Abstract
Building modelers need simulation tools capable of simultaneously considering building energy use, airflow and indoor air quality (IAQ) to design and evaluate the ability of buildings and their systems to meet today’s demanding energy efficiency and IAQ performance requirements. CONTAM is a widely-used multizone building airflow and contaminant transport simulation tool that requires indoor temperatures as input values. EnergyPlus is a prominent whole-building energy simulation program capable of performing heat transfer calculations that require interzone and infiltration airflows as input values. On their own, each tool is limited in its ability to account for thermal processes upon which building airflow may be significantly dependent and vice versa. This paper describes the initial phase of coupling of CONTAM with EnergyPlus to capture the interdependencies between airflow and heat transfer using co-simulation that allows for sharing of data between independently executing simulation tools. The coupling is accomplished based on the Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI) for Co-simulation specification that provides for integration between independently developed tools. A three-zone combined heat transfer/airflow analytical BESTEST case was simulated to verify the co-simulation is functioning as expected, and an investigation of a two-zone, natural ventilation case designed to challenge the coupled thermal/airflow solution methods was performed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
ANSI/ASHRAE (2007). ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 90.2-2007—Energy-Efficient Design of Low-Rise Residential Buildings. Atlanta: American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.
ASHRAE (2014). ANSI/ASHRAE/USGBC/IES Standard 189.1-2014—Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings. Atlanta: American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.
Axley J, Grot R (1989). The coupled airflow and thermal analysis problem in building airflow system simulation. ASHRAE Transactions, 95(2): 621–628.
Axley JW, Emmerich WJ, Walton GN (2002). Modeling the performance of a naturally ventilated commercial building with a multizone coupled thermal/airflow simulation tool. ASHRAE Transactions, 108(2): 1260–1275.
Bonan C, Nibart M, Armand P, Albergel A, Olry C (2014). Coupling between PMSS and CONTAM: The indoor/outdoor contaminant transfer of a hazardous release. In: Proceedings of 16th International Conference on Harmonisation within Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling for Regulatory Purposes, Varna, Bulgaria.
Chen Y, Gu L, Zhang J (2015). EnergyPlus and CHAMPS-Multizone co-simulation for energy and indoor air quality analysis. Building Simulation, 8: 371–380.
Crawley DB, Lawrie LK, Winkelmann FC, Buhl WF, Huang YJ, Pedersen CO, Strand RK, Liesen RJ, Fisher DE, Witte MJ, Glazer J (2001). EnergyPlus: Creating a new-generation building energy simulation program. Energy and Building, 33: 319–331.
DOE (2014a). EnergyPlus Engineering Reference (version 8.2). In: The Reference to EnergyPlus Calculations. Champaign, IL,USA: University of Illinois.
DOE (2014b). EnergyPlus Input Output Reference (version 8.2). In The Encyclopedic Reference to EnergyPlus Input and Output. Champaign, IL,USA: University of Illinois.
Dols WS, Polidoro BJ (2015). CONTAM user guide and program documentation. NIST Technical Note 1887. Gaithersburg, MD,USA: National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Dols WS, Wang L, Emmerich SJ, Polidoro BJ (2015a). Development and application of an updated whole-building coupled thermal, airflow and contaminant transport simulation program (TRNSYS/CONTAM). Journal of Building Performance Simulation, 8: 326–337.
Dols WS, Emmerich SJ, Polidoro BJ (2015b). Using coupled energy, airflow and indoor air quality software (TRNSYS/CONTAM) to evaluate building ventilation strategies. Building Services Engineering Research and Technology, doi: 10.1177/0143624415619464.
Duffy MJ, Hiller M, Bradley DE, Keilholz W, Thornton JW (2009). TRNSYS—Features and functionalitity for Building Simulation 2009 Conference. In: Proceedings of 11th IBPSA International Building Simulation Conference, Glasgow, UK.
Emmerich SJ, McDowell TP, Anis W (2007). Simulation of the impact of commercial building envelope airtightness on building energy utilization. ASHRAE Transactions, 113(2): 279–399.
Emmerich SJ, Persily AK (2014). Analysis of U.S. commercial building envelope air leakage database to support sustainable building design. International Journal of Ventilation, 12: 331–343.
Gu L (2007). Airflow network modeling in EnergyPlus. In: Proceedings of 10th IBPSA International Building Simulation Conference, Beijing, China.
Han G, Srebric J, Enache-Pommer E (2015). Different modeling strategies of infiltration rates for an office building to improve accuracy of building energy simulations. Energy and Buildings, 86: 288–295.
Hensen JLM (1999). A comparison of coupled and de-coupled solutions for temperature and air flow in a building. ASHRAE Transactions, 105(2): 962–969.
Herring S, England J, Lingard B, Parker S (2014). Combined outdoor–indoor dispersion modelling in urban areas. In: Proceedings of 16th International Conference on Harmonisation within Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling for Regulatory Purpose, Varna, Bulgaria.
Li Y, Delsante A (2001). Natural ventilation induced by combined wind and thermal forces. Building and Environment, 36: 59–71.
Li Y, Delsante A, Chen Z, Sandberg M, Andersen A, Bjerre M, Heiselberg P (2001). Some examples of solution multiplicity in natural ventilation. Building and Environment, 36: 851–858.
Lorenzetti DM (2002). Computational aspects of nodal multizone airflow systems. Building and Environment, 37: 1083–1090.
Miller RS (2011). Elevator shaft pressurization for smoke control in tall buildings: The Seattle approach. Building and Environment, 46: 2247–2254.
MODELISAR (2010). Functional mock-up interface for co-simulation. ITEA2-07006. MODELISAR Consortium. Available at https://www.fmi-standard.org/.
Neymark J, Judkoff R (2008). International Energy Agency Building Energy Simulation Test and Diagnostic Method (IEA BESTEST). Multi-zone non-airflow in-depth diagnostic cases: MZ320–MZ360 TP-550-43827. Technical Report, NREL/TP-550-43827. Golden, CO,USA: National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Ng LC, Musser A, Persily AK, Emmerich SJ (2012). Indoor air quality analyses of commercial reference buildings. Building and Environment, 58: 179–187.
Nouidui TS, Wetter M, Zuo W (2013). Functional mock-up unit import in energyplus for co-simulation. In: Proceedings of 13th IBPSA International Building Simulation Conference, Chambery, France.
Nouidui TS, Wetter M, Zuo W (2014). Functional mock-up unit for co-simulation import in EnergyPlus. Journal of Building Performance Simulation, 7: 192–202.
NREL (2016). OpenStudio. Available at https://www.openstudio.net/. Accessed 15 Jan 2015.
Persily AK, Chapman RE, Emmerich SJ, Dols WS, Davis H, Lavappa P, Rushing A (2007). Building retrofits for increased protection against chemical and biological releases. NISTIR 7371. Gaithersburg, MD,USA: National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Persily AK, Emmerich SJ (2012). Indoor air quality in sustainable, energy efficient buildings. HVAC&R Research, 18: 4–20.
Rim D, Persily A, Emmerich S, Dols WS, Wallace L (2013). Multi-zone modeling of size-resolved outdoor ultrafine particle entry into a test house. Atmospheric Environment, 69: 219–230.
De Sturler E, Hoeflinger J, Kale L, Bhandarkar M (2000). A new approach to software integration frameworks for multi-physics simulation codes. In: Proceedings of IFIP Conference on the Architecture of Scientific Software, Ottawa, Canada.
Taylor RD, Pedersen CO, Lawrie LK (1990). Simultaneous simulation of buildings and mechanical systems in heat balance based energy analysis programs. In: Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on System Simulation in Buildings, Liege, Belgium.
Trcka M, Wetter M, Hensen JLM (2009). An implementation of cosimulation for performance prediction of innovative integrated HVAC systems in buildings In: Proceedings of 11th IBPSA International Building Simulation Conference, Glasgow, UK.
USGBC (2013). LEED Reference Guide for Building Design and Construction v4. U.S. Green Building Council.
Villi G, Peretti C, Graci S, De Carli M (2013). Building leakage analysis and infiltration modelling for an Italian multi-family building. Journal of Building Performance Simulation, 6: 98–118.
Walton GN (1982). Airflow and multiroom thermal analysis. ASHRAE Transactions, 88(2): 78–91.
Walton GN (1989). AIRNET—A computer program for building airflow network modeling. NISTIR 89-4072. Gaithersburg, MD,USA: National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Wang L, Dols WS, Emmerich SJ (2012). Simultaneous solutions of coupled thermal airflow problem for natural ventilation in buildings. HVAC&R Research, 18: 264–274.
Weber A, Koschenz M, Dorer V, Hiller M, Holst S (2003). TRNFLOW, a new tool for the modelling of heat, air and pollutant transport in buildings within TRNSYS. In: Proceedings of 8th IBPSA International Building Simulation Conference, Eindhoven, Netherlands.
Wetter M (2011). Co-simulation of building energy and control systems with the building controls virtual test bed. Journal of Building Performance Simulation, 4: 185–203.
Zhai Z, Chen Q (2005). Performance of coupled building energy and CFD simulations. Energy and Buildings, 37: 333–344.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dols, W.S., Emmerich, S.J. & Polidoro, B.J. Coupling the multizone airflow and contaminant transport software CONTAM with EnergyPlus using co-simulation. Build. Simul. 9, 469–479 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-016-0279-2
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-016-0279-2