https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7726-5769
The biannual Building Performance Analysis Conference and SimBuild, co-organized by ASHRAE and IBPSA-USA, provides a platform for designers, engineers, and researchers to share information about innovations in design, analysis, simulation methods, tools, and applications in the field of building performance modeling. The first such conference was held in 2014, and the immense success of the format, information shared, and connections built has resulted in five successful events since then. The conference brings together the building performance simulation community for three days of presentations, discussions, seminars, and workshops. Attendees include practitioners, vendors, researchers, utility and government officials, who engage in discussions related to building performance simulation and future simulation research and applications.
The 5th ASHRAE and IBPSA-USA Building Performance Analysis Conference and SimBuild 2022 was organized as a hybrid conference from September 14 to 16, 2022. It was a highly successful event, with more than 271 in-person attendees and 44 virtual attendees from multiple countries, 35 technical sessions, and more than 100 presentations. The theme of the conference was improving the decision-making process through the application of simulation and modeling over the entire building life cycle. Participants addressed the practices of energy modeling and building performance simulation using existing simulation tools, software development, and future simulation research and applications.
The best candidates for expansion to journal articles were selected from the presented papers and authors were invited to submit an extended paper for publication in a special issue of Science and Technology for the Built Environment. The submitted papers underwent a rigorous peer review process. The published articles cover a broad range of building simulation applications, together providing a significant view of the current research and developments in the field of building performance modeling.
Bae et al. developed actual operating schedules of different space types in college buildings based on the class reservation schedule and compared these with the previous occupancy schedules. The results indicate that the updated occupancy schedules are significantly different from the previous schedule and more realistic.
Heidarinejad, et al. presented the design and evaluation of a prototype thermally active student desk for personalized cooling retrofits using computational fluid dynamics and field experiments. This study demonstrates how a personalized conditioning system could be designed and integrated into the existing aesthetics of buildings to provide cooling retrofits and save energy.
Jones developed an approach to accelerate daylighting simulation and high dynamic range processing. This method takes advantage of the vectorization of the NumPy library in Python to process large amounts of data simultaneously, which leads of a total speedup of two orders of magnitude with speedups for individual operations achieving up to six orders of magnitude.
Mbaye, et al. presented a novel modular and physics-based variable refrigerant flow heat pump model that allows for multi-year simulations of large systems. Additionally, they proposed a parameter-estimation procedure and a control strategy using available manufacturer data.
Schildt, et al. evaluated the role of interior walls in district-scale Life Cycle Assessment for residential buildings. They employed Latin Hypercube Sampling to establish interior wall areas and their Global Warming Potential, and compared the results with those of previous approaches and validated ground truth data. The results show a reduction in overestimation from 400% to a range of 7%-53%.
Villa et al. applied a multi-scenario extreme weather simulator for planning of a community resilience hub in Hau’ula, Hawaii. The hub considered normal operations and resilience operations modes, modeled using EnergyPlus. The resulting decrease in thermal resilience enables an average decrease of energy use intensity of 26% with little sensitivity to climate change.
Grahovac et al. presented a comparative simulation-based control logic design process. They used the Control Description Language and the ASHRAE Guideline 36 high-performing building control sequences with the Modelica Buildings Library to demonstrate a comparative analysis of two control designs for a data center chilled water plant. The results show that simulation-based control logic design performance evaluation could improve energy efficiency and resilience aspects of system controls.
We thank all peer reviewers and all the authors for their great effort. We also thank the editor and editorial staff of Science and Technology for the Built Environment for their availability and support in disseminating the results of ASHRAE and IBPSA-USA Building Performance Analysis Conference and SimBuild 2022.
Member IBPSA, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA
[email protected]
Yunyang Ye
Associate Member ASHRAE, Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA