A GUI for Urban Wind Flow CFD Analysis of Small Scale Wind Applications

In order to have better insight into the physics of the urban wind turbines, a graphical user interface (GUI) that employs Open FOAM flow solver has been developed for industrial applications by Uppsala University with Spanish engineering company SOLUTE via EU framework as part of the WINDUR framework 7 project. Urban wind resource assessment for small scale wind applications present several challenges and complexities for that are different from large-scale wind power generation. Urban boundary layer relevant in this regime of flows have different horizontal profiles impacted by the buildings, low speed wind regimes, separation and different turbulence characteristics. This software addresses the project set-up and scientific visualization of the results for right investment decision needs. Preliminary numerical results will be presented for a test site in Huesca, Spain where a measurement campaign is undertaken to validate the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) results.