TY - JOUR
T1 - Building simulations supporting decision making in early design – A review
AU - Østergård, Torben
AU - Jensen, Rasmus Lund
AU - Maagaard, Steffen
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - The building design community is challenged by continuously increasing energy demands, which are often combined with ambitious goals for indoor environment, for environmental impact, and for building costs. To aid decision-making, building simulation is widely used in the late design stages, but its application is still limited in the early stages in which design decisions have a major impact on final building performance and costs. The early integration of simulation software faces several challenges, which include time-consuming modeling, rapid change of the design, conflicting requirements, input uncertainties, and large design variability. In addition, building design is a multi-collaborator discipline, where design decisions are influenced by architects, engineers, contractors, and building owners. This review covers developments in both academia and in commercial software industry that target these challenges. Identified research areas include statistical methods, optimisation, proactive simulations, knowledge based input generation, and interoperability between CAD-software and building performance software. Based on promising developments in literature, we propose a simulation framework that facilitates proactive, intelligent, and experience based building simulation which aid decision making in early design. To find software candidates accommodating this framework, we compare existing software with regard to intended usage, interoperability, complexity, objectives, and ability to perform various parametric simulations.
AB - The building design community is challenged by continuously increasing energy demands, which are often combined with ambitious goals for indoor environment, for environmental impact, and for building costs. To aid decision-making, building simulation is widely used in the late design stages, but its application is still limited in the early stages in which design decisions have a major impact on final building performance and costs. The early integration of simulation software faces several challenges, which include time-consuming modeling, rapid change of the design, conflicting requirements, input uncertainties, and large design variability. In addition, building design is a multi-collaborator discipline, where design decisions are influenced by architects, engineers, contractors, and building owners. This review covers developments in both academia and in commercial software industry that target these challenges. Identified research areas include statistical methods, optimisation, proactive simulations, knowledge based input generation, and interoperability between CAD-software and building performance software. Based on promising developments in literature, we propose a simulation framework that facilitates proactive, intelligent, and experience based building simulation which aid decision making in early design. To find software candidates accommodating this framework, we compare existing software with regard to intended usage, interoperability, complexity, objectives, and ability to perform various parametric simulations.
KW - Building performance
KW - Uncertainty analysis
KW - Sensitivity analysis
KW - Interoperability
KW - Optimisation
KW - Knowledge based input generation
KW - Building performance
KW - Uncertainty analysis
KW - Sensitivity analysis
KW - Interoperability
KW - Optimisation
KW - Knowledge based input generation
U2 - 10.1016/j.rser.2016.03.045
DO - 10.1016/j.rser.2016.03.045
M3 - Review article
SN - 1364-0321
VL - 61
SP - 187
EP - 201
JO - Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews
JF - Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews
IS - August
ER -