Numerical Simulations of Building Thermal and Indoor Air Quality

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Air Quality".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 March 2023) | Viewed by 10103

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Laboratoire Instrumentation, Simulation et Informatique Scientifique (LISIS), Université Gustave Eiffel, IFSTTAR, 14-20 boulevard Newton, CEDEX 2, 774477 Marne la Vallée, France
Interests: inverse problems; adjoint problem; physical model; numerical simulation; sensor; Sense-City

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Thanks to the development of Building Information Modelling, digital twin has become a relevant tool for conducting transversal studies involving various fields, e.g. thermal building and indoor air quality, in view of tackling actual environmental issues. In the building sector, important energy savings and reduction of greenhouse gas emission can be achieved. Nevertheless, the air quality and comfort of the occupants should not be omitted. A global interdisciplinary vision must be considered, and both digital twin and numerical simulations can contribute to this task. Indeed, many works have shown the abilities of these simulations, which can allow researchers to perform cartography and prediction of physical phenomena, detection of anomalies and design via virtual testing of innovative solutions.     

For this Special Issue, we are seeking original academic and industrial contributions using numerical simulations for building physics applications, especially regarding thermal building and air quality problems. Numerical studies can be proposed at the material, wall, and/or building scale. Research may discuss conventional buildings and sustainable constructions made of bio-based or raw earth materials.

The proposed Special Issue is not limited to the building domain; interaction between outdoor and indoor environments may be of particular interest. Lastly, validation of numerical simulations using experimental results and/or the proposition of numerical strategies combining simulation and sensor outputs would be highly appreciated.

Dr. Julien WAEYTENS
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • indoor air quality
  • thermal building
  • digital twin
  • numerical simulations
  • virtual testing
  • validation
  • inverse problems

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

27 pages, 25250 KiB  
Article
The Effect of European Climate Change on Indoor Thermal Comfort and Overheating in a Public Building Designed with a Passive Approach
by Balázs Fürtön, Dóra Szagri and Balázs Nagy
Atmosphere 2022, 13(12), 2052; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13122052 - 7 Dec 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2360
Abstract
Dynamic building energy performance modeling is becoming increasingly important in the architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry because of the sector’s significant environmental impact. For such analysis, a climate file representing a typical meteorological year (TMY) is needed, including hourly values for the [...] Read more.
Dynamic building energy performance modeling is becoming increasingly important in the architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry because of the sector’s significant environmental impact. For such analysis, a climate file representing a typical meteorological year (TMY) is needed, including hourly values for the most important weather-related parameters. However, TMY shows little resemblance to the future of the particular location where a building has been used for decades. Therefore, using predicted future climates during building design is unfortunately rarely practiced, potentially undermining the strategies that should be the fundamental basis of the design. To explore this question, our study compared the heating and cooling energy consumption, indoor thermal comfort, and summer overheating potential of a selected building for three distinctive European climates, in Hungary, Portugal, and Lithuania. All of them were changed according to the IPCC RCP4.5 scenario, and were examined for the present, the 2050, and the 2100 scenarios. We also tested adaptive clothing to evaluate the indoor comfort parameters. The results show a 10% increase in heating and cooling energy use for the same construction and location between 2020 and 2100. The continental climate of Budapest is the most threatened by summer overheating, with an increase of 69% for the ODH26 indicator. A more balanced warming for Lisbon was found (23%), and moderate changes for the city of Kaunas (a 153% increase from a very low baseline). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Numerical Simulations of Building Thermal and Indoor Air Quality)
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22 pages, 13274 KiB  
Article
The Impact of Traditional Raw Earth Dwellings’ Envelope Retrofitting on Energy Saving: A Case Study from Zhushan Village, in West of Hunan, China
by Liang Xie, Zhe Li, Jiayu Li, Guanglei Yang, Jishui Jiang, Zhezheng Liu and Shuyuan Tong
Atmosphere 2022, 13(10), 1537; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13101537 - 20 Sep 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1956
Abstract
This study presents the CO2 emissions and energy performance of traditional raw earth dwellings’ envelope retrofitting located in the Zhushan Village, western Hunan Province, China. The numerical simulations of heating energy consumption on the building models were performed using DesignBuilder, an energy [...] Read more.
This study presents the CO2 emissions and energy performance of traditional raw earth dwellings’ envelope retrofitting located in the Zhushan Village, western Hunan Province, China. The numerical simulations of heating energy consumption on the building models were performed using DesignBuilder, an energy simulation program. The energy performance was evaluated using the indexes (including energy consumption, CO2 emissions, heat balance analysis, and air temperature profiles). The detailed evaluation process of the energy performance is presented as follows. First, the current situation was analyzed through the field research, and two typical building models were built. Second, all schemes were simulated using the DesignBuilder software. Subsequently, the four main retrofit measures (replacing the external insulation windows, setting the external wall insulation layer, setting the roof insulation layer, and setting the ceiling insulation layer) were analyzed, respectively. The optimal parameters of the respective retrofit measure were calculated. Lastly, a multi-objective optimization analysis was conducted on all retrofit plans using the coupling method. In the winter, the results indicated that the “I-shape” dwelling heat consumption of the enclosure structure was reduced by 12.8 kW·h/m2, and the CO2 emissions were reduced by 882.8 kg. While in the benchmark building, the results showed that the “L-shape” dwelling heat consumption of the enclosure structure was decreased by 13.27 kW·h/m2, and the CO2 emissions were reduced by 894.4 kg. As the renewal scheme has been progressively implemented, the whole Zhushan Village will save energy by 11.2 × 104 kW·h after the insulation renewal of the envelope structure is completed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Numerical Simulations of Building Thermal and Indoor Air Quality)
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20 pages, 6544 KiB  
Article
Thermal Model Validation Process for Building Environment Simulation: A Case Study for Single-Family House
by Izabela Sarna, Joanna Ferdyn-Grygierek and Krzysztof Grygierek
Atmosphere 2022, 13(8), 1295; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13081295 - 15 Aug 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2370
Abstract
Currently, more and more emphasis is being placed on reducing energy consumption in buildings to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Building performance simulation is very useful to predict energy demand and indoor environment quality. An indispensable element of the simulation is the [...] Read more.
Currently, more and more emphasis is being placed on reducing energy consumption in buildings to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Building performance simulation is very useful to predict energy demand and indoor environment quality. An indispensable element of the simulation is the validation and calibration of the model, which is an arduous process. The aim of the study was to present a four-level validation (using measurement results) and calibration of a thermal model of a naturally ventilated single-family house. Numerical calculations using co-simulation between EnergyPlus and Contam were performed. The results of the one-year simulation measurements of the indoor temperature and ventilation airflows were compared. After the calibration was performed, a high convergence of the results was found. The normalized mean bias error for hourly and monthly values did not exceed 1% and the coefficient of variation of the root mean squared error was a maximum of 7% with a simultaneous high correlation of the results in the range from 0.85 to 0.89. It was found that the final results were significantly influenced by the appropriate modeling of air exchange in the building, including the opening of windows. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Numerical Simulations of Building Thermal and Indoor Air Quality)
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20 pages, 7711 KiB  
Article
A Parameterized Design Method for Building a Shading System Based on Climate Adaptability
by Shiliang Wang, Qun Zhang, Peng Liu, Rui Liang and Zitian Fu
Atmosphere 2022, 13(8), 1244; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13081244 - 5 Aug 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2599
Abstract
The relationship between environmental factors and the indoor physical environment is very close, and external shading is considered an effective way to adjust the interaction between the indoor and outdoor environment. However, determining how to set up an external shading system remains a [...] Read more.
The relationship between environmental factors and the indoor physical environment is very close, and external shading is considered an effective way to adjust the interaction between the indoor and outdoor environment. However, determining how to set up an external shading system remains a notable issue. In the early design stage, architects have adopted the process of designing the form and function first and then checking whether those characteristics meet the energy-saving specifications. However, this process involves a great deal of repetitive and inefficient work and cannot meet the requirements of energy savings and emission reductions in a global context. Therefore, it is particularly important to seek a design method that combines energy-saving design with form-based design. This paper takes a construction project in Northwest China as its research object. In this study, typical parametric models for external shading are designed. Furthermore, indoor performance objectives based on light environment analysis are proposed, and Ladybug Tools and the genetic algorithm (GA) are used for optimization and verification. The optimization results show that the adaptive shading system can significantly reduce the total cooling energy consumption per unit area in summer by 20% and 15%, respectively. The comfort level throughout the year improved by 14.8% (air conditioning on) and 4.7% (air conditioning off). This study proposes a fast and effective shading parametric design method for architects in the early stage, improving the efficiency and accuracy of performance-based design. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Numerical Simulations of Building Thermal and Indoor Air Quality)
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