orientation of the system according to
wind direction; or (2) on modified, more complex blade shapes.
Since one of the major advantages of the standard Savonius tur-
bine is its simplicity and corresponding compactness, robustness
and low cost, a modification introducing a high complexity should
probably not be retained. Considering the results of all previous
studies, some simple guiding or deflecting plate(s) would lead to
the best efficiency improvement at the lowest possible cost and
complexity. As an alternative or a complement, the geometry of
the Savonius rotor itself could be modified while keeping a simple,
two-dimensional shape. As a consequence, the present work builds
on top of previous investigations [3], in which an obstacle plate has
been introduced in order to improve the performance of the stan-
dard Savonius rotor. Independently from the blade shape, adding
such a shielding obstacle should in principle reduce the reverse
moment and as a consequence the total moment of the turbine will
be increased, since the total moment is the moment difference be-
tween the advancing and the returning blade. Taking into account
this obstacle plate placed in an optimal position, the shape of the
rotor will now be optimized thanks to a suitable mathematical pro-
cedure. For that purpose, it is first necessary to define key param-
eters measuring the efficiency of the Savonius turbine.
Using the notations of Fig. 2, the velocity coefficient (or speed
ratio) is first defined as:

xR
k¼ ð1Þ
U
Considering a Savonius rotor of height H, a wind of incoming veloc-
Fig. 1. Conventional Savonius rotor.
ity U, the mechanical power P and the mechanical torque T on the
axis of a Savonius turbine, it is possible to write

Table 1
P
Cp ¼ ð2Þ
Possible modifications to improve the performance of Savonius turbines. qRHU 3
Design modification Gain Description and comments
and
Helical rotors [5] Improve the static Complex design, high cost
torque
Twisted-blade [6] 27% relative Complex design, high cost
Guide box tunnel [7] 50% (3 blades) Complex three-blade design
Modified Savonius [8] 60% in static torque Expected vibration problem
Guide vanes [9] Depends on wind Problems for large k
speed
Obstacle plate [3] 27% for design point Only for standard, cylindric
blade
Frontal nozzle [10] More than 40% Small operating range
(k < 1)
Frontal guiding plates 35% for design point Need orientation into the
[11] wind
Modified design [12] Higher than 50% Complex three-blade design
Fig. 2. Schematic description and main parameters characterizing a Savonius rotor.
238 M.H. Mohamed et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 236–242
T project, the optimal shape of a Savonius rotor will be identified
Cm ¼
qR2 HU2
where Cp and Cm are respectively the output power coefficient and
the torque coefficient of the turbine. In the following sections, the
optimization process will consider the output power coefficient Cp
as target function, but only for a conventional Savonius set-up. This
means that the geometrical parameters a and e are always fixed and
respectively equal to 0 and R/3 (Fig. 2). This conventional configura-
tion of the rotor has been extensively studied in the past (see e.g.,
list of citations in [7]). The corresponding values of Cp and Cm have
been determined numerically and sometimes experimentally as a
function of the speed ratio k. This has been used to validate exten-
sively our numerical procedure by comparison with published, ref-
erence data, as documented in [3].
4. Optimization procedure
Optimization is a body of mathematical results and numerical
methods for finding and identifying the best candidate from a col-
lection of alternatives, without having to explicitly enumerate and
evaluate all possible alternatives. Optimization is a key engineering
task, since the function of any engineer is to design new, better,
more efficient, and less expensive systems as well as to devise
plans and procedures for an improved operation of existing de-
vices. Nevertheless, such a real optimization relying on suitable
algorithmic procedures is still a relatively new approach, in partic-
ular when considering turbomachines [13,14]. In the present
Fig. 3. Schematic description of the free optimization parameters XP1, YP1, XP2, YP2,
XP3 and YP3 used to modify the blade shape.
Fig. 4. Schematic description of the geometry of Savonius turbine using an obstacle plate in optimum position [3].
ð3Þ
as a further step toward an even more aggressive, simultaneous
optimization of all important parameters affecting the perfor-
mance of Savonius turbines.
The central goal when designing an improved Savonius turbine
is to achieve high efficiency, i.e., high power output. Furthermore,
it must be kept in mind that turbomachines often operate outside
the nominal (or design) conditions. Therefore, after optimizing the
configuration for the maximum output power coefficient, known
to occur for a speed ratio k ’ 0.7, the full range of speed ratios will
be considered.
Optimization is used here 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 con-
stant blade thickness of 2 mm. For this purpose, six parameters
are considered (XP1, YP1, XP2, YP2, XP3 and YP3, see Fig. 3). The obsta-
cle plate is kept fixed in the optimal position identified in [3] (X1/
R = 1.2383, Y1/R = 0.4539, X2/R = 1.0999 and Y2/R = 1.1770,
which leads to an angle b = 100.8°, see Fig. 4). Now, the blade shape
of the Savonius turbine will be optimized in order to find the best
possible flow conditions. The six shape parameters are sufficient to
determine uniquely the geometry of the system, since the obstacle
position is fixed. The objective function considers only one output
of the simulation, that should be maximized as far as possible: the
power coefficient Cp.
In our group, a considerable experience is available concerning
the mathematical optimization relying on evaluations based on
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) [15]. We therefore employ
our own optimization library, OPAL (for OPtimization ALgorithms),
containing many different optimization techniques. Different CFD
solvers (in-house codes, ANSYS-Fluent, ANSYS-CFX) have been
coupled in the past with this optimizer. It has already been em-
ployed successfully to improve a variety of applications like heat
exchangers [16], burners [17] or turbomachines [3,18]. These stud-
ies have in particular demonstrated the efficiency of Evolutionary
Algorithms (EA) for CFD-based optimization. Using EA, a very ro-
bust procedure can be obtained and local extremal values do not
falsify the results. Therefore, the present study relies again on EA.
The employed parameters of the algorithm are: a population size
in the first generation of 20, a number of generations of 20, a sur-
vival probability of 50%, average probability 33.3% a crossover
probability of 16.7% and a mutation probability of 100% with
decreasing mutation amplitude. All further details can be found
in [3], where the same procedure has been applied to a simpler
configuration.
 M.H. Mohamed et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 236–242
Fig. 5. Schematic description of optimizer (OPAL) and CFD code coupling.
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 Savonius turbine [19,20]. As a result
of the CFD computation the output power coefficient is deter-
mined, and is stored in a result file. The procedure is automated
using journal scripts (to restart Gambit, Fluent) and a master pro-
gram written in C, calling all codes in the right sequence as shown
in Fig. 5. 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 com-
plex task, which has been described in detail in previous publica-
tions. We thus refer the interested reader to [15–17] for a
complete description.
5. Numerical flow simulations
From the literature it is known that an accurate CFD simulation
of the flow around a Savonius turbine is a particularly difficult and
challenging task, mainly due to its highly time-dependent nature
and to the fact that flow separation plays an important role for
the efficiency of the system. It is therefore necessary to check the
full CFD procedure with great care. Afterwards, the resulting meth-
odology must be validated.
A grid-independence study has been first carried out for one
geometrical configuration. Several different two-dimensional,
unstructured grids of increasing density and quality, composed of
3400 up to 116,000 cells, have been tested for the standard Savo-
nius turbine with a specified obstacle plate. All grids employing
more than 71,000 cells lead to a relative variation of the output
quantity below 1.8% [3]. Since the cost of a CFD evaluation obvi-
ously increases rapidly with the number of grid cells, the interme-
diate grid range between 75,000 and 95,000 cells has been retained
for all further results shown in the present paper.
As a second step, the appropriate size of the computational do-
main has been investigated. It must be indeed checked that this
size does not impact the results of the optimization process. A
computational domain of increasing dimensions (square domain
of size 2L  2L, suitably normalized by the rotor radius R, see
Fig. 6) has been considered in the CFD computation. It is easy to no-
tice from Fig. 6 that the three smaller domains are associated with
a large variation of the rotor coefficient. On the other hand, the
remaining three (larger domains) lead to a nearly constant value,
with a relative variation of the output quantity below 1.1%. This
demonstrates that the computational domain should extend at
239
Computational 2L
1.6 domain
Torque coefficient (Cm)
2L
1.2 R
0.8 Turbine
0.4
Employed domain
0
0 10 20 30 40
Relative size of the computational
domain (L/R)
Fig. 6. Size of the computational domain and impact on the torque coefficient.
least over 20 times the rotor radius in each direction. In a smaller
domain, the boundary conditions influence the results in an inap-
propriate manner. Finally, the domain shown in Fig. 6 has been re-
tained for all further computations in this paper.
All flow simulations presented in this work rely on the indus-
trial software ANSYS-Fluent 6.3 [20]. The unsteady Reynolds-aver-
aged Navier–Stokes equations are solved using the semi-implicit
method for pressure-linked equations (SIMPLE) algorithm for pres-
sure–velocity coupling. The flow variables and all turbulent quan-
tities are discretized in a finite-volume formulation using a second-
order upwind scheme. The unsteady flow is solved by using the
sliding mesh model (SMM) [20].
The full numerical procedure and in particular the employed
turbulence model have been validated by comparison with pub-
lished experimental results for a classical Savonius turbine [9].
The influence of the turbulence model is shown in Fig. 7. These re-
sults demonstrate the excellent agreement obtained between CFD
and experiments for the target function, Cp, when using the realiz-
able k  e turbulence model. The employed computational proce-
dure thus appears suitable to predict the performance of the
turbine in the investigated range of operation and is now kept
for all further simulations.
6. Results and discussions
6.1. Optimization of the blade shape
The mathematical optimization procedure described previously
(Evolutionary Algorithms relying on automated evaluations
through CFD) can now be employed to find the optimal blade
shape while taking into account the obstacle plate. This is done
first for a constant speed ratio k = 0.7, considering a fixed incident
wind velocity U = 10 m/s, as constant value. This value of k is re-
tained since it is known from the literature that it corresponds to
the zone of peak power coefficient of the conventional Savonius
turbine. As explained previously, six degrees of freedom are left
simultaneously for the optimization: XP1, YP1, XP2, YP2, XP3 and YP3
define the three intermediate points of the blade (Fig. 3). The other
points (P4 and P5) are considered to be fixed; only P1, P2, P3 are
changing position. Knowing all 5 points, the full profile is recon-
structed using standard splines (nonuniform rational B-splines,
NURBS). The order of a NURBS curve defines the number of nearby
control points that influence any given point on the curve [19]. The
curve is represented mathematically by a polynomial of degree one
less than the order of the curve; this means that the spline order is
5 in our case and the degree of the polynomial is 4. The objective
240 M.H. Mohamed et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 236–242

Exp.T. Hayashi et al (2005) Optimal configuration

Realizable k- model
(a) 0.5
SST-model X1/r Y1/r X2/r Y2/r X3/r Y3/r Cp
0.45 Standard k- model 1.47 0.24 1.2 -0.24 1.2 0.94 0.3
Torque coefficient (Cm)

0.4 RSM model 0.298

0.35
0.3 0.250
0.25
0.2 Classical Savonius
with obstacle
0.15
0.1 0.182

0.05 Savonius without

0 obstacle
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4
Speed ratio (λ)
0.53 -0.24 0.24 -0.94 0.24 0.24 0.1

(b) 0.3
Fig. 8. Input parameters of the optimization and power coefficient represented
using parallel coordinates. The parameters of the optimal shape are connected with
Power coefficient (Cp)

0.25 a thick gray line. The power coefficient of the conventional turbine is shown with a
gray circle. The power coefficient of the conventional turbine (semi-cylindrical
0.2 shape) with obstacle plate [3] is also shown with a black circle.

0.15 considerably reduced by carrying out the requested CFD in parallel

0.1
0.05
0
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
Speed ratio (λ)
Fig. 7. Validation of computational model: (a) torque coefficient, (b) power
coefficient, both compared to published experimental results for a conventional
Savonius turbine [9].
function contains one single output of the simulation, that should
be maximized as far as possible: the power coefficient Cp. The
parameter space considered in the optimization has been defined
as documented in Table 2. These domains are selected to prevent
any domain overlap along the y-direction and to keep realistic
blade shapes. The reference point of the parameter space is point
P0, which is the center of the original, semi-cylindrical shape with
radius r as shown in Fig. 3. During the calculations, a circular tur-
bine shaft is included with a fixed radius Rsh computed from Rsh/
R = 0.03.
The results presented in Fig. 8 indicate that the considered
objective is indeed considerably influenced by the six free param-
eters, XP1, YP1, XP2, YP2, XP3 and YP3, and thus by the blade shape. As
a whole, 210 different geometrical settings have been evaluated
by CFD, requesting one and a half month of total computing
time on a standard PC. Note that the user-waiting time could be
on a PC cluster [15]. Such a parallel procedure, already imple-
mented in OPAL, has not been used in the present case but could
reduce the needed time by orders of magnitude, as demonstrated
in other studies.
The optimal configuration (highest point in the right column in
Fig. 8, all corresponding parameters being connected by a thick
gray line) can now readily be identified for k = 0.7. The optimum
1 1.2 1.4 point positions and corresponding optimal power coefficient Cp
are listed in Table 3.
At k = 0.7 the optimal point found by the optimization proce-
dure corresponds to an absolute increase of the power coefficient
by 0.116 compared with the conventional Savonius turbine,
respectively by 0.0475 compared with the conventional Savonius
rotor (semi-cylindrical blade shape) with obstacle plate. As a
whole, this means a relative increase of the performance (mea-
sured by the power output coefficient) by 38.9% for the optimum
shape with obstacle plate, compared to the conventional Savonius
design without obstacle.
Note that this new shape (Fig. 9) is only optimum in combina-
tion with the employed obstacle plate. Indeed, the modified shape
exploits best the flow redirection induced by the obstacle. As a con-
sequence, the reverse moment is reduced by the shielding obsta-
cle; simultaneously, the modified shape leads to an increase of
the positive moment of the advancing blade. This means also that
an even better configuration might be perhaps found by optimizing
simultaneously blade shape and size and position of the obstacle
plate. This very complex and time-consuming optimization will
be the subject of our future work.
6.2. Complete operating range (off-design performance)

Table 2
It is now important to check how this gain would change as a
Acceptable range for the input parameters (parameter space). function of k, since such a turbine must be able to work also for

Parameter Minimum allowed Maximum allowed

XP1/r 0.53 1.47 Table 3
YP1/r 0.24 0.24 Optimal configuration.
XP2/r 0.24 1.2
XP1/r YP1/r XP2/r YP2/r XP3/r YP3/r Optimal power
YP2/r 0.94 0.24
coeff. Cp
XP3/r 0.24 1.2
YP3/r 0.24 0.94 0.6909 0.0386 0.3940 0.6067 0.6389 0.6357 0.298
 M.H. Mohamed et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 236–242 241

Fig. 9. Optimum configuration (right) obtained with the optimization procedure compared to the classical Savonius turbine (semi-cylindrical shape: left).

off-design conditions. Therefore, the performance of the optimal 6.3. Self-starting capability
configuration has been finally computed for the full range of useful
k-values, as shown in Fig. 10. This figure demonstrates that the One important issue associated with wind energy is the self-
improvement of both torque coefficient and power output coeffi- starting capability of the system. For decentral, low-cost applica-
cient is observed throughout for all values of k, compared to the tions as considered here, it is essential to obtain a self-starting sys-
conventional Savonius turbine. The absolute gain for Cp and Cm is tem. To investigate this issue, the static torque exerted on a turbine
even higher for lower k-values. The relative performance increase at a fixed angle has been computed by CFD as a function of this an-
compared to the standard Savonius configuration is always higher gle h. Fig. 11 shows the obtained static torque coefficient Cms ob-
than 30% in the effective operating range. tained for the optimal configuration compared to the classical
turbine with obstacle, as a function of h. The experimental results
Savonius without obstacle of [9] for a conventional turbine are also shown for comparison
Savonius with obstacle in Fig. 11. Due to periodicity, the results are only plotted for h be-
(a) 0.7 Optimal shape tween 0° and 180°. Compared to the standard Savonius without
(non-cylindrical blade) obstacle plate, these computations demonstrate that the modified
Relative increase
blade shape has a considerable and positive effect on the static tor-
Torque coefficient (Cm)

0.6
que coefficient. The conventional Savonius design shows large vari-
0.5 ations of the static torque coefficient as a function of h, and in
particular negative values around h = 140–170° (no self-starting),
0.4
as confirmed by our own CFD computations. In the present, opti-
0.3
mal configuration the negative torque region completely disap-
pears, with a minimum value of Cms higher than 0.2. Apart from
0.2 that, the evolution as a function of h is similar to that of obtained
with the conventional shape involving an obstacle plate. A self-
0.1 starting capability (Cms > 0) is always obtained at any angle in both
cases, which is a major advantage.
0
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4
Exp.T.Hayashi et al (2005)
Speed ratio ( ) (no obstacle)

Our CFD results:

(b) 0.32 100%
without obstacle
1.2
Static Torque Coefficient (Cms)

Classical Savonius
0.28
with obstacle
Relative increase (%)
Power coefficient (Cp)

80 1 Optimal shape
0.24

0.2 0.8
60
0.16 0.6

0.12 40
0.4
0.08
20 0.2
0.04
0
0 0 Negative torque (no self-starting)
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 -0.2

Speed ratio ( ) 0 30 60 90 120 150 180

Fig. 10. Performance of the optimized configuration (black plus) compared to the
conventional Savonius turbine with and without obstacle plate (filled and empty
squares, respectively): (a) torque coefficient; (b) power coefficient. The corre-
sponding relative increase compared to the standard configuration is shown with
stars.
Rotor angle ( )
Fig. 11. Static torque coefficient Cms as a function of the fixed rotor angle h for the
optimal configuration compared to the standard Savonius turbine with (filled
squares) and without (plus symbols) obstacle plate. For this last case, the
experimental results of [9] are also shown for comparison.
242 M.H. Mohamed et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 236–242
7. Conclusions
The Savonius turbine is a promising concept for small-scale
wind energy systems, but suffers from a poor efficiency. Therefore,
the major objective of the present study is to develop an improved
design, leading to higher values of the power coefficient and of the
static torque of the Savonius turbine, thus obtaining a higher effi-
ciency and better self-starting capability. For this purpose, an
obstacle plate has been first introduced to shield partly the return-
ing blade. After having found the optimum position and size of this
obstacle, the blade shape (skeleton line) has been optimized in the
present work.
The turbulent flow solution is obtained by accurate CFD simula-
tions. A validation against published experimental measurements
has demonstrated that the employed numerical procedure relying
on the realizable k  e turbulence model can be employed for a
quantitative analysis of the performance, provided a sufficiently
fine grid and sufficiently large computational domain are used.
The blade shape has been optimized in a fully automatic man-
ner, in order to obtain the best possible performance, as measured
by the power coefficient Cp. The optimization relies on Evolution-
ary Algorithms, while all geometrical configurations are evaluated
by CFD. This optimization procedure is able to identify consider-
ably better configurations than the standard Savonius turbine,
leading in particular to a relative increase of the power output
coefficient by 38.9% at k = 0.7. A performance gain of at least 30%
is found for the full operating range (0.3 6 k 6 1.4). This positive ef-
fect is also observed for the torque coefficient. The absolute perfor-
mance increase is even higher for smaller values of k, while the
highest relative increase (75.4%) is observed at k = 1.4. The optimal
design furthermore leads to self-starting capability at any angle, at
the difference of the conventional design. Therefore, this optimal
configuration appears to be very promising for wind energy gener-
ation in urban areas.
At present, a simultaneous optimization of blade shape and
obstacle position is being attempted. Experimental validations of
the obtained results are also underway.
Acknowledgments
The Ph.D. work of Mr. Mohamed is supported financially by a
bursary of the Egyptian government. Interesting discussions with
G. Warschau are gratefully acknowledged.
References
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