Experimental and numerical wind-resource assessment of an university campus site

Abstract

During a 3 year research project funded by the local government of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, the potential of wind-energy production was studied at the university campus of Tübingen, a town in the south-west of Germany. The 3D wind field was studied both experimentally and numerically in order to identify optimal locations for small wind turbine installation. Within the scope of this project, a full-scale field experiment and RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes) models were applied in order to yield a better understanding of the airflow around the buildings. We validate our CFD predictions of the flow field with wind-speed measurements using ultrasonic anemometers at several stations within the campus. The simulation results (in direct comparison with the measured data) improved greatly when trees were explicitly considered using a simple canopy model at the inflow boundary. This study is intended to support and guide the next steps of the wind resources assessment at similar sites. We gladly offer our site, instrumentation and (simulated and measured) data to other groups that perform urban wind energy studies.