Modelling thermal transients in controlled double skin Façade building by using renowned energy simulation engines

Abstract

The paper is an analysis and overview of some simulation tools used to model specific thermal dynamics that occurs while controlling double skin façade. Research has been conducted on simplified construction with single zone where one side is glazed. Heat flow and temperature responses are simulated in three different simulation tools: IDA-ICE, EnergyPlus and HAMBASE. The excitation of observed system, used in all simulations, was a temperature step of adjacent zone. Air infiltration, insulation and other disturbances are excluded from this research. Although such isolated behaviour is not possible, experiments are carried out to gain novel information about heat flow transients which are not observable under regular conditions. Results revealed new possibilities for adapting the parameters of the regulator i.e. artificial neural network. Along numerical simulations, the same setup has been also tested in a real-time experiment with a 1:18 scaled model and thermal chamber. The comparison analysis brings out interesting conclusion about simulation accuracy in this particular case.