Computational modeling of wind flow over the University of Calgary campus

Abstract

This paper describes computer simulations of the wind flow over the University of Calgary campus undertaken to assess the likely regions for siting wind turbines and photovoltaic modules. The importation and cleaning of the building geometries is discussed along with the requirements for modeling adjacent buildings on the accurate simulation over one building in particular. The effect of the terrain and the many trees on the campus is shown to be significant for the wind resource over the roof of a six-storey building. It is shown that the choice of turbulence model is not critical if the purpose of the simulation is to identify regions for further exploration via wind speed measurements.