Large eddy simulation of the flow around a high-rise building with special focus on the two-points two-times second order statistics of the velocity field

Abstract

Comprehending the wind characteristics in urban environments is crucial to ensure optimal performance and structural integrity of wind turbines operating in urban areas. This study aims to provide a deeper insight into wind characteristics over high-rise buildings rooftop. The impact of a high-rise building configuration on the turbulent wind field characteristics is analyzed, by means of large eddy simulations of a reference wind tunnel experiment. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the second order statistics of the turbulent velocity components, as they are crucial inputs for generating synthetic urban wind fields for wind turbine aeroelastic simulations. A Spectral Representation Method is applied to generate the desired turbulent inflow represented in the experiment study. The correspondence between the predicted statistics and the experimental values of the velocity components over the rooftop reinforces the idea about the practical viability of large eddy simulation to provide atmospheric turbulence information in the urban environment required to characterize the behavior of wind systems operating in that environment. Additionally, the two-points two-times second order statistics are significantly affected by the presence of the high-rise building, especially when those statistics involve at least a point within the recirculation bubble region.