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Influence of nearby urban buildings on the wind field around a wind turbine: a case study in Dundalk Institute of Technology

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Abstract

In this paper, an urban environmental wind field distribution around the wind turbine is numerically investigated by using ANSYS Fluent with the k–ω SST turbulence model. A computational domain designed with an octagonal prism shape is used to simulate wind from eight different directions. As a case study, the wind field and wind power output at the location of the 850 kW wind turbine in the Dundalk Institute of Technology campus are analyzed. The simulated inlet wind speeds adopted are 6 m/s, 12 m/s, 14 m/s, and 22 m/s. The simulation results show that, at both high and low wind speeds, specific wind directions would generate wakes behind tall narrow buildings and affect the wind speed at the location of the wind turbine. The local acceleration of the wind speed could only occur next to buildings. Moreover, in a low-speed southwesterly wind, the wind speed at the location of the wind turbine will be significantly reduced due to the presence of low-wide buildings. When the wind of 14 m/s comes from the south–east direction and the wind of 6 m/s comes from the north–east direction, the maximum percentage changes in wind speed and power output are − 2.41% and − 5.59%, respectively.

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Data availability

The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors also wish to acknowledge the support of the INTERREG VA SPIRE2 project. This research was supported by the European Union's INTERREG VA Programme (Grant No. INT-VA/049), managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB). The views and opinions expressed in this document do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission or the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB). The authors also acknowledge the Research Office at Dundalk Institute of Technology. The authors also acknowledge IEA Wind Task 41, Enabling wind to contribute to a distributed energy future.

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (Grant Number 108-3116-F-042A-006-).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan, 320314, Taiwan

    Yu-Chin Chien & Huei Chu Weng

  2. Mechanical and System Engineering Program, Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, Atomic Energy Council, Taoyuan, 325207, Taiwan

    Yan-Ting Lin

  3. Centre for Renewables and Energy, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Dundalk, Co. Louth, A91 K584, Ireland

    Raymond Byrne

  4. Institute of High Performance Computing, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, 138632, Singapore

    Pao-Hsiung Chiu

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Contributions

Y-TL and RB conceptualized the study. Y-CC, Y-TL, and HCW conducted laboratory works, provided the statistics, processed the data and fulfilled the analysis, wrote the draft. HCW provided software and performed the analysis supervision, draft writing supervision. RB and P-HC performed the analysis supervision, final manuscript writing and editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Huei Chu Weng.

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Chien, YC., Lin, YT., Weng, H.C. et al. Influence of nearby urban buildings on the wind field around a wind turbine: a case study in Dundalk Institute of Technology. Int J Energy Environ Eng 14, 511–524 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40095-022-00531-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40095-022-00531-3

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