English

Zonal models are a promising way to predict air movement in a room with respect to comfort conditions and gradient of temperature because they require extremely low computer time and may be therefore rather easily included in multizone air movement models. The main objective of this paper is to study the arbility of the zonal models to predict the thermal behaviour of air in case of natural convection coupled with a radiator. First, we present two zonal models available in the literature.

Evacuation is a vitally important component of emergency management. Effective evacuation planning and evacuation management can be the difference between safety and tragedy in an emergency situation. However, in an emergency evacuation of any large complex building, there is a tendency for serious congestion of evacuees to occur in some areas even while other nearby exit areas are experiencing relatively light usage. The consequences are very serious, involving a direct threat to public safety, and adding to the likelihood of the onset of panic amongst evacuees.

This paper explores the implications of object oriented representation of buildings in the simulation of dynamic processes in architectural environments. Two main groups of objects are represented in such simulations: architectural objects, and active agents that drive the events in a simulation. To accommodate the data needs of a wide range of simulations and expert systems, architectural objects must be represented as a single data model. on the other hand, active agents are usually application specific, i.e. they are only used in a specific simulation.

This paper summarizes the approach, method, and some results of an ongoing systematic study in simulation and evaluation of daylight factor distribution in rooms. The study aims to develop the basis for both critical investigation of simplified daylighting design guidelines and flexible fast response computational modules, which would enhance the CAAD systems towards preliminary design supporting lighting performance simulation.

SETIS is aiming at building a computer support for building thermal design. It deals both with the envelop of building and with its HVAC system. This project is managed by OCGR, a french civil engineering office, and a laboratory of Institut National des Sciences Appliques de LYON. This collaboration is very important because SETIS is defined as a tool that integrates both algorithmic programs and knowledge based parts. Calculating tools and knowledge bases triggered by the inference engine of Nexpert Object, have been built.

Over the past seven years, Ross & Baruzzini, Inc., (R&B) has been working on a project to determine the relationship of the air conditioning load caused by building lighting with time. This effort has been funded by the Electric Power Research Institute. An initial literature search determined that the basis of existing calculation methods was data generated by Mitalas in the 1970's for a very limited set of experiments.

The building design process, with all its inherent complexities, is still by and large regarded and conducted as a series of rather discrete sequential operations. The architect is responsible for generating the initial design concept which is then passed onto to the various engineering professionals for detail technical implementation. This fragmentized approach has often created solutions that only serve a limited range of specific requirements without due consideration for the integral programmatic and performance related implications of the project.

The Customer Systems Division at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is developing materials to enhance the adoption of advanced electric technologies. Among in these materials are a number of software programs. COMTECH and CooLAiD are two of these programs, which allow technical and non- technical analysts to answer questions about advanced end?use technologies, energy impacts, and utility bills for individual customers. These programs require information about customer energy-use patterns, utility rates, equipment cost and performance and operating strategy.

The ever widening range of skills necessary for architectural design requires a specialisation of each player working together toward the same goal within a number of distributed tasks. Parallel to this dispersion of tasks, an information transfer must be established. This is rendered more important in tha the domains interest several actors simultaneously and that the process is situated in the early stages of design. Energy management for buildings is one of these tasks. It summons up at thee same time the architect and energy specialist.

Because every description formalism has advantages and disadvantages, a modelling platform for ODE/DAE systems allowing several formalisms would be required. MS1 is such a program and is described in this paper. Its development will start in August 1991 and will last three years. MS1 is based on an internal normalized formalism that is actually a mere topological representation of mathematical equation sets. we call that formalism information networks . computational causality is assigned after subsystem assembly and determines the assignment form to be used in each specific case.