Predicting adaptive responses - simulating occupied environments

Simulation of building performance is increasingly being used in design practice topredict comfort of occupants in finished buildings. This is an area of great uncertainty:what actions does a person take when too warm or suffering from glare; how is comfortmeasured; how do groups of people interact to control environmental conditions, etc? Anincreasing attention to model these issues is evident in current research.Two issues are covered in this paper: how comfort can be assessed and what actionsoccupants are likely to make to achieve and maintain a comfortable status. The formerissue describes the implementation of existing codes within a computational framework.This is non-trivial as information on local air velocities, radiant temperature and airtemperature and relative humidity have to be predicted as they evolve over time inresponse to changing environmental conditions.This paper also presents a nascent algorithm for modelling occupant behaviour withrespect to operable windows. The algorithm is based on results of several field studieswhich show the influence of internal and external temperatures on decision making in thisrespect. The derivation and implementation of the algorithm is discussed, highlightingareas where further effort could be of benefit.