Numerical Investigation of Wind Conditions for Roof-Mounted Wind Turbines: Effects of Wind Direction and Horizontal Aspect Ratio of a High-Rise Cuboid Building

Takaaki Kono, Tetsuya Kogaki and Takahiro Kiwata
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Takaaki Kono: Institute of Science and Engineering, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa 920-1192, Japan
Tetsuya Kogaki: National Instiute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Koriyama 963-0298, Japan
Takahiro Kiwata: Institute of Science and Engineering, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa 920-1192, Japan

Energies, 2016, vol. 9, issue 11, 1-20

Abstract: From the viewpoint of installing small wind turbines (SWTs) on rooftops, this study investigated the effects of wind direction and horizontal aspect ratio (HAR = width/length) of a high-rise cuboid building on wind conditions above the roof by conducting large eddy simulations (LESs). The LES results confirmed that as HAR decreases (i.e., as the building width decreases), the variation in wind velocity over the roof tends to decrease. This tendency is more prominent as the angle between the wind direction and the normal vector of the building’s leeward face with longer roof edge increases. Moreover, at windward corners of the roof, wind conditions are generally favorable at relatively low heights. In contrast, at the midpoint of the roof's windward edge, wind conditions are generally not favorable at relatively low heights. At leeward representative locations of the roof, the bottoms of the height range of favorable wind conditions are typically higher than those at the windward representative locations, but the favorable wind conditions are much better at the leeward representative locations. When there is no prevailing wind direction, the center of the roof is more favorable for installing SWTs than the corners or the edge midpoints of the roof.

Keywords: roof-top; small wind turbine (SWT); wind condition; horizontal aspect ratio; wind direction; large-eddy simulation (LES) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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