Effect of roof shape, wind direction, building height and urban configuration on the energy yield and positioning of roof mounted wind turbines

Abstract

The increasing interest among architects and planners in designing environmentally friendly buildings has led to a desire to explore and integrate renewable sources of energy within the built environment. Roof mounted wind turbines is a technology that presents a high potential for integration within the built environment. However, there is a state of uncertainty regarding the viability of these wind turbines. This thesis argues that part of this uncertainty is attributed to uninformed decisions about positioning and locating urban wind turbines. This is underpinned by lack of consideration to the wind accelerating effect of different roof shapes, buildings’ heights and surrounding urban configurations. This thesis aims to investigate the effect of different roof shapes on wind acceleration and positioning of roof mounted wind turbines covering different buildings’ heights within different urban configurations under different wind directions. To achieve the aim of the thesis, the commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code Fluent 12.1, implementing the Realizable k-ε turbulence model, is used to simulate wind flow around different roof shapes, different buildings’ heights and different urban settings. Predictions are comparatively analysed to identify the optimum roof shape for mounting wind turbines. Simulation results indicate that the barrel vaulted roof has the highest wind accelerating effect. The barrel vaulted roof shape case was carried further to investigate the effect of building height and surrounding urban configurations on the energy yield and positioning of roof mounted wind turbines. The optimum mounting location for each of the investigated roof shapes namely: flat, domed, gabled, pyramidal, barrel vaulted and wedged roofs is identified. Results from the investigation predict a possible increase up to 56.1% in energy yield in the case of a barrel vaulted roof if an informed wind assessment above buildings’ roofs is carried out. However, changing the building height and surrounding urban configuration had an effect on choosing the optimum mounting location and the energy yield at that location.