Optimization of wind augmenters for urban power generation

Wind power is the most available renewable energy source to date due to the relatively low costs and advances in the field. Consequently, there is a high demand for innovative wind technology. Furthermore, providing energy near consumers, such as in inner city dwellings and urban settings, provides a more efficient and more reliable energy source. The use of architecture to augment wind energy extraction is still unresolved and the area of research is still in its infancy. The few studies conducted have shown substantial benefits by using buildings to collect wind to increase the power efficiency of wind turbines beyond the Betz limit. This study utilized computational fluid dynamics to analyze building shapes to optimize wind turbine power production. Results indicate an increase in power of up to approximately 4-8 times compared with that for the undisturbed free stream flow. Furthermore, a porous medium was used to simulate the momentum loss due to the presence of the wind turbine. The trends remained similar despite the momentum loss caused by the presence of the wind turbine. The porous medium results showed an increase of power approximately 2-3 times. The study extended the geometry to 3D to support the 2D results. The test case indicated the 3D results had a higher performance in comparison to 2D due to the 3D interactions of the vortex shedding dampening the variance of velocity in the gap region. Furthermore, a certain geometry performs better at different angles of attack providing the optimal geometry will be specifically tailored to the typical wind directions associated with the desired building location.