English

We present the practical application of two models SustArc (Capeluto and Shaviv 1997, 1999) and FLUENT 5.0.2 (1999) to the design of a new business district in Tel Aviv incorporating solar and wind rights. The new business district was designed as a high-density urban area and is located near an old low-rise residential quarter. SustArc was used as a design tool to create the solar envelope that shows the maximum available volume  in which it is possible to build without violating the solar rights of existing residential neighborhood, the main avenues and the pedestrian sidewalks.

Energy  simulation  (ES)  and  computational  fluid dynamics (CFD) can play important roles in building design by providing complementary information about the buildings’ environmental performance. However, separate applications of ES and CFD are usually unable to give an accurate prediction of building performance due to the assumptions involved in the separate calculations. Integration of ES and CFD eliminates many of these assumptions since the information provided by the models is complementary. Several different approaches to integrating ES and CFD are described.

This  paper  describes  a  new  approach  of  using simulation directly in construction industry in Czech Republic. Building simulation is used by facade manufacturer in order to present the prediction results to investors, architects and other building specialists to generate discussions and create cooperation. This is necessary for optimal design of highly glazed or intelligent buildings. The paper presents examples of three studies where simulation was used to support design in different stages of the project.

Sisley  is  an  open  software  that  uses  the  volume element method to model two-dimensional heat transfer problems under transient and steady-state conditions. It includes a powerful simulation engine coupled with  a  simple and  interactive  interface. It make it possible to generate dynamic equations of both physical and reduced models. This software is used to model conventional thermal bridges, as well as windows frames heat losses or specific walls (heated floor) and foundation. In this article we present  Sisley  software  trough  a  thermal  bridge application.

This work is a multidisciplinary approach of natural ventilation in hot and humid climates. Our aim is the control of thermal comfort in tropical towns. We evaluate the natural ventilation potential of different shapes of the dense housing. We present here the result we obtained in the case of areas in chequered plan of colonial type (fig. 1). We model the quarter and simulate the airflow induced by wind around the buildings using a CFD code. This allows us to calculate the difference of pressure that appears between upwind and downwind sides of each house.

This paper reports on an ongoing research project aiming at prediction of the sound insulation proper- ties of a specific type of facade panel by means of computational tools and experiments. Mentioned facade panels consist of two parallel sheets with a cavity in between. To improve the sound insulation properties the air pressure in the cavity will be low- ered.

In low energy dwellings the ventilation heat losses are significant. Reducing this heat losses can be done by introducing demand controlled ventilation i.e. ventilating at a normal rate only when rooms are occupied. Simulations, using TRNSYS 14.2, of a dwelling, equipped with a demand controlled ventilation system are carried to determine the extra conservation on natural gas for space heating. Demand controlled ventilation schedules are used in the simulation program by using typical Dutch occupation schedules of a four person family for the dwelling.

Many studies have been performed on floor heating systems. However, there is almost no data on the response characteristics immediately after the start of the operation. In Japan, floor heating systems are often intermittently operated, so these response characteristics are important. In this research, the heat transmission response, the heat absorption response, and other response characteristics are simulated just after the start of the operation using a twodimensional heat conduction calculation. This calculation was performed using the finite element method.

When applying the radiant floor cooling system, it is important to prevent condensation on the floor surface. To solve this problem, a radiant floor cooling system integrated with the dehumidification system has been proposed and evaluated. In doing so, the relationship between the control variables in preventing floor surface condensation is first analyzed, and the control methods are evaluated through simulations.

This study develops a simplified estimation method for calculating the effective opening area of automatically operated entrance doors and the winter airflow rate into entrance halls due to the stack effect. The relationships between the number of people passing through the doors and the average opening area ratio were obtained from detailed simulations of a variety of different types of doors, and were approximated by equations.