hygrothermal simulation

IEA-EBC Annex 68 “Indoor Air Quality Design and Control in Low Energy Residential Buildings” is an international collaborative project to provide new insight into methods and strategies for ensuring high indoor air quality in dwellings during both design and operation phase of their life cycle. Within the Annex 68 work, we defined a common exercise, which focusses on model-to-model comparison of different simulation tools to assess their modelling abilities with respect to combined heat, moisture and pollution transfer.

In this paper, the new capabilities of PowerDomus to simulate central HVAC systems combined to its whole-building hygrothermal model is presented. First, models for the primary (chiller, cooling tower, primary pumps and condensation pumps) and secondary (cooling and dehumidifying coil, humidifier, fan and mixing box) systems are presented. Those mathematical models have been integrated into the whole-building PowerDomus program.