Bioclimatic Design Simulation: An Object Oriented Approach for Energy Load and Natural Ventilation Calculations

During the past few years, the research team of the University of Michigan has developed techniques to solve problems associated with designing a performance evaluation tool environment. This paper describes the development of a system (Web-IBEDO) that makes use of emerging communication technology. The system is being used as a model for a larger implementation of distributed multi-simulation environment that provides quantitative data for bioclimatic building design. Web-IBEDO is a computer program that supports the simultaneous integrated use of simulation tools and multiple databases, over the World Wide Web (www). This energy performance simulation system has been developed using the Microsoft Visual Basic ActiveX DLL technology that supports Object Linking and Embedding (OLE). The systems engine resides on a web server and is controlled by a web-browser. The goal is to deliver this tool to all the design actors via the network and thus enhance the capabilities of sharing specialized knowledge among the project participants.