“Virtual Design Studio”—Part 2: Introduction to overall and software framework

Zhang, Jianshun; Pelken, P. Michael; Chen, Yixing; Rice, Daniel B.; Meng, Zhaozhou; Semahegn, Shewangizaw; Gu, Lixing; Henderson, Hugh; Feng, Wei; Ling, Francesca

doi:10.1007/s12273-013-0111-1

Cited by 12 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The first part relates to the building geometry, including the building shape, building height, number of stories, and thermal zoning. The second part relates to the building systems and their operation conditions, such as envelope construction, interior and exterior lighting, plug loads, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, central plant, and server hot water systems [12][13][14] 1 provides the Geographic Information System (GIS) building geometry information including the footprint and height of each building in the city. It also provides the building characteristics, such as year built, number of stories, and building type.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of building geometry modeling methods on the simulation results of urban building energy models

2018

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Urban-scale building energy modeling (UBEM)-using building modeling to understand how a group of buildings will perform together-is attracting increasing attention in the energy modeling field. Unlike modeling a single building, which will use detailed information, UBEM generally uses existing building stock data consisting of high-level building information. This study evaluated the impacts of three zoning methods and the use of floor multipliers on the simulated energy use of 940 office and retail buildings in three climate zones using City Building Energy Saver. The first zoning method, OneZone, creates one thermal zone per floor using the target building's footprint. The second zoning method, AutoZone, splits the building's footprint into perimeter and core zones. A novel, pixel-based automatic zoning algorithm is developed for the AutoZone method. The third zoning method, Prototype, uses the U.S. Department of Energy's reference building prototype shapes. Results show that simulated source energy use of buildings with the floor multiplier are marginally higher by up to 2.6% than those modeling each floor explicitly, which take two to three times longer to run. Compared with the AutoZone method, the OneZone method results in decreased thermal loads and less equipment capacities: 15.2% smaller fan capacity, 11.1% 1 smaller cooling capacity, 11.0% smaller heating capacity, 16.9% less heating loads, and 7.5% less cooling loads. Source energy use differences range from-7.6% to 5.1%. When comparing the Prototype method with the AutoZone method, source energy use differences range from-12.1% to 19.0%, and larger ranges of differences are found for the thermal loads and equipment capacities. This study demonstrated that zoning methods have a significant impact on the simulated energy use of UBEM. One recommendation resulting from this study is to use the AutoZone method with floor multiplier to obtain accurate results while balancing the simulation run time for UBEM.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of building geometry modeling methods on the simulation results of urban building energy models

2018

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“…The presented prototype includes similar design variables as Asl et al [20], i.e., material selection. Other proposals, such as the "Virtual Design Studio" framework presented by Zhang et al [27], did not include automated workflows and optimization of multi-disciplinary design objectives.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Researchers have also presented frameworks that use neutral file formats to link BIM models with simulation models for energy related evaluation during building design, e.g., [26,27]: Ryu and Park [26] presented an LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) simulation process based on Revit and the exporting of a gbXML file to FZKViewer for model assessment. HVAC-calculations were done in Revit.…”

Section: Bim Applications Related To Life-cycle Energy and Cost Evalumentioning

confidence: 99%

“…HVAC-calculations were done in Revit. Zhang et al [27] presented a software platform called Virtual Design Studio, which uses IFC, gbXML, and IDF to evaluate a number of different aspects, e.g., life-cycle cost analysis, HVAC and daylighting (EnergyPlus), and room space. Although the framework is based on neutral file formats, it also uses software specific models and optimization is not included.…”

Section: Bim Applications Related To Life-cycle Energy and Cost Evalumentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Asl et al [20] used the gbXML format, but other, more generic, neutral formats, such as IFC, were not included in the framework. The Zhang et al [27] framework, based on neutral file formats, has a quite well-described logic for the components of the Virtual Design Studio and could theoretically be used to generate even more models than those described in their paper. However, optimization was not included and the question is how to automate the design and analysis workflow.…”

Section: How To Design a Bim-based Process Using Neutral File Formatsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multidisciplinary Optimization of Life-Cycle Energy and Cost Using a BIM-Based Master Model

et al. 2019

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Virtual design tools and methods can aid in creating decision bases, but it is a challenge to balance all the trade-offs between different disciplines in building design. Optimization methods are at hand, but the question is how to connect and coordinate the updating of the domain models of each discipline and centralize the product definition into one source instead of having several unconnected product definitions. Building information modelling (BIM) features the idea of centralizing the product definition to a BIM-model and creating interoperability between models from different domains and previous research reports on different applications in a number of fields within construction. Recent research features BIM-based optimization, but there is still a question of knowing how to design a BIM-based process using neutral file formats to enable multidisciplinary optimization of life-cycle energy and cost. This paper proposes a framework for neutral BIM-based multidisciplinary optimization. The framework consists of (1) a centralized master model, from which different discipline-specific domain models are generated and evaluated; and (2) an optimization algorithm controlling the optimization loop. Based on the proposed framework, a prototype was developed and used in a case study of a Swedish multifamily residential building to test the framework’s applicability in generating and optimizing multiple models based on the BIM-model. The prototype was developed to enhance the building’s sustainability performance by optimizing the trade-off between the building’s life-cycle energy (LCE) and life-cycle cost (LCC) when choosing material for the envelope. The results of the case study demonstrated the applicability of the framework and prototype in optimizing the trade-off between conflicting objectives, such as LCE and LCC, during the design process.

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2018

Building Performance Analysis

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“Virtual Design Studio”—Part 2: Introduction to overall and software framework

Cited by 12 publications

References 8 publications

Impacts of building geometry modeling methods on the simulation results of urban building energy models

Impacts of building geometry modeling methods on the simulation results of urban building energy models

Multidisciplinary Optimization of Life-Cycle Energy and Cost Using a BIM-Based Master Model

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