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O'Donnell, James
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O'Donnell, James
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O'Donnell, James
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Now showing 1 - 10 of 55
- PublicationModel Transformation from SimModel to Modelica for Building Energy Performance Simulation(International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA), 2014-09-01)
; ; ; This paper demonstrates a model transformation tool between the Building Information Model (BIM) and Modelica schemas for Building Energy Performance Simulation (BEPS) purposes. Automated reuse of data in BIMs to accelerate BEPS model development is now a promising approach for engineers. However, using BEPS tools such as Modelica to generate building simulation models is currently difficult and time consuming due to the largely manual data input. The ability to import data of a BIM into Modelica-based BEPS tool would improve this process significantly. In order to address the challenge, this paper proposes a model transformation prototype to convert Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) based BIMs into object-oriented Modelica simulation models. The proposed approach uses SimModel data model as a placeholder for IFC. SimModel currently contains richer HVAC data definitions than IFC for the purposes of BEPS and can be easily extended to store the additional data required by Modelica. This prototype demonstrates the potential to reduce development time of Modelica models by reusing building information data stored in BIMs.130 - PublicationA Framework To Assess The Interoperability Of Commercial Buildings At A District Scale(International Building Simulation Association England, 2018-09-12)
; ; ; Expensive control technology coupled with absence of a proper framework result in buildings that operate independently for their entire operating life. This paper introduces a framework to assess the potential of buildings to function together using heat load demand patterns and buildings thermal mass. Buildings are characterized as possessing variable and stable heat demand patterns and internal conditions are modified to achieve a peak heat demand reduction. Results indicate 8% reduction in overall peak heat demand when two buildings are operated together. The analysis clearly establishes the significance of an integrated energy system that leads to a reduction in peak loads.91 - PublicationA Review on Country Specific Data Availability and Acquisition Techniques for City Quarter Information Modelling for Building Energy Analysis(Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz, 2020-09-25)
; ; ; ; This paper addresses the increasing number of disparate data resources used for urban modelling. The objective of this work is to provide a standardized approach for processing these resources for urban energy modelling studies. This paper details the approach of a collaborative project to standardize categorization, acquisition and processing of diverse datasets for energy modelling and simulations are explained. Furthermore, based on the data categorization, this research provides an overview of the country-specific data availability and sources (for Austria, Germany and Switzerland) required for urban energy simulations. The result is a standardized structure for information exchange which is published in an extendable online template.114 - PublicationBridging the environmental and energy performance gap in buildings through simulation, measurement and data analysisBuildings during operation are dynamic environments where changes to control strategies and space usage regularly occur. As a result of these and other issues a performance gap between design intent and actual building performance emerges. This paper seeks to address the operational performance gap and optimise building performance by identifying inconsistencies in building operation. This is achieved through the combined use of a calibrated simulation model output data and the implementation of a breakout detection algorithm based on measured time-series building data. A number of alternative breakout detection algorithms are reviewed in comparison to the chosen technique in this paper. This paper outlines a statistically robust methodology to identify breakouts for measured time-series building performance data. Time-series data from the sports centre within University College Dublin (UCD) swimming pool hall were analysed. Unintended shifts in swimming pool return humidity levels above an acceptable level of 70% were identified by the breakout detection algorithm. A calibrated simulation model is referred to and the building system or zone set-point is reset to the recommended optimal value. The engineering value of this process is that it can be run in real time, as time-series data is produced, to accurately identify shifts in performance for building managers and reduce the performance gap.
83 - PublicationBIM to Building Energy Performance Simulation: An Evaluation of Current Transfer ProcessesFor over 25 years, data exchange between architectural BIM-based designs and Building Energy Performance Simulation (BEPS) have been proposed as a solution to reduce the amount of manual and error prone rework required to create typical BEPS models. The current state of the art lacks an effective, universal and robust system of data collation, processing, quality assessment and analysis while interfacing with existing tool-chains through a streamlined data transfer process.This paper investigates the reproducibility of current BIM to BEPS transfer processes through an experiment that compares these transfer processes, as used in industry, against each other. The experiment uses five residential archetype buildings and results from BEPS models in EnergyPlus indicate that there are many barriers, both technical and methodological, to achieving reproducible results between commonly available software tools. In some cases difficulties could not be overcome as the transformation process itself did not complete, leading to inconclusive results. In cases where successful transformations occurred, variations of up to 25.89% in annual energy consumption were discovered between processes. This hints to issues and limitations of the current processes and results.
218 - PublicationNext generation building performance metrics to enable energy systems integration(2016-05-25)
; ; ; Traditional building performance metrics consider a building as a standalone and static utility consumer. Voluntary green building certifications of districts generally aggregate the metrics of standalone and consuming buildings. There is a lack of performance metrics concerning the integration of critical services to a building and the utility networks supplying these critical services of electricity, natural gas and water. In order to achieve integration of energy systems, including storage based demand side management and rain water harvesting, a methodology is modelled for a typical office. The methodology requires building parameters to be combined and manipulated in order to create the proposed performance metrics. The building model is simulated for three periods of interest: a whole year, a winter design day, a summer design day. The proposed metrics enable operational management during peak and standard loads, as well as longer term analysis of the building performance. Operational management includes the role of storage and the responsiveness of a building during demand ramping or shedding. Over the longer term, the metrics indicate efficiency trends and guide design and investment decisions. It is found that electrical storage combined with demand side management reduces energy costs with no service disruptions. Rain water harvesting is also found to significantly reduce financial and energy costs, and given its current dearth of deployment, has high future potential.326 - PublicationBuildingPI: A Future Tool for Building Life Cycle Analysis(2004-08-06)
; ; ; Traditionally building simulation tools are used at the design phase of the building project. These models are used to optimise various design alternatives, reduce energy consumption and cost. Building performance assessment for the operational phase of a buildings life cycle is sporadic, typically working from historical metered data and focusing on bulk energy assessment. Building Management Systems (BMS) do not explicitly incorporate feedback to the design phase or account for any changes, which have been made to building layout or fabric during construction. This paper discuses a proposal to develop an Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) compliant data visualisation tool Building Performance Indicator (BuildingPI) for performance metric and performance effectiveness ratio evaluation.24 - PublicationRequirements specification to support BIM-based Thermal Comfort analysis(2017-11-07)
; ; Traditionally and during a building's operation, thermal comfort levels are often evaluated using equipment that is expensive to purchase and maintain. Through advanced technologies, Building Information Model (BIM) and energy simulation tools, thermal comfort and its impacts can be evaluated at the conceptual and early design stages. The development of Building Energy Performance Simulation (BEPS) tools, through the implementation of BIM, will provide design teams with rich, comprehensive data to evaluate indoor thermal conditions in order to provide acceptable comfort levels. Current energy simulation models focus on entering data manually, increasing time and cost. BIM-based energy and thermal comfort analysis provides designers with the means to explore a variety of design alternatives, as well as avoiding the time-consuming process of re-entering all of the building's geometry and HVAC specifications to perform an analysis. However, integrating BEPS with BIM-based building design tools is still limited, with one of the key obstacles being the lack of standardised methods for information exchange between the two domains. To address the needs and bridge the gaps, this paper aims to improve the information exchange process by describing data and information needed to perform thermal comfort simulation using a standardised format in order to develop a Model View Definition (MVD) for thermal comfort. This approach represents the data needed by building designers or operators to provide an acceptable level of thermal comfort in a typical small, single occupant office. Through analysis of the performance of the proposed approach, this work provides a standardised exchange of data from BIM to BEPS tools, such as EnergyPlus, using the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) standard.163 - PublicationGIS-Based Residential Building Energy Modeling at District Scale(International Building Performance Simulation Association, 2018-09-12)
; ; ; Urban planners often develop strategic sustainable energy planning processes that aim to minimize the overall energy consumption and CO2 emissions of buildings. Planning at such scales could be informed by the use of building energy modeling approaches. However, due to inconsistencies in available urban energy data and a lack of scalable building modeling approaches, a gap persists between building energy modeling and traditional planning practices. This paper develops a methodology based on bottom-up approach for GIS-based residential building energy modeling at a district scale. The methodology is applied to districts in Dublin and modeling results indicate where and what type of buildings have the greatest potential for energy savings throughout the city.507 - PublicationModel View Definition for Advanced Building Energy Performance Simulation(2016-10-01)
; ; ; ; Recent demand for higher energy efficiency within the building sector has led to the use of Building Energy Performance Simulation (BEPS) tools. These powerful predictive tools enable investigation of environmental and energy performance for different design and retrofit design alternatives. However, integrating BEPS with Building Information Modelling (BIM) based building design tools still experiences limitations due to a lack of standardised methods of information exchange between these domains. As a result, this paper presents a Model View Definition (MVD) for advanced BEPS. In doing so this work enables a standardised exchange of data from BIM to BEPS tools, such as Modelica, using the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) standard. The entire process becomes available through the open source software framework emerged from the IEA EBC Annex 60.198