Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) system implementation is on the rise worldwide. A computer modeling tool was developed to predict BIPV system power generation in commercial buildings. This tool utilizes hourly weather data files and complex Electric Utility tariff structures to predict BIPV system power output as well as providing economic analysis. A number of cities and building facade angles were modeled to test the predictive nature of this tool.
For users and developers of energy simulation software tools, knowledge of which inputs have a signif- icant impact on the simulation results is very impor- tant, as this will dictate which areas of the building justify additional development and input time. In the form of a sensitivity study, those factors gen- erally considered to have the largest impact on simu- lated heating load, were compared against a base case model—a typical Canadian house in Ottawa. It was determined that the simulated heat load was particularly sensitive to the following parameters: the sub-zoning of the living
This paper reports on a research project that investigates the need for computational support for a specific stage of the building design process: the selection of energy saving components. The approach consists of a survey amongst architects and consultants who were involved in the design of recent energy-efficient building projects. The results reveal that computational tools only play a limited role in the selection of energy saving components, mainly due to the design decision process currently in use.
The design of buildings is a multi-criterion optimization problem, there always being a trade- off to be made between capital expenditure, operating cost, and occupant thermal comfort. This paper investigates the application of a multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) search method in the identification of the optimum pay- off characteristic between the elements of the building design problem. Results are presented for the pay-off characteris- tics between daily energy cost and zone thermal comfort, and for building capital cost and energy cost.
Natural ventilation represents an important design strategy for school buildings in warm humid regions. It is an efficient way to improve students’ thermal comfort and productivity by natural means. Aiming to examine the influence of typical school buildings configuration on natural ventilation patterns, an investigation was conducted varying two important parameters (courtyard width and presence of pilotis) under two wind directions (45° and 90° in relation to the east facade).
A adaptive controller was devised and implemented within the ESP-r simulation program to support the conflation of CFD with dynamic whole-building thermal simulation. This controller manages all interactions between the thermal and CFD modelling domains. It incorporates the latest turbulence modelling advancements applicable for room air flow simulation and possesses a suite of handshak- ing and thermal boundary condition treatments. The controller is based upon a double-pass modelling approach.
Formal independent testing has been an integral component in the development of EnergyPlus, a new building energy simulation program. Testing to date has included analytical, comparative, sensitivity, range, and empirical tests. Published test suites which include reference results have been applied as much as possible in order to take advantage of the efforts of others to develop well-defined, reproducible tests.
We present the practical application of two models SustArc (Capeluto and Shaviv 1997, 1999) and FLUENT 5.0.2 (1999) to the design of a new business district in Tel Aviv incorporating solar and wind rights. The new business district was designed as a high-density urban area and is located near an old low-rise residential quarter. SustArc was used as a design tool to create the solar envelope that shows the maximum available volume in which it is possible to build without violating the solar rights of existing residential neighborhood, the main avenues and the pedestrian sidewalks.
Energy simulation (ES) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can play important roles in building design by providing complementary information about the buildings’ environmental performance. However, separate applications of ES and CFD are usually unable to give an accurate prediction of building performance due to the assumptions involved in the separate calculations. Integration of ES and CFD eliminates many of these assumptions since the information provided by the models is complementary. Several different approaches to integrating ES and CFD are described.
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