Observation of diurnal and

noncturnal variation of
urban microclimate
Tropical Climate in UTM
Kuala Lumpur Campus
Husna Aini Swarno
Dr. Sheikh Ahmad Zaki
Siti Wan Syahidah
Mohamed Sukri Mat Ali
Wind Engineering for Urban, Artificial, Man-made
Environment, Malaysia Japan Institute of Technology,
UTM Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

ABSTRACT
This paper presents an assessment of climatology season in UTM Kuala
Lumpur campus area. The data used are real-time weather data which
obtained from the weather station by Campbell Scientific from March 2014 to
February 2015. The weather station was installed at three potential locations
on campus. One year data was analysed using Fortran77 and the data were
analysed by daily, hourly and monthly. The result indicates that the air
temperature around the campus between 25C - 34C and for the solar
radiation 461W/m - 706 W/m. Since the campus has a few rise building
such as Menara Razak, 84 metres height and Malaysia-Japan International
Institute Technology, 53 metres height. Thus, the height of the rise building
was affected the wind speed and wind direction. The wind speed average is
about 1.5 2.5 m/s in the campus area and somehow the wind speed were up
to 5 m/s. Wind direction also more from North West direction. This study of
interest is for assessing the tropical climate in UTM campus, hence to
generic the potential of wind speed and wind direction to install the micro
scale wind turbine if the wind speed is enough to generate the wind power
electricity in the campus.
Keywords: Wind energy, Renewable Energy, Wind energy potential

1. Introduction
Wind energy is the large scale of gasses on earth which consist of the bulk
movement of air. Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy to the mechanical
energy. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device
may be called a wind generator or wind generator. Before installing the wind
power system, a comprehensive study for the wind speed need to be done
before installing the wind power system [1].
Kuala Lumpur is the capital of Malaysia and the city covered an area
of 94 m and population were estimated around 1.73 million in 2015 as stated
in official portal Department of Statistic Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur is one of
the fastest growing metropolitan regions in South East Asia in terms of
population and economy. Our scope location focused in the campus area of
UTM International Campus, Jalan Semarak, Kuala Lumpur. UTM
International Campus was at the center of Kuala Lumpur city used to be the
original campus of UTM on Lot 4582 Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra (Jalan
Semarak), with total land area of 47.56 acres. Kuala Lumpur and its
surrounding urban areas form the most industrialized and economically, the
fastest growing region in Malaysia. In fact, UTM KL is located near to
Malaysia cityscape tower like Petronas Twin Tower and KL Tower.
Construction of high building are showing an interest in reducing the
environmental impact of a building area and one of the approaches has been
used the power generation from solar and wind energy [2]. According to IEA
Wind 2010 annual report, wind energy will decrease the utilization of fuel
source and reduced the electricity cost. As we know, wind energy is a
renewable energy and becoming interactive because of the limitation of fossil
fuels reserve and the impacts to the environment. The sources of renewable
energy include solar, wind, wave, geothermal and bio-energy. If the resources
are well enough, they can give complete security of vitality supply. The wind
energy is one of the fastest developing renewable energy source, an advance
over the globe [3].
Moreover, renewable energy is the main part of achieving the goals
of sustainable development, energy security, and environmental protection
[4]. Currently, it has been identifying as one of the most promising clean
energy over the world because of its low cost and the other renewable energy
technologies are more expensive. Wind analysis mostly gives remarkable
details to researchers related to renewable energy studies. The use of wind
energy will reduce the emission from carbon dioxide and combustion from
the fossil fuels. Statistical analysis of the wind speed parameter and it I
essential for predict the energy conversion system result [3].

Tropical Climate in UTM Kuala Lumpur Campus

Malaysia currently competed with other developing country to

develop the renewable energy from available sources as an alternative energy.
Solar energy is the most focus in Malaysia even though the field is limited
and this is because Malaysia was located at the equator and become the factor
to harvest the solar energy [5]. To precisely evaluate the renewable energy
potentials, historical data of the wind speed or solar radiation are analyzed.
This acts as the first step in siting the hybrid energy system [6].
2. Wind Energy Utilization in Malaysia
Malaysia was well known as one of the developing countries among the
ASEAN country, which is located in Southeast Asia which comprise of Sabah
and Sarawak and the geographical coordinates latitude 230 N and longitude
11230 E [7]. Malaysia has a hot and humid tropical climate with two
monsoon seasons which are northeast and southwest monsoon. For the
Northeast monsoon was blowing from October and February and Southeast
monsoon from April to October. Temperature and Humidity are high per
annually. Meanwhile, wind speed is relatively low all over the year [8].
Maximum wind speeds occur during the afternoon and minimum speed
occurs just before sunrise and the pattern controlled by convection in the
surface boundary layer as the ground were heated during sunrise and cooled
by radiation at night [7].
Malaysia mostly surrounded by water, which can divide into West
Malaysia and East Malaysia. West Malaysia consists of peninsular Malaysia
which are divided into east peninsular Malaysia and west peninsular
Malaysia. Moreover, it is located between 1 and 6 latitude north and 100
to 104 longitude east. Hence, peninsular Malaysia bordered by Thailand in
the north and the South China Sea on the east side, while the Malacca Straits
at the west coast separates the peninsula from Sumatera, Indonesia. East
Malaysia is bordered by the South China Sea along its northwest coast, by the
Sulu Sea and the Celebes Sea at the Sabah north area and the south side, it is
bordered with Kalimantan, Indonesia [9].
In Malaysia, the wind energy conversion Based on the previous
study, 150 kW wind turbine has been installed in Terumbu Layang-Layang
and was demonstrated with some success in 2005 by a team from UKM.
Wind energy conversion is a serious consideration which the potential for
wind energy generation in Malaysia depends on the availability of the wind
resource that refers to the certain location. The crucial step in planning the
wind energy project is to understand the site-specific nature of the wind. For
wind energy potential not many data are available that can be found. In the
early 1980s, the Solar Energy Research Group from UKM have conducted

the research regarding the wind energy potential. Wind data were collected
from 10 stations which distributed all over in Malaysia (6 peninsular
Malaysia and 4 in east Malaysia, Sabah, and Sarawak) for 10 years period
(1982-1991) which the station was located at the airport, near open sea, flat
area or meteorology department. The station that has the highest potential
with a mean power density of 85.61 W/m at 10 m above sea level which is
Mersing at the seaside area [10].
Besides that, a case study of wind energy potential in Malaysia has
also been carried out by Nurhayati Rusly et. al. [11]. They published a study
which encompasses sets of data consists of wind speeds and directions
measured at 10 m height of wind sensor were gathered to form preliminary
study of the research. The data were collected from the Malaysian
Meteorological Department, Petaling Jaya at 14 locations which are Alor
Setar, Bayan Lepas, Ipoh, Kota Bharu, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Terengganu,
Kuantan, Kuching, Labuan, Melaka, Mersing, Miri, Senai, and Subang. The
data consists of the hourly wind records over 3 years period starting from
January 2007 until December 2009. The analysis showed, the highest mean
monthly wind speed in an overall location at Mersing throughout the 3 years
observation period. The average wind speeds over peninsular Malaysia
generally mild and the average wind speed is about 2.3 m/s and the maximum
of wind speed is less than 14 m/s. Further studies should be conducted at
Mersing to locate the best point that can trigger the highest wind power
energy.
3. Methodology
The meteorological data used in this study are gathered from three stations
located in the campus area in UTM Kuala Lumpur. The data for this study
consists of hourly wind records over one year period starting from 1 March
2014 until 28 February 2015. The collected data were recorded for 10
minutes and stored in the data logger. All measurements in the wind
observation, temperature, relative humidity and solar radiation are recorded
using cup anemometer and watchdog produced by Campbell Scientific.
Figure 1 shows the location of the chosen site.

Tropical Climate in UTM Kuala Lumpur Campus

Figure 1: Location of the weather station installed

The details of the weather station installed at the station in campus area were
tabulated in Table 1.
Table 1: Details of Weather Station
Weather
Station
1
2
3

Height from the ground

(metre)
2
2
71

Measurement Product
WatchDog (Campbell)
WatchDog (Campbell)
Cup Anemometer (Campbell)

Two distinct seasons are noticed in this location: northeast monsoon

season which in November to March and southwest monsoon season which
in May to September and the transition period in April and October [12]. The
data were analysed using Fortran77 and were average by daily, hourly and
monthly over one year period.
4. Data Analysis
This section was divided into several parameters which are air temperature,
solar radiation, wind speed, wind direction and relative humidity.

4.1 Air Temperature

The moving molecules speed within a material defines a measurement of
temperature. Chemical reactions are more likely to happen when the
molecules move faster and collide with each other frequently. Heat
accelerates the chemical reactions when molecules move rapidly at high
temperatures and this leads to higher deterioration. The higher the chemical
reactions, were lead to high temperature, and the lower the temperature, the
slower rate of deterioration [13].
Referring to Figure 2, about 60% the average of air temperature in
campus area between 28C to 30C, 14% temperature range 26C to 28C
and followed by 27% of temperature range 30C and 32C. This result
indicated that the temperature in campus area slightly cool, because by
referring to Figure 4, it shows a high number of total rainfall by each month.
The highest total rainfall is in October 2014 and the temperature was at 27C.
Figure 3 indicates monthly by hourly average temperature from March 2014
until February 2015. The temperature rose from 7:00 am to 12:00 pm and
started to decline at 12:00 pm until 18:00 pm. This is due to a high number of
total rainfall for all month that recorded in Figure 4.

Figure 2: Frequency of Air Temperature

Tropical Climate in UTM Kuala Lumpur Campus

Figure 3: Monthly of Hourly Temperature Average

Figure 4: Relationship between Total Rainfall by Monthly

4.2 Solar Radiation

Figure 10: Monthly of Hourly Temperature Average

4.3 Wind Speed

Figure 11: Monthly of Hourly Wind Speed

Tropical Climate in UTM Kuala Lumpur Campus

Figure 12: Daily of Maximum Wind Speed

Figure 13: Wind Class Distribution

4.4 Wind Direction

Figure 14: Wind Direction Blowing From

Figure 15: Wind Direction Blowing To

Tropical Climate in UTM Kuala Lumpur Campus

4.5 Relative Humidity

Figure 16: Monthly Hourly of Relative Humidity

11

Figure 17: Daily Maximum and Minimum of Relative Humidity

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