Numerical analysis of urban wind power potential between high-rise buildings: impact of building orientations

The urban environment constitutes a promising potential for wind energy harvesting where the wind turbines can be integrated in the existing buildings and city infrastructures or renovation projects. While several studies have been performed to investigate the urban wind energy potential, the impact of the arrangement of high-rise buildings has not yet investigated in detail. In this paper, therefore, the impact of the arrangement of high-rise buildings on the wind energy potential (defined as high mean wind speed and low turbulence intensity (Ti 18%)) is investigated using 3D steady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations. A 2×2 array of high-rise buildings with height = 90 m and aspect ratio (height/width) of 4.5 is studied. The evaluation is based on validation with wind-tunnel measurements of mean wind speed for a generic urban area. The study focuses on two building orientations,  = 0 and 45, and seven distances, ranging from 3 to 21 m, between the side facades of the upstream buildings. The results show that for cases with  = 45 and D  9 m, the wind power potential between the buildings significantly increase (29%). The findings of the study support the design of high-rise buildings with respect to integrated wind energy harvesting.