Adaptive construction modelling within whole building dynamic simulation

In today's climate of energy, environment and health awareness, it is important to design buildings which respect the threefold goals of efficient energy use, protection of the environment and human health. This can best be achieved if overall building performance is considered within the building design process. However, because the energy/environmental performance of buildings is dynamic and complex, simulation tools should be employed within the design process. In order to service this need, simulation model accuracy and applicability should be improved. This thesis is concerned with the development of new simulation schemes for adaptive building construction modelling. These schemes are integrated within a state-of-the-art energy simulation environment so that it can be effectively employed in practice. After addressing the theory underlying heat and moisture diffusion within porous media, three approaches to adaptive building fabric simulation are presented. These are: multi-dimensional, variable resolution, error based building fabric modelling; variable thermophysical properties simulation and combined heat and moisture transport simulation. The numerical model, implementation and solution methods of these schemes are discussed in detail. The validation of these schemes is then performed, after their integration with the whole building simulation environment, ESP-r . This is done using a comprehensive validation methodology, which includes the elements of theory checking, source code inspection, analytical conformance, inter-model comparison and empirical verification. The applicability of the developed schemes is then presented in the context of a typical Scottish house design. It is concluded that the application potential and robustness of environmental building performance tools have been increased. Finally, the future work required to increase the applicability and accuracy of building simulation tools is elaborated in terms of the required integration with other technical sub-systems and related computer aided design tools.