English

The wind environment around a building influences human lives and the design of it. Simulation by CFD software is a main method used to study wind environment. But the reliability of the simulation result needs to be proved by comparing to the measured wind environment data. Experiment and simulation on wind environment were carried out in this reasearch. What’s more, different simulation methods and different kinds of boundary concdition seetings were studied.

This paper describes an outdoor-indoor thermal investigation of a multifamily residential building during summer in Cairo, Egypt. Initially, microclimate meteorological data was generated for an urban settlement with and without trees being incorporated in to the development.  The software ENVI-met was used for this first stage. Two kinds of tree planting (15m high Ficus Elastica and 20m Yellow Poinciana) were simulated, together with the existing scenario that has no trees.

According to both the actual energy context and the latest laws meeting EU requirements about energy certification schemes for buildings, carrying out an energy performance diagnosis is mandatory, notably when buying or selling buildings. Indeed, invisible defaults could have a detrimental effect on their insulating qualities. An in-situ estimation of thermo-physical properties allowing to locate defaults, the present work focuses on testing in simulation, as a first approach, a new and effective method based on the use of artificial neural networks to characterize building materials i.e.

This paper describes the latest developments in the simulation of a thermal probe apparatus, building on earlier work as reported by de Wilde et al. (2007). The work focuses on researching the role of the probe to sample conductance H. Results obtained with the existing model are proven to be inconclusive, and necessitate the change to flexible general engineering finite element software. 

The objective of this paper is to highlight the effectiveness of light shelves in tropical office buildings to enhance interior daylighting quality. Daylight simulation was performed for custom light shelves for a typical office floor of Dhaka City in Bangladesh, to determine the best possible location under overcast sky conditions. Six alternative models of a 3m high study space were created with varying heights of light shelves. The 3D models were first generated in the Ecotect to study the distribution and uniformity of daylight in the interior space with split-flux method.

This article aims to discuss the results of the EnergyPlus daylighting module – Detailed. Because of the program relevance among the brazilian researchers and the high potential for daylighting in Brazil, it is important to evaluate whether their models for calculating daylighting are appropriate for the brazilian conditions. EnergyPlus results were compared with data measured in situ, of daylit room with windows on two parallel façades. The simulation results show weak correlation between the model output and the measured data.

The purpose of this paper is to find the efficiency of window shades regarding building energy performance and explore the possibility of developing a model that enables users to find proper shades for their specific conditions. The paper investigates different options of shades and their related variables and finds the efficiency of the shades regarding energy load. Each variable was investigated for its effect on the heat loads. Results were used as input variables for neural network prediction model.  A prediction model was developed and trained based on the previous simulation results.

The purpose of this study is to determine appropriate daylighting devices for office buildings in the city of New Delhi, India. It addresses to those devices, which are available commercially such as light shelves, anidolic light ducts, and light tubes. It intends to understand the performance of these daylight devices to their maximum potential so as to increase the daylight availability and thereby reduce the electrical lighting loads. It would further evaluate the cost effectiveness of application of these devices. Hence it assesses the rationale behind the use of such devices. 

An analysis is presented of the impact of glazing selection on building performance and daylight levels for a small office building designed to be built in Canberra, Australia.  Thermal modelling was carried out at the request of the client in order to optimise the glazing from a greenhouse gas emissions viewpoint. This paper presents the results of this thermal modelling.  A daylight model was not used at the time.

In the paper we describe an integrated building lighting and thermal simulation activities carried out in the support of EU PV-Light Project. A part of the project has focused on an experimental quantification of a moveable PV solar shading façade modules fitted to the external test cells. An experimental data has been used to calibrate building energy and daylighting simulation models. The calibrated integrated building energy and daylighting models have been used to carry out a multiple runs with the different facades options under a range of the European climate conditions.