English

With the advancement of technology, and with the widespread availability  of  simulation  tools,  we  are forced to consider which simulation tool would be appropriate for a particular problem. The seemingly trivial decision is in reality not very easy to make. And this leads to the practice of using the most sophisticated tool available for every problem. The levels of resolution and complexity are directly related to the accuracy of the simulation and to the total cost of the simulation process. A simple tool may be cheaper, but there is a high  risk  of inaccuracy.

People that work in office buildings have new needs in terms of comfort within their work place. We suggest to develop a multicriteria office cell façade, allowing to control luminous, thermal and airflow parameters. It will be controlled to offer global comfort to the office cells occupants.

The Energy Resources Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago conducted an energy assessment of the John G. Shedd Aquarium and Oceanarium to increase the energy efficiency of the facility, while decreasing the operating costs.  Part of this effort included determining the feasibility of implementing a cogeneration system as part of the detailed energy assessment for the facility.

This paper describes the development of a design tool for the calculation of the thermal energy potential of a so-called asphalt collector. Two types of numerical models have been developed and validated against experimental results from a full-scale test-site. The validation showed to be a tedious procedure due to the complexity of the full-scale testing of this type of systems.

The  paper  describes  the  use  of  the  theory  of tolerances in thermal network models that are built as electric circuits. A principle of the method and main equations are given. A calculation of new values of model parameters is based on the assessment of relative sensitivities of model elements. The method is explained in a case study where thermal comfort is analysed in a designed office building in summer. Tolerances make possible to quickly find a new parameter value for the desired air temperature decrease.

The  design  for  the  new Federal  Building  for  San Francisco includes an office tower that is to be naturally ventilated. Each floor is designed to be cross-ventilated, through upper windows that are controlled by the building management system (BMS). Users have control over lower windows, which can be as much as 50% of the total openable area. There are significant differences in the performance and the control of the windward and leeward sides of the building, and separate monitoring and control strategies are determined for each side.

DElight  is  a  simulation  engine  for  daylight  and electric lighting system analysis in buildings. DElight calculates interior illuminance levels from daylight, and the subsequent contribution required from electric lighting to meet a desired interior illuminance. DElight has been specifically designed to integrate with a building thermal simulation on a timestep basis, for whole-building analysis. This paper describes the simulation methods used in DElight  and  some of the key details of software implementation.

The objective of this paper is to model the double skin façade in order to determine the thermal and flow performance and to find out how the façade should be combined with the HVAC system inside of the building. In order to analyze these aspects a simulation model of the double skin façade was built and validated with the use of the test facilities and a real office building. Models of different configurations were tested and validated.

As part of the application of optimal control to smart façade systems (SFS) with motorized Venetian blinds inside the glass enclosed cavity, we investigate the rapid determination of daylighting quantity  and quality obtainable from these systems. This paper proposes a set of daylight performance indicators to assess smart façades or similar systems and discusses real-time daylighting optmization.

A method of simulating the interaction between an architectural environment and human action in the environment is described. The computational  model is composed of a model for building simulation, a model for action simulation, and a model to mediate the simulation models. This model is being developed to find the environmentally symbiotic actions and the knowledge and beliefs that people are encouraged to acquire to perform such actions. There might be no room in the majority of traditional simulation to model an occupant as the individual that has  desire, belief, and intention.