ventilation and air-conditioning systems

Very often the set point temperature is selected to satisfy comfort requirements and/or to save energy consumption in buildings. However, the thermostat location is usually outside the occupied space and located on the wall near a front door or in a hallway that is subject to warm and cold draughts. A discrepancy exists between the temperature at the thermostat location and the occupied zones.

This paper explores the developing process and resulting features of an ultra high performance tower designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill through a multidisciplinary approach to building simulation and analysis. The 309 meter tall office tower for a new development in the Pearl River Delta region of Southern China, is an exemplar of the marriage of technical sophistication with a graceful form, featuring integrated renewable energy strategies and an active double skin facade coupled with a low energy building conditioning system.

Failures can lead to a series of problems in the complex heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems in buildings. Fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) is an important technology to solve these problems. Models can represent the behaviors of the HVAC systems, and FDD can be realized with models. Using the model as intermediary, a link between system simulation and FDD can be built. Simulation has provided a convenient platform of operation for FDD, the overall simulation methodology in FDD of HVAC systems is briefly introduced.