Through-Building Ducts for Mounting Wind Turbines: A Numerical Study

Yet, several locations for mounting the wind turbines in urban areas have been proposed, which can be categorized into four main groups; (a) on the rooftops, (b) between the buildings, (c) integrated into the buildings’ skin and (d) inside a though-building hole. Through-building holes take advantage of the pressure difference between the windward and leeward facades of the building to generate a high-speed velocity zone for mounting the wind turbine. In the current study, three-dimensional numerical simulations of atmospheric turbulent boundary layer flow around high-rise buildings are carried out to determine the optimum location and size of the duct. For this purpose, square cross-section buildings (20 × 20 m) with heights of H0 = 60, 120 and 180 m are considered. Numerical results showed that the difference of the pressure coefficient on the windward and leeward facades of the building without the hole can predict the best location for mounting the wind turbine with acceptable accuracy. Then, circular holes with various diameters of D = 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10 and 12.5m are created at z/H0 = 0.8, where the maximum pressure difference is close to the maximum. It is found that the maximum velocity increment occurs for D = 10 m and it is 31% greater than the U10 velocity of the incident wind profile. This means that the available wind power inside the duct is 2.25 times greater than the incident wind power.