Roof mounting site analysis for micro-wind turbines

Building-integrated micro-wind turbines are promising low-cost renewable energy devices. However, the take-up of micro-wind turbines in high density suburban environments is still very limited due to issues such as: a) low wind speeds; b) high turbulence intensity; and c) the perception of potentially high levels of aerodynamic noise generated by the turbines. The wind flow field above the roof of buildings in this environment is different to that over flat terrain or around isolated buildings. The effect of the local suburban topology on the wind speed and turbulence intensity fields in a given locality is therefore an important determinant of the optimal location of micro-wind turbines. This paper presents a numerical study of above roof wind flow characteristics in three suburban landscapes characterized by houses with different roof profiles, namely: pitched roofs, pyramidal roofs and flat roofs. Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) technique has been used to simulate the wind flow in such environments and to find the optimum turbine mounting locations. Results show how the wind flow characteristics are strongly dependent on the profile of the roofs. It is found that turbines mounted on flat roofs are likely to yield higher and more consistent power for the same turbine hub elevation than the other roof profiles.

[1]  Stylianos Rafailidis,et al.  Influence of Building Areal Density and Roof Shape on the Wind Characteristics Above a Town , 1997 .

[2]  Alan G. Davenport.  THE APPLICATION OF STATISTICAL CONCEPTS TO THE WIND LOADING OF STRUCTURES. , 1961 .

[3]  David Jenkins,et al.  Micro wind turbines in the UK domestic sector , 2008 .

[4]  Ervin Bossanyi,et al.  Wind Energy Handbook , 2001 .

[5]  M. Tutar,et al.  Computational Modeling of Wind Flow Around a Group of Buildings , 2004 .

[6]  Lin Lu,et al.  Investigation on the feasibility and enhancement methods of wind power utilization in high-rise buildings of Hong Kong , 2009 .

[7]  F. Menter.  Two-equation eddy-viscosity turbulence models for engineering applications , 1994 .

[8]  R. Macdonald,et al.  Modelling The Mean Velocity Profile In The Urban Canopy Layer , 2000 .

[9]  Takanori Uchida,et al.  Micro-siting technique for wind turbine generator by using large-eddy simulation , 2006 .

[10]  R. Griffiths,et al.  An improved method for the estimation of surface roughness of obstacle arrays , 1998 .

[11]  Nicolas Moussiopoulos,et al.  On the Performance and Applicability of Nonlinear Two-Equation Turbulence Models for Urban Air Quality Modelling , 2000 .

[12]  P. Gipe,et al.  Wind energy basics , 2009 .

[13]  Michael J. Brown,et al.  COMPARISON OF CENTERLINE VELOCITY MEASUREMENTS OBTAINED AROUND 2D AND 3D BUILDING ARRAYS IN A WIND TUNNEL , 2001 .

[14]  Alberto Martilli,et al.  CFD simulation of airflow over a regular array of cubes. Part I: Three-dimensional simulation of the flow and validation with wind-tunnel measurements , 2007 .

[15]  Simon J. Watson,et al.  Estimating the potential yield of small building‐mounted wind turbines , 2007 .

[16]  Koichi Watanabe,et al.  Numerical and experimental studies of airfoils suitable for Vertical Axis Wind Turbines and an application of wind-energy collecting structure for higher performance , 2006 .

[17]  Yozo Fujino,et al.  MC3 Wind Energy And Topography1 , 2006 .

[18]  S. Mertens,et al.  The Energy Yield of Roof Mounted Wind Turbines , 2003 .

[19]  Tariq Muneer,et al.  Evaluation of micro-wind turbine aerodynamics, wind speed sampling interval and its spatial variation , 2009 .