Potential wind power utilization in diverging passages between two high-rise buildings: using “Venturi effect” on the windward side

The objective of this study is to investigate the urban wind power potential from the proper arrangement of high-rise buildings in a complex and dense urban environment. There is great prospective in the formulation of the building design at early stages to maximize wind power production in dense urban areas. We employed the 3D steady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to investigate the impact of the arrangement of high-rise buildings on the wind energy potential . Two arrays of high-rise buildings with height = 90 m and aspect ratio (height/width) of 4.5 is studied, which focuses on different distances between the side facades of the upstream buildings, ranging from 3 to 21 m. The findings of the study support the high-rise buildings design with respect to integrated urban wind energy harvesting and the concept of sustainable urban development.