Combining three main modeling methodologies for building physics

An overall objective of energy efficiency in the built environment is to improve building and systems performances in terms of durability, comfort and economics. In order to predict, improve and meet a certain set of performance requirements related to the indoor climate of buildings and the associated energy demand, numerical simulation tools are indispensable. In the paper we consider three types of numerical simulation tools: Finite Element Method (FEM), Building Energy Simulation (BES) and State-Space (SS) together. Commonly used within these tools are zonal approaches of the volumes, assuming uniform temperatures in each zone, and 1D modeling of the walls. Due to the rapid development of Finite Element Method (FEM) software and Multiphysics approaches, it should possible to build and simulate full 3D models of buildings regarding the energy demand. Another application consists of Building Energy Simulation using State space models identified from free floating data. It is concluded that the main benefits of FEM-SS-BES modeling exchange is the possibility to simulate building energy performances with high spatial resolution and low computational duration times