modelling

The EQuity model is a Life Cycle Assessment-based tool aimed at evaluating and improving building products Environmental Quality aspects. Unlike most "classical" LCAs, EQuity is strongly based on users' statements about their perception of environmental quality, as well as their goals and constrains pertaining to a given product study. Two applications of the EQuity model are presented in this paper. They illustrate the benefits of the case-by-case approach.

Indoor Air Quality analysis needs at first an accurate prediction of indoor pollutant concentration levels. However, most of pollutant concentration prediction models consider the pollutants as passive elements. Our study introduces the more common gas-phase chemical reactions occurring in indoor spaces. We developed a model taking into account more than 20 different reactions influencing the concentration level prediction of NOx compounds, ozone, carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide from the knowledge acquired in the field of tropospheric chemistry.

The purpose of this research is to give an overall prospect of the performance of 4 kinds of ventilation systems for dwellings using numerical simulation under various conditions. The total number of combinations of various parameters for the calculation is 174. Calculations for pollutant concentration, humidity and condensation, interior pressure and airflow rate, heat energy by ventilation, etc. are performed hourly through the heating season.

This paper presents an analysis of different possibilities of representing mass transfers in zonal models. In this aim, formulations derived from the Navier-Stokes equations or from Euler's theorem are obtained. The models which result from them and empirical models are compared so that to define the best compromise between simplicity, accuracy and easy convergence.

Checking models of thermal behaviour or ventilation of a room can be performed in specialtest cells. At EMPA a ventilation test chamber with several experimental facilities has beendesigned and built. The inside wall surface temperatures of the chamber can be controlledusing a software model which simulates the thermal behaviour of a real wall. As a test case aheated office room was calculated with TRNSYS and compared with measurements made inthe chamber.As an example of checking ventilation models the validation of a CFD-model of ahorizontally pivoted window is presented.

This study reports on the introduction of air infiltration and mechanical ventilationin a model for energy consumption estimation. The model applies to air conditionned nonresidential building and is developped to need few inputs. Existing air infiltration models arecompared and three equivalent leakage area (ELA) databases are tested on the same casestudy. Calculations of air input throught opened-doors are made to compare flows due to airinfiltration and due to natural ventilation. Simulations are made considering mean airinfiltration value and hourly values.

A model for the application of probabilistic methods is the estimation of heat loss caused by convection and heat conduction through the material is developed. Temperature difference (delta T) between inside and outside of a building, air change rate (ACH) and coefficient of thermal transmittance (U-value) of the building structure are treated as random variables. The mean value and standard deviation of heat loss are estimated for different parameters of distribution for temperature difference, air change rate and thermal transmittance.

In the present paper a model for steady-state thermal analysis of ventilated and unventilated light rook is proposed. The aim of the work is tostudy the influence of thermo-physical and geometric parameters of the roof and boundary conditions (solar radiation) on the entering heat flowand the temperature distribution within the roof structure.

As part of a recent ASHRAE research project (781-RP), a thermal sensation prediction tool has been developed. This paper introduces the tool, describes the component thermal sensation models, and presents examples of how the tool can be used in practice. Since the main end product of the HVAC industry is the comfort of occupants indoors, tools for predicting occupant thermal response can be an important asset to designers of indoor climate control systems. The software tool presented in this paper incorporates several existing models for predicting occupant comfort.