Pedro Correia da Silva, Vítor Leal and J. Correia da Silva
Year:
2009
Bibliographic info:
Building Simulation, 2009, Glasgow, Scotland

The main objective of this study is to develop and validate a systematic methodology to model a system of buried pipes, assisted by a solar chimney to promote the natural ventilation, in the whole building simulation software ESP-r (Clarke 2001), from a software user perspective. This development was supported by monitored data collected at an experimental site in Évora, Portugal.  A multi-zone ESP-r model was built to represent the entire installation using a nodal airflow network approach.  A sensitivity study was performed, trying to calibrate the simulation model to yield results compatible with the measurements. The localized loss coefficients in the airflow network were found to be the major influence for the model performance. The influence of convective heat transfer coefficients related to the airflow velocity was also considered and found to have a relevant impact too. Overall, it was found that without changes to the source code it was possible to capture most of the system behaviour, although some non-negligible differences between the simulation and the experiment remained.