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Estimating the potential yield of small building-mounted wind turbines

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journal contribution
posted on 2015-06-19, 11:06 authored by Malcolm A. Heath, John D. Walshe, Simon Watson
The wind profile in the urban boundary layer is described as following a logarithmic curve above the mean building height and an exponential curve below it. By considering the urban landscape to be an array of cubes, a method is described for calculating the surface roughness length and displacement height of this profile. Firstly, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model employing a k-ϵ turbulence model is used to simulate the flow around a cube. The results of this simulation are compared with wind tunnel measurements in order to validate the code. Then, the CFD model is used to simulate the wind flow around a simple pitched-roof building, using a semi-logarithmic inflow profile. An array of similar pitched-roof houses is modelled using CFD to determine the flow characteristics within an urban area. Mean wind speeds at potential turbine mounting points are studied, and optimum mounting points are identified for different prevailing wind directions. A methodology is proposed for estimating the energy yield of a building-mounted turbine from simple information such as wind atlas wind speed and building density. The energy yield of a small turbine on a hypothetical house in west London is estimated. The energy yield is shown to be very low, particularly if the turbine is mounted below rooftop height. It should be stressed that the complexity of modelling such urban environments using such a computational model has limitations and results can only be considered approximate, but nonetheless, gives an indication of expected yields within the built environment.

History

School

  • Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering

Published in

WIND ENERGY

Volume

10

Issue

3

Pages

271 - 287 (17)

Citation

HEATH, M.A., WALSHE, J.D. and WATSON, S.J., 2007. Estimating the potential yield of small building-mounted wind turbines. Wind Energy, 10 (3), pp. 271 - 287.

Publisher

© John Wiley and Sons Ltd.

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publication date

2007

Notes

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: HEATH, M.A., WALSHE, J.D. and WATSON, S.J., 2007. Estimating the potential yield of small building-mounted wind turbines. Wind Energy, 10 (3), pp. 271 - 287, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/we.222. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.

ISSN

1095-4244

Language

  • en