BS2025 / Program / IFC-based semiautomated building energy model creation and simplification for Building Energy Simulations

IFC-based semiautomated building energy model creation and simplification for Building Energy Simulations

Location
Room 1
Time
August 25, 11:00 am-11:15 am

The execution time of building energy performance simulations increases with the complexity of the building energy model. For models of large buildings, this complexity is often due to the increased number of building spaces with intricate geometries, leading to multiple surfaces/heat transfer elements in the respective simulation models. The increased simulation time is a potential bottleneck in cases requiring multiple simulation runs, such as uncertainty/sensitivity analysis or parametric/optimization projects.

To expedite simulation execution for large and complex building energy models, a workflow has been introduced that combines a semiautomated building energy model generation process [2], with an automated space-to-zone merging routine[1]. This workflow takes IFC data files derived from laser scanning as input and produces either a full building energy model or a simplified model based on specified space-to-zone grouping rules.

The workflow is demonstrated on a large building model, and the achieved reductions in simulation time and the trade-offs in simulation accuracy for various space-to-zone merging scenarios, are presented using a Pareto plot. Simulation accuracy is assessed with well-defined metrics, using the full model’s results as a benchmark. The optimal space-to-zone merging scenario is then selected on the basis of the desired balance between reduced simulation time and acceptable accuracy, to be used in optimization processes to select the best energy retrofit scenario.

Presenters

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