Showing papers in "Journal of Building Performance Simulation in 2020"
TL;DR: The energy performance of urban buildings is affected by multiple climate phenomena such as heat island intensity, wind flow, solar obstructions and infrared radiation exchange in urban canyons.
Abstract: The energy performance of urban buildings is affected by multiple climate phenomena such as heat island intensity, wind flow, solar obstructions and infrared radiation exchange in urban canyons, bu...
53 citations
TL;DR: This paper investigates the feasibility of the identification of multi-zone grey-box building models and the benefits of using these models in predictive control, and shows the relevance of modelling thermal interactions between zones in the multi- Zone building.
Abstract: Predictive controllers can greatly improve the performance of energy systems in buildings. An important challenge of these controllers is the need of a building model accurate and simple enough for...
33 citations
TL;DR: A data-driven urban scale energy modelling framework from open-source data harmonization, sensitivity analysis, heating demand simulation at the postcode level to Bayesian calibration with six years of training data and two years of validation data, which is extendable to other urban contexts.
Abstract: A bottom-up building energy modelling at the urban scale based on Geographic Information System and semantic 3D city models can provide quantitative insights to tackle critical urban energy challenges. Nevertheless, incomplete information is a common obstacle to produce reliable modelling results. The residential building heating demand simulation performance gap caused by input uncertainties is discussed in this study. We present a data-driven urban scale energy modelling framework from open-source data harmonization, sensitivity analysis, heating demand simulation at the postcode level to Bayesian calibration with six years of training data and two years of validation data. Comparing the baseline and the calibrated simulation results, the averaged absolute percentage errors of energy use intensity in the study area have significantly improved from 25.0% to 8.3% and from 19.9% to 7.7% in two validation years, while CVRMSE2016=11.5% and CVRMSE2017=13.2%. The overall methodology is extendable to other urban contexts.
28 citations
TL;DR: The proposed hybrid data-driven approaches to capture these non-linearities in building hygrothermal relationships and accurately predict building zone-level average temperature response to cooling in Variable Air Volume (VAV) systems are proposed.
Abstract: A major challenge to devise smart HVAC control is to ensure that the control system considers the non-linearities in building hygrothermal relationships. In this paper, we propose hybrid data-drive...
27 citations
TL;DR: A routine to create a cylindrical mesh that expedites the simulation of arbitrary wind directions using OpenFOAM and yields comparable results in terms of accuracy and convergence behaviour, which is recommended if at least eight wind directions are analyzed.
Abstract: For urban CFD simulations, it is considered a best practice to use a box-shaped simulation domain. Box-shaped domains, however, show drawbacks for airflow from several wind directions as re...
26 citations
TL;DR: A new active sampling strategy employing a committee of surrogate models that selects new samples that are in the regions of the parameter space where the surrogate model predictions are highly uncertain and have low energy use is developed.
Abstract: In order to improve the performance of a surrogate model-based optimization method for building optimization problems, a new active sampling strategy employing a committee of surrogate models is developed. This strategy selects new samples that are in the regions of the parameter space where the surrogate model predictions are highly uncertain and have low energy use. Results show that the new sampling strategy improves the performance of surrogate model-based optimization method. A comparison between the surrogate model-based optimization methods and two simulation-based optimization methods shows better performance of surrogate model-based optimization methods than a simulation-based optimization method using the PSO algorithm. However, the simulation-based optimization using Ant Colony Optimization found better results in terms of optimality in later stages of the optimization. However, the proposed method showed a better performance at the early optimization stages, yielding solutions within 1% of the best solution found in the fewest number of simulations.
23 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors identified overheating in buildings arising from climatic extreme heat events has been identified as a health concern to vulnerable occupants, but there have been very limited studies to generate suitabl...
Abstract: Overheating in buildings arising from climatic extreme heat events has been identified as a health concern to vulnerable occupants. However, there have been very limited studies to generate suitabl...
23 citations
TL;DR: This study builds on previous literature to introduce and test a complete approach for appropriate OB modelling and shows that the method can be generalized and readily applied to design questions.
Abstract: Occupant behaviour (OB) is recognized as a leading source of uncertainty in building performance predictions. Neglecting the potential influence of uncertainties on building performance could resul...
20 citations
TL;DR: Is there firm evidence suggesting that the deployment of building performance simulation in the design process has actually a significant impact on buildings’ subsequent long-term environmentally relevant performance?
Abstract: Is there firm evidence suggesting that the deployment of building performance simulation in the design process has actually a significant impact on buildings’ subsequent long-term environmentally r...
18 citations
TL;DR: Findings show that the elimination of energy wasteful behaviours may involve building energy need reduction up to 17%.
Abstract: Buildings energy efficiency is highly dependent on occupants’ energy and environmental lifestyle. In this view, this work aims at identifying the potential benefits of human-based energy retrofit s...
18 citations
TL;DR: A new method is proposed to develop hot and cold extreme reference years, ERYh and ERYc, from multi-year hourly weather series, based on Finkelstein-Schafer statistics of weather variables.
Abstract: The analysis of building energy performance resilience requires also the assessment of energy needs under untypical boundary conditions. This implies the adoption of reference years remarkably warm...
TL;DR: In this paper, the intermittent and random nature of renewable energy source integration in buildings can contribute to achieving sustainable energy use and reducing fossil fuel dependence, however, the intermittent nature of these energie...
Abstract: Renewable energy source integration in buildings can contribute to achieving sustainable energy use and reducing fossil fuel dependence. However, the intermittent and random nature of these energie...
TL;DR: Risk-based multi-attribute utility theory and analytic hierarchy process are used to develop a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework considering various economic, social and environmental criteria involved in design of buildings.
Abstract: With recent advancement in energy-based sustainable design of building structures, the need for inclusive yet practical models to integrate resilience and sustainability is increasingly recognized....
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of medical staff's turning movements on the number of particles falling onto the patient were examined using a simplified computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the patient.
Abstract: The present study aims to examine the effects of medical staff’s turning movements on the number of particles falling onto the patient. A simplified computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the ...
TL;DR: A building performance optimization method is presented to derive sequence of operations for multi-zone AHUs by using a genetic algorithm to derive supply temperature, morning start time, and economizer settings of the model.
Abstract: Operational parameters of air handling units (AHUs) play an important role in the energy and comfort performance of commercial buildings. Current guidelines to determine these parameters are based ...
TL;DR: This work systematically investigates whether using RNNs for building control provides net gains in MPC and compares the representation power and control performance of two architectures: an RNN architecture and a linear state-space model with a nonlinear regressor to estimate energy consumption.
Abstract: Power consumption in buildings show nonlinear behaviours that linear models cannot capture, whereas recurrent neural networks (RNNs) can. This ability makes RNNs attractive alternatives for the mod...
TL;DR: The Krylov subspace method is introduced to the building science field and technical issues of applying the method to building applications are addressed and a suitable algorithm that overcomes those challenges is presented.
Abstract: Developing a computationally efficient but accurate building energy simulation (BES) model is important for many purposes. Model order reduction (MOR) methods are attractive and much more reliable ...
TL;DR: In this article, for the first time in the literature, the thermo-fluid dynamics and ultrafine particle (UFP) concentration in surgical smoke were investigated numerically and experimentally.
Abstract: The present study numerically and experimentally investigates, for the first time in the literature, the thermo-fluid dynamics and ultrafine particle (UFP) concentration in surgical smoke, with dia...
TL;DR: In this article, a new integration of air-source heat pumps, solar collectors, and phase change material tanks regarding the dynamics of outdoor swimming pools is presented, and its application is investigated.
Abstract: This study presents a new integration of air-source heat pumps, solar collectors, and phase change material tanks regarding the dynamics of outdoor swimming pools, and investigates its application ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a novel computing technique for data exchange and coupling between a high-resolution weather simulation model and a building energy model, with a goal of evaluating the impact of the two models on each other.
Abstract: This study presents a novel computing technique for data exchange and coupling between a high-resolution weather simulation model and a building energy model, with a goal of evaluating the impact o...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose an integrated model in order to improve the prediction of the building's energy performance, and evaluate their interactions with the urban microclimate, which can be used to evaluate the building energy performance.
Abstract: To improve the prediction of the building’s energy performance, it has become necessary to evaluate their interactions with the urban microclimate. This study aims to propose an integrated model in...
TL;DR: In this article, perceptions of occupants to energy use, collected in questionnaire surveys, were used as an input variable for building simulations, and these perceptions are related to occupant interactions with lightin...
Abstract: Perceptions of occupants to energy use, collected in questionnaire surveys, were used as input variable for building simulations. These perceptions are related to occupant interactions with lightin...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a model of a large ground source heat pump (GSHP) system that is not computationally intensive to operate. But the model requires accurate models of borehole heat exchangers (BHEs).
Abstract: Planning the operation of large ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems requires accurate models of borehole heat exchangers (BHEs) that are not computationally intensive. In this paper, we propose ...
TL;DR: A new correlation-based model for modelling heat losses to ground through the foundations covers most foundation configurations of interest, with low processing requirements, and is ideal for use in building energy performance simulations due to the short computation time.
Abstract: Heat loss from a building through the ground becomes relatively important as the above-grade components of the building fabric are built more energy efficient. For annual space heating and cooling ...
TL;DR: This work identifies the most representative annual daylight distributions using a dimensionality reduction method based on principal component analysis and thinks this approach can be used to provide a more efficient and reliable method to analyse daylight performance in building practice.
Abstract: One challenge when evaluating daylight distribution is dealing with the large amount of temporal and spatial data, visualizations and variability in illuminances that are assessed in buildings. Usi...
TL;DR: The World Championship in Cybernetic Building Optimization (WCCBO) was held in 2019 to test participants' ability to optimize buildings cybernetically as mentioned in this paper, which was the first edition of the WCCBO.
Abstract: The World Championship in Cybernetic Building Optimization (WCCBO) was held in 2019 to test participants’ ability to optimize buildings cybernetically. Office buildings with a total floor a...
TL;DR: In this article, a replicable approach for evaluating the impact of different weather data sources during building refurbishment is proposed, starting from a deep energy diagnosis, the numerical model i...
Abstract: This study proposes a replicable approach for evaluating the impact of different weather data sources during the building refurbishment. Starting from a deep energy diagnosis, the numerical model i...
TL;DR: Active chilled beams (ACBs) are often modelled as generic cooling devices as mentioned in this paper, and due to induction, the air flow discharged from an ACB is several times higher than supplied from the air handling unit, an...
Abstract: Active chilled beams (ACBs) are often modelled as generic cooling devices. Due to induction, the air flow discharged from an ACB is several times higher than supplied from the air handling unit, an...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors suggest that surrounding buildings may reduce the amount of radiation reaching urban building roo..., which significantly impacts the performance of buildings and integrated renewable energy technologies.
Abstract: Solar radiation significantly impacts the performance of buildings and integrated renewable energy technologies. Surrounding buildings may reduce the amount of radiation reaching urban building roo...
TL;DR: A novel data-driven approach for predicting annual luminance maps from a limited number of point-in-time high-dynamic-range imagery by utilizing a deep neural network is presented.
Abstract: Annual luminance maps provide meaningful evaluations for occupants’ visual comfort and perception. This paper presents a novel data-driven approach for predicting annual luminance maps from a limit...