SET Proceedings 2978-4387 Caravel Press 10.65582/set.2008.141 2008.141 A CFD investigation into the wind flow around several generic building types situated within a built environment RogersThomas RiffatSaffa OmerSiddig Institute of Sustainable Energy Technology, University of Nottingham, UK 24082008 7 1 978-1-995850-08-5 1055 1062 24 August 2008 © 2008 Copyright WSSET 2008

This paper presents results of CFD modelling carried out to investigate the wind flow around the rooftops of several kinds of homogenous urban building structures. The intention being to explore the optimal positioning of micro-scale building-mounted wind turbines. Buildings examined include large flat-roofed commercial properties (industrial estates, business parks, commercial tower blocks) and pitched-roofed residential properties (terraced, semi-detached and detached houses, residential tower blocks). A method for simplifying and modelling the flow around buildings was developed and is presented here. Typical turbulence intensity levels are also investigated. Several conclusions were drawn from the results; these suggest that, depending upon local site conditions, commercial buildings are better suited to building mounted turbines, it is inadvisable to mount a turbine below the ridgeline of pitched roof dwellings and speed-up effects are greatly reduced for buildings situated within the urban environment.

 wind energy micro-generation CFD urban environment 24 to 27 August 2008 7th International Conference on Sustainable Energy Technologies SET2008 7 Seoul, Korea Dutton, A. Halliday, J, Blanch, M. 2005. The Feasibility of Building-Mounted/Integrated Wind Turbines: Achieving their potential for carbon emission reduction. Energy Research Unit. Carbon Trust Report. pp4-5. UK. Castro, I, Graham, J. 1999. Numerical wind engineering: the way ahead? Structures & Buildings. Vol 134. pp275-277. UK. Britter, R, Schatzmann, M. 2007. Model evaluation guidance and protocol document – Quality assurance and improvement of micro-scale meteorological models. COST Action 732. Germany. Mertens, S. Wind Energy in the Built Environment. Multi-Science. pp53-64. 2006. UK. Rogers, T. 2008. The effect of turbulence on microscale HAWTs. laxter@nottingham.ac.uk. UK. Fluent 6.1, Fluent, Inc., ANSYS, Inc. www.fluent.com. 14th June 2008. Richards, P, Hoxey, R. 1993. Appropriate boundary conditions for computational wind engineering models using the κ-ε turbulence model. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics. Vol 46 & 47. pp145-153. UK.