Air, contaminant and heat transport models: integration and application.

Comfort evaluations cover air quality, thermal, visual and acoustic comfort. Today, only few computer programs allow for the integrated evaluation of several or all relevant parameters. Heat transport, ventilation as well as lighting in a room are influenced by each other. Therefore they should be integrally modelled. As a part of the IEA-ECBCS Annex 23 'Multizone Airflow Modelling', such a coupling has been realised by integrating the air flow and contaminant transport simulation code of CoMIS into the building and systems simulation code TRNSYS. This paper gives a short description of the concept used for the coupling. Then, two application examples typical for a building design study situation are presented, the first being a multi-storey school building which was passively cooled at night due to natural stack airflow. In the second example the facade of the same building was retrofitted with a glazed outer facade. Ventilation was provided by naturally driven shaft ventilation through the facade spaces. For such cases as described in the examples, it may be necessary due to the complex interactions, to study many configurations to find optimum control strategies for the openings and the blinds with respect to overheating risk as well as to air quality. For the upper floors, the risk of overheating and low air quality may be difficult to minimize without extending the shaft above roof level.