Building Performance Analysis and Simulation: We’ve Come a Long Way
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada
Buildings 2014, 4(4), 762-763; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings4040762
Submission received: 9 October 2014
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Accepted: 13 October 2014
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Published: 17 October 2014
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building Performance Analysis and Simulation)
Back in 1981, when I started doing building energy performance simulation for pre-design and energy efficiency retrofit work, building simulation was in its infancy. There were only a handful of building energy simulation programs, with DOE-2, ESP-II, BLAST, TRACE and MERIWHETHER being the most commonly used ones by consultants [1]. These programs required “mainframe” computers, so I used to prepare the input files on a Radio Shack TRS-80, send it over a telephone modem to a company in Toronto that ran the simulation on a mainframe computer overnight and shipped the printed output to me by courier in the morning. Each run had a turn-around time of almost 48 h, and the run-time and courier charges were about $100, almost as much as a day’s salary for a young engineer.
The building performance analysis and simulation landscape is completely different now, with a wide range of building simulation software that run on desktop or laptop computers, at different levels of complexity and sophistication, and for a wide range of purposes including load estimation, whole building energy, air-flow and indoor air quality analysis, heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) and lighting system design, code compliance, retrofit, renewable energy and economic analysis [2]. These software are widely and routinely used by practicing engineers as well as researchers.
Considering the ubiquity of “building performance and simulation” in the world of building engineering and research, this Special Issue of Buildings was conceived and I had the pleasure of acting as the special issue editor. Befitting a special issue, the articles cover a wide spectrum of original building performance and simulation research. The articles by Yang et al. [3], McKeen and Fung [4], Kraniotis et al. [5], Hamelin and Zmeurenau [6], and Mohammad and Shea [7] report on research conducted using simulation tools, the article by Ruuska and Hakkinen [8] report on an extensive literature review and a case study conducted using a comprehensive database, and the articles by Pozza et al. [9], Chow et al. [10] and Kanters et al. [11] report on newly developed software tools.
I wish all users and developers of “building performance and simulation” tools exciting days ahead with interesting and challenging projects.
Conflicts of Interest
The author declares no conflict of interest.
References and Notes
- For a review of the history of building energy simulation programs, see: “Building Energy Analysis Programs” by Lau and Ayres presented in the 1979 Winter Simulation Conference IEEE, available from the ACM Digital Library (http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=802881) and “History of Building Energy Modeling” by International Building Performance Assoc. (IBPSA), available from http://www.bembook.ibpsa.us/index.php?title=History_of_Building_Energy_Modeling.
- For a comprehensive listing and overview of building energy software available, see Building Energy Software Tools Directory maintained by the U.S. Department of Energy, available from http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/tools_directory/.
- Yang, X.; Ge, H.; Fazio, P.; Rao, J. Evaluation of parameters influencing the moisture buffering potential of hygroscopic materials with BSim Simulations. Buildings 2014, 4, 375–393. [Google Scholar]
- McKeen, P.; Fung, A.S. The effect of building aspect ratio on energy efficiency: A case study for multi-unit residential buildings in Canada. Buildings 2014, 4, 336–354. [Google Scholar]
- Kraniotis, D.; Thiis, T.K.; Aurlien, T. A numerical study on the impact of wind gust frequency on air exchanges in buildings with variable external and internal leakages. Buildings 2014, 4, 27–42. [Google Scholar]
- Hamelin, M.-C.; Zmeureanu, R. Optimum envelope of a single-family house based on life cycle analysis. Buildings 2014, 4, 95–112. [Google Scholar]
- Mohammad, S.; Shea, A. Performance evaluation of modern building thermal envelope designs in the semi-arid continental climate of Tehran. Buildings 2014, 3, 674–688. [Google Scholar]
- Ruuska, A.; Häkkinen, T. Material efficiency of building construction. Buildings 2014, 4, 266–294. [Google Scholar]
- Pozza, L.; Scotta, R.; Trutalli, D.; Pinna, M.; Polastri, A.; Bertoni, P. Experimental and numerical analyses of new massive wooden shear-wall systems. Buildings 2014, 4, 355–374. [Google Scholar]
- Chow, A.; Fung, A.S.; Li, S. GIS modeling of solar neighborhood potential at a fine spatiotemporal resolution. Buildings 2014, 4, 195–206. [Google Scholar]
- Kanters, J.; Wall, M.; Dubois, M.-C. Development of a façade assessment and design tool for Solar energy (FASSADES). Buildings 2014, 4, 43–59. [Google Scholar]
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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MDPI and ACS Style
Ugursal, V.I. Building Performance Analysis and Simulation: We’ve Come a Long Way. Buildings 2014, 4, 762-763. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings4040762
AMA Style
Ugursal VI. Building Performance Analysis and Simulation: We’ve Come a Long Way. Buildings. 2014; 4(4):762-763. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings4040762
Chicago/Turabian StyleUgursal, V. Ismet. 2014. "Building Performance Analysis and Simulation: We’ve Come a Long Way" Buildings 4, no. 4: 762-763. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings4040762
