BES with FEM: Building Energy Simulation using Finite Element Methods

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, building energy simulation (BES) tools are indispensable. Due to the rapid development of FEM software and the Multiphysics approaches, it should possible to build and simulate full 3D models of buildings regarding the energy demand. The paper presents a methodology for performing building energy simulation with Comsol. The method was applied to an international test box experiment. The results showed an almost perfect agreement between the used BES model and Comsol. These preliminary results confirm the great opportunities to use FEM related software for building energy performance simulation.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, Proceedings of the 2012 COMSOL Conference in Mila

Optimal investment, financing and dividends: A Stackelberg differential game

Financing

The development of a mapping tool for the evaluation of building systems for future climate scenarios on European scale

The paper presents a tool for the mapping of the performance of building systems on European scale for different (future) time periods. The tool is to use for users and be applicable for different building systems. Users should also be able to use a broad range of climate parameters to assess the influence of climate change on these climatic parameters. Also should the calculation time be reasonable short. The mapping tool is developed in MATLAB, which can be used by other users for their own studies.Comment: 21 pages, 24 figures, pre-conferenc

Chaotic Behavior of the Airflow in a Ventilated Room

Chaotic systems may lead to instability, extreme sensitivity and performance reduction. Therefore it is unwanted in many cases. Due to these undesirable characteristics of chaos in practical systems, it is important to recognize such a chaotic behavior. The existence of chaos has been discovered in several areas during the last 30 years. However, there is a lack of studies in relation with buildings that also can be regarded as complex dynamic systems. In this paper the chaotic behavior of the airflow in case of an ordinary ventilated room is researched. Chaotic behavior is already observed in the simulations by changing the supply air temperature from 22 oC into 21.9 oC. In the case when no buoyancy is taking into account, minor chaotic behavior is observed by a small in the air supply control parameters

The effect of micro air movement on the heat and moisture characteristics of building constructions

The research focuses on the effect of air movement through building constructions. Although the typical air movement inside building constructions is quite small (velocity is of order ~10-5 m/s), this research shows the impact on the heat and moisture characteristics. The paper presents a case study on the modeling and simulation of 2D heat and moisture transport with and without air movement for a building construction using a state-of-art multiphysics FEM software tool. Most other heat and moisture related models don’t include airflow or use a steady airflow through the construction during the simulation period. However, in this model, the wind induced pressure is dynamic and thus also the airflow through the construction is dynamic. For this particular case study, the results indicate that at the internal surface, the vapor pressure is almost not influenced by both the 2D effect and the wind speed. The temperatures at the inner surface are mostly influenced by the 2D effect. Only at wind pressure differences above 30 Pa, the airflow has a significant effect. At the external surface, the temperatures are not influenced by both the 2D effect and the wind speed. However, the vapor pressure seems to be quite dependent on the wind induced pressure. Overall it is concluded that air movement through building materials seems to have a significant impact on the heat and moisture characteristics. In order to verify this statement and validate the models, new in-depth experiments including air flow through materials are recommended