Abstract
Air-conditioning is a major factor in energy consumption worldwide. Populous developing countries located in the tropics are projected to soon experience a staggering increase in the use of such systems, suggesting a future need for architects to design buildings that exploit natural means of temperature regulation. In this paper, we present a novel workflow to enable the simulation of natural ventilation in early stage architectural design. We draw on two recent advances in research: a stochastic model of occupants’ window opening behavior, coupled with the Airflow Network module in EnergyPlus to simulate inter-zone airflow. As a case study, we model several spatial configurations, identify metrics to analyze these and observe how design changes impact the building performance. Though the Airflow Network is a simplified model, it saves valuable computation time in comparison to CFD modelling, while the use of data-driven occupant behavior models can be expected to increase the accuracy of model results. We suggest that this multi-model approach allows a tangible engagement with the effects of natural ventilation in the design process, and suggest methods to foster insights during the design process.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge that this research has received support from the Australian Research Council (ARC) through the Linkage Project Swarming: micro-flight data capture and analysis in architectural design CIs J Burry, S. Watkins, F. Salim, A. Mohammed.
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Marschall, M., Burry, J., Tahmasebi, F. (2020). Simulating Natural Ventilation in Early Stage Design: Combining an Occupant Behavior Model with an Airflow Network Approach. In: Gengnagel, C., Baverel, O., Burry, J., Ramsgaard Thomsen, M., Weinzierl, S. (eds) Impact: Design With All Senses. DMSB 2019. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29829-6_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29829-6_10
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