Effects of urban configuration on the wind energy distribution over a building

A numerical study to investigate the wind energy potential for various building configurations is presented. Steady-state incompressible flow simulations were performed using the finite volume method of ANSYS Fluent with the k-ε turbulence model. A simplified city model was used to study the flow behavior over a building rooftop for various configurations of the upwind structure. Results show an increase of up to 29% in the available energy compared to the free stream due to variations in the dimensions of the separation bubble over the rooftop. This study shows the influence of building configuration on the wind resource near buildings and how it can affect the feasibility of a small-scale wind turbine project.