A client was pleased with the performance of a recent building designed and built with low energy objectives on the "mixed mode" principle. When the time came to build another building he appointed the same design and construction team and challenged them to suggest cost effective improvements to the environmental features of the original building. The team developed a "shopping list" of potential energy use reducing features that included chilled slabs, which could be cooled by both a cooling pond and mechanical refrigeration. Fortuitously the site had sufficient space for a cooling pond.

Combustion gases from diesel engines of trucks accumulate in the apparatus rooms of fire stations when fire trucks and emergency vehicles leave for or return from an emergency run. The situation is most extreme when fire trucks leave for an emergency run. All doors are closed for security reasons and combustion gases become trapped in closed apparatus rooms. These gases can migrate to the living quarters located next to the apparatus rooms, causing discomfort or potential health problems for personnel returning to the building.

The transient performance of displacement ventilation has rarely been studied though many researches have been done on the area.. Due to the importance to the analysis and design of an air conditioning system, the unsteady histories of displacement ventilation of a typical office in Hong Kong is simulated numerically with a validated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. Solar heat gain is introduced from the glass wall. Turbulent flow with thermal convection is considered. As a preliminary research, the heat capacity of the walls, occupants and machines is ignored.

Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) has rapidly developed as an industrial design and evaluation tool for Building Services Engineering. Providing valuable information via mathematical predictions of fluid flow heat and mass transfer. The aim of the work is to illustrate the integration of CFD data into a truly interactive Virtual Reality (VR) environment to provide engineers with demonstrable design evaluation and visualisation facilities. To demonstrate the successful integration of CFD and VR an industrial case study of a conference room at Hoare Lea is presented.

This paper aims to outline the current state-of-the-art in integrated building simulation for performance prediction of heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HV AC) systems. The ESP-r system is used as an example where integrated simulation is a core philosophy behind the development. The current state and future developments are illustrated with case studies. It is argued that for building simulation to penetrate the profession in the near future, there is a need for appropriate training and professional technology transfer initiatives.

Computer modelling is becoming an everyday tool for the building services engineer to ensure that a ventilation design will work early on in the development process. This paper describes this process in relation to Novartis' new office building in the UK. In this case, airflow modelling was used to fine-tune a conceptual idea for the atrium air conditioning. This influenced the solar shading incorporated into the architectural design and allowed engineers to optimise the volume of air used and the location of supply air terminals.

The possibility of using natural ventilation for commercial buildings is increasingly being considered. To assist natural ventilation in these buildings atriums are often suggested for the building's design as well as mechanical systems providing low air change rates. To ensure that natural ventilation will meet today's comfort expectations the proposed design needs to be evaluated using dynamic simulation software.

The intent of this paper is to present the design process which has created the new SELLIC Library for the University of Edinburgh. The design has evolved from the initial concepts completion in 1996 to a detailed design which is currently awaiting Client funding. The building's form has arisen by the integration of the :function, environmental strategy and the aesthetics.

This paper describes the development of a hybrid conditioning system that creates a comfortable indoor environment in a building. The operation of a variable-volume displacement conditioning system and a radiant cooled floor have been optimized to reduce the building load. Control strategies were developed that optimize energy consumption and contain moisture levels within specified limits. The development of conditioning-only occupied zones is shown and how the overall energy consumption is reduced. Its application in a large airport is described.