Wind energy potential above a high-rise building influenced by neighboring buildings: An experimental investigation

It is believed that the local topology has a significant effect on the wind flow pattern, wind velocity and turbulence intensity of the flow above the roof of buildings and thus is significantly influencing wind harvesting potential. This paper presents an experimental investigation, in which velocity field was measured above the roof of a high-rise building with a square cross section and height to width ratio of 1:3 surrounded by four buildings of the same geometry. In addition, the surface pressure was also measured. The flow above the roof was measured for different wind angles: 0°, 15°, 30°, and 45°. Results showed that there is a significant influence of the upstream building on the wind characteristics above the principal one. In general the wind angle of 45° is shown to be the most desirable angle for wind energy harvesting. The results of this work provide for the first time a database for the validation of computational fluid dynamic simulations for flat roof that will hopefully be used for more detailed investigations for urban wind energy harvesting.