Coupling expert Systems to Thermal Calculation and Simulation Computer Codes

The present paper shows a possible way to make simulation computer codes more easy to use by nonspecialists. The basic idea is to implement a code which translates the building representation into a suitable thermal model. It is a part of a more important project which takes place at the Solar Energy Laboratory (LESO-PB), and which aims at the elaboration of an integrated system to assist building designers (Morel 1989a). That integrated system is organized around a central database to store the current state of building being designed, and includes expert systems in various domains, as well as classical' procedural computer codes to calculate significant quantities (energy indexes, costs, task lists, etc). The paper is focused on the structure of the central database and the interface to a dynamical thermal simulation code.