Investigate the Performance of a Proposed Micro-Turbine Design in Small Scale Openings in High Rise Buildings

Abstract

Increase in urbanization and industrialization around the world in recent years has led to a consequent rise in energy demand. In recent years it has been reported that approximately 75% of generated power is consumed in cities. It also worth to mention that about 50% energy consumption in U.S is in building sector which 41.7% is for operating buildings. With the global energy demand in 2040 being expected to be about 30% higher than that of 2010. For this reasons, an urgent need for the incorporation of alternative energy as well as energy efficiency measures has to be incorporated in urban planning and construction. Until now, two main approaches that have been integrated into large scale wind energy in urban settings are either locating wind energy farm in the periphery of the urban areas or integration of wind energy systems into the building design. It was observed that the installation of wind turbines in order to meet 10–15% of global energy demand might cause surface warming by increasing the temperature by 1 °C on land. Moreover, there some issues that can be considered as a disadvantage for large wind turbines. For Instance: noise production, the social aesthetic acceptability, negative impact on birds, the cost of maintenance, transportation, sufficient infrastructure and etc. In contrast to large-scale wind turbines, small wind turbines are much simpler and exploitation of building. In high-rise buildings, the heights and onsite energy generation imply an absence of big towers required to capture high wind speeds and minimum transmission losses, as well as a contribution to the configuration of zero-energy buildings. On the other hand, to improve safety and serviceability of super-tall buildings in strong winds, aerodynamic optimization of building shapes is considered to be the most efficient approach. Aerodynamic optimization is aimed at increasing the structural resistance against winds. The idea of generating wind power in high rise buildings is experienced in some constructions that the further study reveals the cons and pros about them. The Pearl River Tower, which is one of the latest and successful building in this type, considered as the case study for this research. The research proposing the distributed opening as an effective modification to improve the aerodynamic behavior of the high rise buildings and devising the micro-turbine within the penetration for wind energy generating. The CFD simulation shows the improvement in coefficient drag factor in the proposal design option and the wind tunnel test reveals better aerodynamic performance as well. The conclusion shows better performance for wind harvesting and wind energy generating beside reducing the structural weight that would be needed in comparison to the original building. On the other hand, the proposal design shows more lift forces on the building and the other challenging issue would be maintenance the higher number of the small turbine. The further study will be needed to controlling the vibration and noise level inside the wind ducts and optimizing the wind penetration pattern on the building façade.