IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v256y2026ipgs0960148125020890.html

Experimental analysis of deflector influence on Savonius hydrokinetic turbine power performance in straight and curved channels

Author

Listed:
  • Khani, Mohammad Sadegh
  • Mehraein, Mojtaba
  • Mohajeri, Seyed Hossein

Abstract

Savonius hydrokinetic turbines have recently gained attention as a cost-effective and straightforward solution for harnessing renewable energy from water currents. While most research has concentrated on turbines installed in straight channels, limited studies have investigated the impacts of channel bends, which are found in rivers, irrigation systems, and agricultural canals. The effect of deflector position configuration in channel bend has also been unexplored. This study presents an experimental investigation to evaluate the effect of the lateral position of a returning blade deflector in the straight channel and different sections of a channel bend. The influence of the deflector angle was also analyzed to identify the optimum angle in the straight channel. The results showed that a deflector angle of 90° yields the best performance. Subsequent tests in the channel bend sections revealed significant improvements in power coefficient (CP) when the turbine was positioned within the bend, particularly in the final section (Sec. 5), where CP values increased by up to 49 % compared to the straight channel. Results also indicated that while lateral positioning had minimal effects in the straight channel, it significantly affected the power performance in the channel bend. This study highlights the critical role of channel geometry and deflector configuration in maximizing hydrokinetic energy extraction from open-water channels.

Suggested Citation

  • Khani, Mohammad Sadegh & Mehraein, Mojtaba & Mohajeri, Seyed Hossein, 2026. "Experimental analysis of deflector influence on Savonius hydrokinetic turbine power performance in straight and curved channels," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(PG).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:256:y:2026:i:pg:s0960148125020890
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2025.124425
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148125020890
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2025.124425?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elbatran, A.H. & Ahmed, Yasser M. & Shehata, Ahmed S., 2017. "Performance study of ducted nozzle Savonius water turbine, comparison with conventional Savonius turbine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 566-584.
    2. Kerikous, Emeel & Thévenin, Dominique, 2019. "Optimal shape and position of a thick deflector plate in front of a hydraulic Savonius turbine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    3. Khani, Mohammad Sadegh & Shahsavani, Younes & Mehraein, Mojtaba & Kisi, Ozgur, 2023. "Performance evaluation of the savonius hydrokinetic turbine using soft computing techniques," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    4. Mohamed, M.H. & Janiga, G. & Pap, E. & Thévenin, D., 2010. "Optimization of Savonius turbines using an obstacle shielding the returning blade," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 2618-2626.
    5. Laws, Nicholas D. & Epps, Brenden P., 2016. "Hydrokinetic energy conversion: Technology, research, and outlook," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 1245-1259.
    6. Kumar, Anuj & Saini, R.P., 2017. "Performance analysis of a single stage modified Savonius hydrokinetic turbine having twisted blades," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 461-478.
    7. Payambarpour, S. Abdolkarim & Najafi, Amir F. & Magagnato, Franco, 2020. "Investigation of deflector geometry and turbine aspect ratio effect on 3D modified in-pipe hydro Savonius turbine: Parametric study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 44-59.
    8. Kamoji, M.A. & Kedare, S.B. & Prabhu, S.V., 2009. "Performance tests on helical Savonius rotors," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 521-529.
    9. Kamoji, M.A. & Kedare, S.B. & Prabhu, S.V., 2009. "Experimental investigations on single stage modified Savonius rotor," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(7-8), pages 1064-1073, July.
    10. Niebuhr, C.M. & van Dijk, M. & Neary, V.S. & Bhagwan, J.N., 2019. "A review of hydrokinetic turbines and enhancement techniques for canal installations: Technology, applicability and potential," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-1.
    11. Jeon, Keum Soo & Jeong, Jun Ik & Pan, Jae-Kyung & Ryu, Ki-Wahn, 2015. "Effects of end plates with various shapes and sizes on helical Savonius wind turbines," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 167-176.
    12. Kumar, Anuj & Saini, R.P., 2016. "Performance parameters of Savonius type hydrokinetic turbine – A Review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 289-310.
    13. Khani, Mohammad Sadegh & Shahsavani, Younes & Mehraein, Mojtaba & Soleimani Rad, Mohammad Hossein & Nikbakhsh, Amir Abbas, 2024. "Evaluation of the performance of the Savonius hydrokinetic turbines in the straight and curved channels using advanced machine learning methods," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).
    14. Frikha, Sobhi & Driss, Zied & Ayadi, Emna & Masmoudi, Zied & Abid, Mohamed Salah, 2016. "Numerical and experimental characterization of multi-stage Savonius rotors," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 382-404.
    15. Talukdar, Parag K. & Kulkarni, Vinayak & Saha, Ujjwal K., 2018. "Field-testing of model helical-bladed hydrokinetic turbines for small-scale power generation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 158-167.
    16. Golecha, Kailash & Eldho, T.I. & Prabhu, S.V., 2011. "Influence of the deflector plate on the performance of modified Savonius water turbine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(9), pages 3207-3217.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Khani, Mohammad Sadegh & Shahsavani, Younes & Mehraein, Mojtaba & Soleimani Rad, Mohammad Hossein & Nikbakhsh, Amir Abbas, 2024. "Evaluation of the performance of the Savonius hydrokinetic turbines in the straight and curved channels using advanced machine learning methods," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).
    2. Khani, Mohammad Sadegh & Shahsavani, Younes & Mehraein, Mojtaba & Kisi, Ozgur, 2023. "Performance evaluation of the savonius hydrokinetic turbine using soft computing techniques," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    3. Elbatran, A.H. & Ahmed, Yasser M. & Shehata, Ahmed S., 2017. "Performance study of ducted nozzle Savonius water turbine, comparison with conventional Savonius turbine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 566-584.
    4. Zhang, Yongchao & Kang, Can & Ji, Yanguang & Li, Qing, 2019. "Experimental and numerical investigation of flow patterns and performance of a modified Savonius hydrokinetic rotor," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 1067-1079.
    5. Gao, Jinjin & Liu, Han & Lee, Jiyong & Zheng, Yuan & Guala, Michele & Shen, Lian, 2022. "Large-eddy simulation and Co-Design strategy for a drag-type vertical axis hydrokinetic turbine in open channel flows," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 1305-1316.
    6. Yadav, Siddhita & Kumar, Arun & Pant, Chandra Shekhar, 2026. "Selection criteria for hydro kinetic turbines and implications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    7. C M, Shashikumar & Madav, Vasudeva, 2021. "Numerical and experimental investigation of modified V-shaped turbine blades for hydrokinetic energy generation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 1170-1197.
    8. Hashem, Islam & Zhu, Baoshan, 2021. "Metamodeling-based parametric optimization of a bio-inspired Savonius-type hydrokinetic turbine," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 560-576.
    9. Kamal, Md. Mustafa & Saini, R.P., 2023. "Performance investigations of hybrid hydrokinetic turbine rotor with different system and operating parameters," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    10. Salleh, Mohd Badrul & Kamaruddin, Noorfazreena M. & Mohamed-Kassim, Zulfaa, 2022. "Experimental investigation on the effects of deflector angles on the power performance of a Savonius turbine for hydrokinetic applications in small rivers," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    11. Montelpare, Sergio & D'Alessandro, Valerio & Zoppi, Andrea & Ricci, Renato, 2018. "Experimental study on a modified Savonius wind rotor for street lighting systems. Analysis of external appendages and elements," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 146-158.
    12. Kumar, Anuj & Saini, R.P., 2016. "Performance parameters of Savonius type hydrokinetic turbine – A Review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 289-310.
    13. Noman, Abdullah Al & Tasneem, Zinat & Sahed, Md. Fahad & Muyeen, S.M. & Das, Sajal K. & Alam, Firoz, 2022. "Towards next generation Savonius wind turbine: Artificial intelligence in blade design trends and framework," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    14. Can Kang & Wisdom Opare & Chen Pan & Ziwen Zou, 2018. "Upstream Flow Control for the Savonius Rotor under Various Operation Conditions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-20, June.
    15. John, Bony & Thomas, Rony N. & Varghese, James, 2020. "Integration of hydrokinetic turbine-PV-battery standalone system for tropical climate condition," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 361-373.
    16. Patel, Vimal & Eldho, T.I. & Prabhu, S.V., 2019. "Velocity and performance correction methodology for hydrokinetic turbines experimented with different geometry of the channel," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 1300-1317.
    17. Guo, Fen & Song, Baowei & Mao, Zhaoyong & Tian, Wenlong, 2020. "Experimental and numerical validation of the influence on Savonius turbine caused by rear deflector," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    18. Wu, Kuo-Tsai & Lo, Kuo-Hao & Kao, Ruey-Chy & Hwang, Sheng-Jye, 2023. "Design and performance analysis of a passive rotatable deflector diversion tail for tidal current power generation hydrokinetic turbines," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    19. Kamal, Md. Mustafa & Saini, R.P., 2022. "A numerical investigation on the influence of savonius blade helicity on the performance characteristics of hybrid cross-flow hydrokinetic turbine," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 788-804.
    20. Kerikous, Emeel & Thévenin, Dominique, 2019. "Optimal shape and position of a thick deflector plate in front of a hydraulic Savonius turbine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:256:y:2026:i:pg:s0960148125020890. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.