Building energy simulation and object-oriented modelling: review and reflections upon achieved results and further developments

Over the past 30 years numerous Building Simulation Codes (BSC) have been developed. Nevertheless, none of them has yet become a “standard”. Focusing the attention on the use of advanced Object-Oriented Modelling, a review of the most used BSC is here carried out. First, new requirements have been investigated. Actually, the evolving nature of Building Systems and of society demand for tools designed to evolve at the hands of the users. Modularity seemed to be the answer to these needs. However, in the BPS (Building Performance Simulation) field, modularity has been interpreted in different ways leading to different approaches to Modelling and Simulation (M&S). A first purpose of this work is to redefine what modularity is needed in BPS tools (an “enriched” one) and subsequently to investigate if and how actual tools address that. Focusing on Building Fabric’s M&S, we have investigated the different approaches taken by Esp-r, IDA ICE and PsiGene. The goal was to understand if they could allow: simpler distributed calculus, distributed responsibilities in code’s developing, an exponential evolution of algebraic routines and an increased productivity and widespread use of these tools, thanks to design and process automation. The finding was that almost always when one of these requirements was addressed another one was unsatisfied. It could be concluded that such BPS tool (characterized by an enriched modularity) is not yet ready and that a technology driven research should be pursued to develop it. Indeed, different concepts derived by Information Technology should be further analyzed in order to understand if similar formalization might lead to a renewed modelling, simulating and validating methodology more focused and oriented towards BPS tools’ evolutionary growth.