A Study on the Variation of Wind Velocity between Buildings with the Change of Building Corner Modification

Abstract

Building Integrated Wind Power (BIWP), the installation of wind power generators on buildings to generate energy, is being attempted in various ways. The advantage of BIWP is that it does not require a support fixture for positioning a wind turbine at a desired height. Furthermore, it allows the energy generated by a turbine to be used directly within the building. Utilizing computational fluid dynamics (CFD), this study examines the variations in wind velocity and turbulence intensity occurring as a result of changes in the morphology of a building’s corners to increase the efficiency of wind power generators that are installed between buildings. Results of this study show that buildings with round corners experienced an increase in wind velocity of up to 13%, as compared to regular corners, while corner cuts increased wind velocity by 15%. The morphology of the corners will have less of an impact on the location where wind velocity is highest where the distance between buildings is greater. However, if the distance between the buildings is shorter and the corners are long enough, wind velocity increases and turbulence intensity decreases.