Systematic Architectural Design for Optimal Wind Energy Generation

PREFACE

With a better understanding of building sciences and improved technologies for the utilisation of building physics, architectural form-finding processes became more elaborated with the added consideration for thermal, acoustic, solar, and aerodynamic forms. Majority of these invisible ordering principles have been developed in the last 100 years; however, they have impacted critical decisions about architectural form only in about the last 70 years. The science of architectural acoustics, for example, did not exist until the second half of the twentieth century, and practical auditorium acoustics were not well understood until about 1960s.

The advent and evolution of building sciences and their incorporation into building technologies transformed the means of evaluating architecture. Thus, several qualitative aspects of architectural form were measurable in quantitative terms. Other than all the general means of spatial experience, comfort, music, lighting, colour, and energy requirements could also be measured, totally optimised and reconfigured.

This book concentrates on further elaborations on the influences of wind and architecture on building sciences, architectural form finding and the optimisation of wind energy harvesting using suitable wind turbines. This publication documents case studies on existing buildings’ designs incorporating wind energy technology in Chapter 1. Certain processes and key indicators for evaluating and testing any envisioned architectural form have been proposed in this chapter. Moreover, the methods for scanning various wind aerodynamic responses relevant to buildings that could be utilised for wind energy harvesting have been elaborated, along with the various types of wind flows and their characteristics. Further steps for streamlining architectural forms to generate optimal wind flows prior to energy harvesting are discussed in Chapter 2.

The ideas presented in this book are a continuation to previous work, aiming to enhance architectural design potential for achieving better prospects of sustainability through the assimilation of wind energy harvesting into architectural form design. In Chapters 4 and 6, the works presented in publications titled, ‘Factors enhancing aerofoil wings for wind energy harnessing in buildings’[1] and ‘Effect of turbine resistance and positioning on performance of Aerofoil wing building augmented wind energy generation’ [2], respectively, are further elaborated. The former study examines how architectural form and aerofoils together can be manipulated to generate continuous wind flows suitable for energy harvesting using wind turbines. Some aerofoil forms are proposed on the basis of their aerodynamic qualities and peculiar attributes capable of assisting wind flow patterns around buildings. The latter study examines different positions of turbines within the same design aspects envisioned in the former study on wind energy harvesting. An independent tool is needed to be employed to ‘measure’ these attributes of design, which was done in the form of fluid flow computations using computational fluid dynamics (CFD).

Although the content of this study has a well-established scientific basis to it, together with this tool, the design decisions are still on pure architectural forms and their merits of clean energy generation and maximisation. This reflects the capability of a design to transcend the boundaries of science and art in a more unifying and encompassing way. One would recall the following from Richard Buchanan’s ‘Wicked Problems in Design Thinking’, in Margolin and Buchanan, eds., The Idea of Design, 1995:

‘The significance of seeking a scientific basis for design does not lie in the likelihood of reducing design to one or another of the sciences. . . . Rather, it lies in a concern to connect and integrate useful knowledge from the arts and sciences alike’.

In Chapter 5, a thorough review of diffuser augmentation technology for wind turbines amenable to building integration and/or mimicking in architectural forms is undertaken. The key dimensional proportions of a diffuser that critically underlie augmentation level/success and in turn that is suitable for inclusion within an architectural form are highlighted.

In Chapter 7, the overall conclusions and suggestions are elaborated. In case of any feedback, please contact the author at the following email address: [email protected]

CONSENT FOR PUBLICATION

Not applicable.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The author declares no conflict of interest, financial or otherwise.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Declared none.

REFERENCES

Abdel Rahman Elbakheit

College of Architecture and Planning

Department of Architecture and Building Sciences

King Saud University

Riyadh

Saudi Arabia

Email: [email protected]

Wind and Architecture

Abdel Rahman Elbakheit

¹ College of Architecture and Planning, Department of Architecture and Building Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

In this chapter, the influences of wind on architecture are highlighted. Wind can have both positive and negative effects on architecture. Moreover, architecture can respond in proactive ways to maximise the benefits of wind forces and reduce or eliminate the negative impacts. This chapter sheds further light on notable architectural ideas translated into architectural case studies on harvesting wind energy in the built environment. Moreover, this chapter enables gaining insight into successful practices in architectural design solutions and ways and means to further enhance the performance of the buildings. In addition, the negative impacts of high wind velocities are identified, and possible solutions to mitigate them at their source are presented and discussed. Optimised architectural forms that can completely avoid excessive wind forces and devastating vortex shedding during the design stage are presented.

Keywords: Architectural forms, Aerodynamic architectural optimisation, Architectural form finding, Architectural stability, Vortex shedding, Wind energy, Wind energy harvesting, Wind forces.

* Corresponding author Abdel Rahman Elbakheit: College of Architecture and Planning, Department of Architecture and Building Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. E-mail:[email protected]

1. INTRODUCTION

Mankind encountered wind and its effects from the dawn of existence. The history of using this renewable energy source has been well integrated in human civilisation, being implemented for sailing boats and operating wind mills [1], wind catchers [2], etc. However, for buildings in general, architectural form in particular, wind is associated either with structural safety or ventilation of interior spaces. With technology advancement, structural safety and ventilation have developed to be well established aspects of architectural form, although under different specialisations: structural safety under structural engineering [3] and ventilation under mechanical engineering [4]. However, architectural design retained the initiative of combining these two, among others, to produce more environmentally friendly buildings. Thus, the need to adequately benefit from wind arose. In other words, the need to find a way to tame the giant to harvest its energy at the point where it is made. In this regard, some notable conceptual architectural ideas put forth by architect Bill Dunster [5] were ground breaking, wherein he proposed the integration of a flower-shaped structure with at Tall

building concentracting and accelerating wind flow for energy harvesting.Another wind energy harvesting design was developed by the European funded project of ‘WEB – JOR3-CT98-0270’ [September 1998–August 2000] [6], which performed a systematic study on the generation of wind flows by design manipulation to enhance wind energy harvesting. This study included the use of two large kidney-shaped towers that channel and accelerate wind flows between them, where large turbines are present. A prototype was erected and tested. Fig. (1) shows this prototype, which was designed under the collaborative efforts of Imperial College London, Mecal applied mechanics (i.e., consulting firm), University of Stuttgart, and BDSP partnership Ltd. (i.e., engineering consulting firm).