Influence of the building shape on the aerodynamic response and pedestrian wind comfort of high-rise urban vertical farms

Urban vertical farm buildings significantly enhance the yield of fresh produce and crops through vertical stacking and environmental control technologies, addressing land and water resource constraints commonly faced in rural areas, while supporting various global sustainability targets. However, the use and operation of those facilities demand substantial energy supplies, which impedes their implementation. To mitigate these constraints, researchers propose the deployment of wind turbine systems to harness clean, renewable energy for urban food production. This paper presents CFD simulations of vertical farm building arrangements with different layouts (circular, square, and elliptical), equipped with small-scale wind turbines placed on the roof. The models enable us to observe the flow disturbances around their envelope and how the wind field around wind turbines changes with the building layout. A parametric analysis was conducted to investigate the flow patterns in the ‘wind corridor’ formed between vertical farms. The results obtained allow us to conclude that the elliptical plan layout exhibits the highest wind speed at the reference height, whilst the circular plan layout has the lowest turbulence intensity, and the square layout has the weakest wind energy potential at the reference height. The wind regime at the ground-level of all three plan layouts performs within acceptable limits in terms of pedestrian comfort and safety.