TOOLS FOR COOLING SINGAPORE - A GUIDE OF 20+ SIMULATION TOOLS TO ASSESS URBAN HEAT ISLAND AND OUTDOOR THERMAL COMFORT
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COOLING SINGAPORE 2018
TOOLS
FOR COOLING
SINGAPORE
A GUIDE OF 20+ SIMULATION TOOLS
TO ASSESS URBAN HEAT ISLAND AND
OUTDOOR THERMAL COMFORT
GLORIA PIGNATTA & NICOLE LIM
COOLING SINGAPORE 2018
TOOLS FOR COOLING SINGAPORE
A GUIDE OF 20+ SIMULATION TOOLS TO ASSESS
URBAN HEAT ISLAND AND OUTDOOR THERMAL
COMFORT
CS
GLORIA PIGNATTA & NICOLE LIM
FOREWORD
Cities are usually warmer than the rural areas that surround them. This
phenomenon, which is known as the ‘urban heat island’ effect (UHI),
occurs because cities consume huge amounts of energy in electricity
and fuel, have less vegetation to provide shade and cooling, and are built
of materials that absorb and store energy from the sun.
The urban heat island effect over much of Singapore averages about
4°C, though it can exceed 7°C at certain times of the day. This warming
reduces thermal comfort, discourages people from walking or cycling,
and increases the energy used for air conditioning. As the economy
develops Singapore’s urban heat island effect will only grow larger, unless
mitigating action is taken. Many people believe the time has come
for Singapore to develop a strategy to combat urban warming. This
would bring benefits, not only in liveability, but also in reducing carbon
This research is supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF), Prime Minister’s emissions. To contribute to such a strategy, a research project ‘Cooling
Office, Singapore under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Singapore’ was launched in 2017, with the aim of providing actionable
Enterprise (CREATE) programme. knowledge for policymakers.
We thank our colleagues from SEC, SMART, TUM CREATE and NUS who provided
The project forms part of the NRF’s CREATE programme, and brings
insights and expertise that greatly assisted the research.
together research teams from the Singapore-ETH Centre, SMART, TUM
CREATE and NUS. One of its goals is to build an expert community
within academia and government that can help guide policy about the
urban heat island effect in the longer term. To meet this goal, it has set
up a ‘UHI task force’ composed of representatives from governments
agencies and universities that facilitates the exchange of knowledge and
helps ensure the policy ‘roadmap’ is realistic. Cooling Singapore aims at
developing a roadmap towards reducing the UHI effect in Singapore
and, thereby, also improving OTC. Both, UHI and OTC, are complex topics.
Research efforts here in Singapore (and elsewhere) focus on these topics
in order to better understand them and to propose possible solutions
for reducing the UHI effect and improving OTC. In contrast with existing
research on UHI and OTC, the main objective of Cooling Singapore is
not to gain new scientific insights or to add new solutions for reducing
UHI/improving OTC to this already well developed body of literature. This
report is the second publication and presents a comprehensive review
of software tools focused especially upon the needs of cities such as
Singapore located in the humid tropics.
by Gerhard Schmitt, Peter Edwards and Heiko Aydt
Cooling Singapore PIs
4 5
FOREWORD 5 Gerhard Schmitt, Peter Edwards and Heiko Aydt MOTIVATION 10 Gloria Pignatta MATRIX 12 MICROSCALE TOOLS 20 MESOSCALE TOOLS 52 SUPPORTING TOOLS 64 PEOPLE 70
MOTIVATION
One of the goals of Cooling Singapore is to develop a simplified guide UHI and OTC, with special focus on Singapore and tropical regions.
collecting the main simulation tools that have features able to assess, In order to verify and extend the list of the collected simulation tools
on the local context of Singapore, the impact of different mitigation on a scientific knowledge base, a questionnaire within the scientific
strategies in reducing Urban Head Island (UHI) and improving Outdoor community of SEC, SMART, TUMCREATE and NUS was conducted.
Thermal Comfort (OTC). The purpose of this guide is to provide a list and Additionally, people actually developing Singaporean tools and some
a brief description of 24 simulation tools being already available or under others were interviewed with the aim to include their valuable and direct
development. contribution into this guide.
The guide also provides links and references helpful for the users,
where they can collect updated information and contact details. Gloria Pignatta
Additionally, it includes a matrix, specifically elaborated to help and Building and Contruction Expert
support researchers, local government agencies, and several other
users to compare features and characteristics of the 24 simulation tools.
The matrix can also be used, if necessary, to identify the most suitable
software for the execution of specific numerical simulations in the
context of UHI and OTC assessment.
All the efforts made to elaborate the guide, have also been useful for
the identification of the most appropriate modeling software to be used
within the Cooling Singapore project for carrying out the mitigation
measures and strategies assessment.
The 24 simulation tools are grouped in the guide into three categories
of computational models that can be used together to understand
different aspects of the UHI phenomenon and OTC: a) Microscale,
b) Mesoscale, and c) Supporting tools. These categories have been
established based on the specific spatial scale of the tools applications
and mitigation strategies assessment. In particular, the Microscale
models category includes all the modeling tools able to study the
interaction of buildings and neighborhoods with their surrounding
environment in the surface layer, while the Mesoscale models category
includes all the modeling tools able to study the thermal environment
from city to regional scale. Finally, the Supporting Tools category includes
all the tools that are more strategy-specific (e.g. able to assess the energy
performance of buildings) and can communicate through inputs and
outputs with the tools included in the other two categories.
The guide content has been collected mainly through literature
review activities based on current scientific papers that study and use
modeling software to assess the impact of mitigation strategies on
10 11
MATRIX
POST-PROCESSING
COMPUTATIONAL
AVAILIBILITY OF
TRIAL VERSION
APPLICATION
AVAILABILITY
RESOURCES
GRAPHICAL
CFD BASED
SECTOR OF
VALIDATED
CONCEPT
SUPPORT
TARGET
USERS
DATA
GUI
Governmental agencies
Researchers & Scientist
Engineer & Architects
Guide and manuals
Limited availability
Developer services
Internal database
Academic Papers
Commercial with
Urban Designer
Urban Design
Deterministic
Open source
Climatology
TOOLS
Stochastic
Students
Medium
Website
Forums
Energy
license
High
Low
Developer Services Includes help desk, customer services, user GUI Graphical User Interface
support.
CFD-Based Tool is based on Computational Fluid
Computational Determined by simulated time and execution Dynamics, a branch of fluid mechanics that
Resources speed of simulation. This is determined through uses numerical analysis and data structures
taking into account a regular computer. to solve and analyse problems regarding fluid
flow.
Low Execution requires minutes to hours.
Deterministic The output of the mdoel is fully determined by
Medium Execution requires hours to days. the parameter values and initial conditions.
High Execution requires days to weeks. Stochastic The model posesses inherent randomness
such that the same set of parameter values and
Limited availability Tool only accesible to certain groups of people. initial conditions can lead to different outputs.
12 13
14
IES
CEA
STEVE
QUEST
GrBEST
City Sim
PSI-BOIL
COMSOL
UM-MIST
RAYMAN
SOLWEIG
i-Tree Eco
ENVI-met
PHOENICS
MATRIX FOR MICROSCALE
OpenFOAM
ANSYS Fluent
TOOLS
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Developer services
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Website
AVAILIBILITY OF
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Academic Papers
SUPPORT
x
x
x
x
x
x
Forums
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Guide and manuals
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Internal database DATA
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Urban Designer
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x Researchers & Scientist
TARGET
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Engineer & Architects
USERS
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Governmental agencies
x
x
x
x
x
Students
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
GUI
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Low
COMPUTATIONAL
x
x
x
x
x
x
Medium RESOURCES
x
x
High
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Climatology
SECTOR OF
x
x
x
x
x
Urban Design
APPLICATION
x
x
Energy
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Open source
Commercial with
x
x
x
AVAILABILITY
license
x
x
x
Limited availability
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
CFD BASED
x
TRIAL VERSION
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Deterministic
CONCEPT
x
x
x
x
Stochastic
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
VALIDATED
GRAPHICAL
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
POST-PROCESSING
15
16
WRF
SUEWS
ACCESS
SURFEX
MATRIX FOR MESOSCALE
TERRA-URB
CESM CAM5
TOOLS
x
Developer services
x
x
x
x
x
x
Website
VAILABILITY OF
x
x
x
x
x
x
Academic Papers
SUPPORT
x
x
x
Forums
x
x
x
Guide and manuals
x
x
x
Internal database DATA
x
Urban Designer
x
x
x
x
x
x Researchers & Scientist
TARGET
x
x
x
Engineer & Architects
USERS
x
x
Governmental agencies
x
x
x
x
Students
x
x
GUI
x
x
x
Low
COMPUTATIONAL
Medium RESOURCES
x
x
x
High
x
x
x
x
x
Climatology
SECTOR OF
Urban Design
APPLICATION
x
Energy
x
x
x
x
x
Open source
Commercial with
AVAILABILITY
license
x
Limited availability
x
x
x
CFD BASED
x
TRIAL VERSION
x
x
x
Deterministic
CONCEPT
Stochastic
x
x
x
x
x
x
VALIDATED
GRAPHICAL
POST-PROCESSING
1718
TRNSYS
MATRIX FOR SPECIFIC
EnergyPlus
APPLICATION TOOLS
x
Developer services
x
x
Website
VAILABILITY OF
x
x
Academic Papers
SUPPORT
x
x
Forums
x
Guide and manuals
x
x
Internal database DATA
x
x
Urban Designer
x
x Researchers & Scientist
x TARGET
x
Engineer & Architects
USERS
Governmental agencies
x
x
Students
x
GUI
x
Low
COMPUTATIONAL
Medium RESOURCES
x
High
x
Climatology
SECTOR OF
Urban Design
APPLICATION
x
x
Energy
x
Open source
Commercial with
x
AVAILABILITY
license
Limited availability
CFD BASED
x
TRIAL VERSION
x
Deterministic
CONCEPT
x
Stochastic
x
x
VALIDATED
GRAPHICAL
x
POST-PROCESSING
19ENVI-MET
OPENFOAM
ANSYS FLUENT
COMSOL
CITY-SIM
STEVE
IEM
MICROSCALE TOOLS PHOENICS
Tools which are able to study the interaction of buildings and IES-VE
neighborhoods with their surrounding environment in the surface layer.
GRBEST
CEA
QUEST
PSI-BOIL
RAYMAN
SOLWEIG
I-TREE ECO
20MICROSCALE
ENVI-MET
ENVI-met is a three-dimensional microclimate model designed to simulate the surface-
plant-air interactions in urban environment with a typical resolution down to 0.5 m in
space and 1- 5 sec in time.
ENVI-met is a prognostic model based on the fundamental laws of fluid dynamics and
thermodynamics. The model includes the simulation of:
Flow around and between buildings
Exchange processes at the ground surface and at building walls
Building physics
Impact of vegetation of the local microclimate
Bioclimatology
Pollutant dispersion
With ENVI-met, you will be able to simulate the urban microclimate as an interactive
system consisting of dozens of dynamic subsystems ranging from atmospheric
dynamics, over soil physics, vegetation response down to building indoor climate.
All systems, from soil hydrology to building energy simulation are calculated in one
big model e.g. an urban quarter, allowing them to interact and adopt like a real
environmental system does. The ENVI-met system will provide high-resolution data for
any of these components, being it one building out of 500 or one tree within 1.500 trees.
Typical areas of application are Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Building Design or
Environmental Planning, just to name a few.
Users are able to obtain Envi-Met via their download link on the website.
Website
www.envi-met.com
References
Top: Example of simulation output. Image generated by researcher.
http://www.model.envi-met.com/hg2e/doku.php?id=files:start
Bottom: User interface of ENVI-met. Image taken from screenshot of simulation.
22 23MICROSCALE
OPEN FOAM
OpenFOAM is one of the common tools used in CFD modelling. It has an extensive range
of features to solve anything from complex fluid flows involving chemical reactions,
turbulence and heat transfer, to acoustics, solid mechanics and electromagnetics.
Using a set of governing equations, users are able to define the boundary conditions to
set up a model for an urban microclimate.
Users would have to input CFD parameters such as mesh type, number of cells, size
of canyon and roughness height, among others. From this, OpenFoam can generate a
variety of outputs. They include, heat distribution, time series of turbulence, wind velocity
and more.
Some examples of OpenFOAM use within microclimate assessment includes evaluating
the effectiveness of trees to disperse road traffic emissions at a city scale (2) and the
effects of Planetary Boundary Layer structure on the pollutant dispersion within built-up
areas.
OpenFOAM is the free, open source CFD software released and developed primarily by
OpenCFD Ltd since 2004. It has a large user base across most areas of engineering and
science, from both commercial and academic organisations.
Website
www.openfoam.com
References
A.P.R. Jeanjean, G. Hinchliffe, W.A. McMullan, P.S. Monks, R.J. Leigh, A CFD study on
the effectiveness of trees to disperse road traffic emissions at a city scale,
Atmospheric Environment, Volume 120, 2015, Pages 1-14, ISSN 1352-2310, DOI: http://
dx.doiorg/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2015.08.003.
Yucong Miao Shuhua Liu Yijia Zheng Shu Wang Zhenxin Liu Bihui Zhang. (2015).
Numerical study of the effects of planetary boundary layer structure on the pollutant
dispersion within built-up areas. 32(6), 168-179. DOI:10.1016/j.jes.2014.10.025
OpenFOAM postprocessing output. Image from website.
24 25MICROSCALE
ANSYS Fluent
ANSYS Fluent software is an integrated tool into the ANSYS Workbench. It contains the
broad physical modeling capabilities needed to model flow, turbulence, heat transfer,
and reactions for industrial applications—ranging from air flow over an aircraft wing
to combustion in a furnace, from bubble columns to oil platforms, from blood flow to
semiconductor manufacturing, and from clean room design to wastewater treatment
plants. ANSYS FLUENT provides comprehensive modeling capabilities for a wide range
of incompressible and compressible, laminar and turbulent fluid flow problems. Steady-
state or transient analyses can be performed.
In ANSYS FLUENT, a broad range of mathematical models for transport phenomena
(like heat transfer and chemical reactions) is combined with the ability to model
complex geometries. Examples of ANSYS FLUENT applications include laminar non-
Newtonian flows in process equipment; conjugate heat transfer in turbomachinery and
automotive engine components; pulverized coal combustion in utility boilers; external
aerodynamics; flow through compressors, pumps, and fans; and multiphase flows
in bubble columns and fluidized beds. To permit modeling of fluid flow and related
transport phenomena in industrial equipment and processes, various useful features
are provided. These include porous media, lumped parameter (fan and heat exchanger),
streamwise-periodic flow and heat transfer, swirl, and moving reference frame models.
The moving reference frame family of models includes the ability to model single or
multiple reference frames. A time-accurate sliding mesh method, useful for modeling
multiple stages in turbomachinery applications, for example, is also provided, along with
the mixing plane model for computing time-averaged flow fields.
ANSYS Fluent, as a CFD software, can be used to assess the relationship between
the parameters of the boundary conditions in order to evaluate urban microclimate
conditions.
Information on how to contact ANSYS to obtain the software can be found on the
website.
Website
www.ansys.com/products/fluids/ansys-fluent
References
Vollaro, A. d. L., Simone, G. D., Romagnoli, R., Vallati, A., & Botillo, S. (2014). Numerical study
of urban canyon microclimate related to geometrical parameters. Sustainability, 6(11),
7894-7905. DOI:http://dx.doi.org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/10.3390/su6117894.
View of computational grid. Image from Vollaro et. al., 2014.
26 27MICROSCALE
COMSOL
COMSOL Multiphysics is a general-purpose software platform, based on advanced
numerical methods, for modeling and simulating physics-based problems. With
COMSOL Multiphysics, users are be able to account for coupled or multiphysics
phenomena.
COMSOL Multiphysics has various types of modelling, with different methods for
each. They include, geometry modelling, equation-based modelling, physics-based
modelling, meshing and so on. Using add-on products, users can expand the simulation
platform with dedicated physics interfaces and tools for electrical, mechanical, fluid
flow, and chemical applications. Additional interfacing products connect your COMSOL
Multiphysics simulations with technical computing, CAD, and ECAD software.
Users can import and export of text, Excel, image, movies, meshing, and CAD formats in
COMSOL Multiphysics and add-on products. Visualisation and post-processing are also
included.
An example of an application of COMSOL on urban microclimate assesment is to
simulate the wind flows and their behavior at building façades. Specifically, a simulation
of the heat transfer between the cavity and interior of the building and the wind flows in
and at close distance of the cavity can assist in determining the effect of facades on the
surrounding thermal environment of buildings.
There are various licensing options available through their website.
Website
www.comsol.com/comsol-multiphysics
References
Graphical display of the wind velocities around the cubic building. Image from
https://www.comsol.com/paper/download/151595/schijndel3_paper.pdf
Dronkelaar & Schijndel, 2012.
28 29MICROSCALE
CITYSIM
The software CitySim is aiming to provide a decision support for urban energy planners
and stakeholders to minimize the net use of non-renewable energy sources as well as
the associated emissions of greenhouse gases. The software CitySim comprises CitySim
Solver, a command-line Integrated Solver for simulating the energy demand and
supply of buildings for space conditioning, together with the specification of the input
buildings’ characteristics (in CitySim XML file format) and the climate filee.
CitySim can describe 3D geometrical building forms at an urban district scale and
attribute these buildings thermo-physical properties in an efficient way using a
dedicated XML file format. It can simulate the energy demand of these buildings,
respecting the stochastic nature of occupants’ presence and behaviour and accounting
for a range of commonly used heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems (HVAC
systems). Users can also determine the energy supplies of these buildings issued from
renewable sources, including the radiation exchange driven by the urban environment,
generated by a range of commonly used energy conversion systems. Standard text files
(TSV) can also be exported to allow the software users to support the analysis of energy
performance data in order to identify scope for improving upon buildings’ performance
using their favourite graphical tool.
An example of how CitySim may be used is in the evaluation of the effects of urban
compactness on solar potential as regards various solar-energy technologies. This can
help in the decision-making process for assessing and integrating solar potential in
dense built environment through estimating active and passive solar gains associated
with building roofs and facades using CitySim for hourly solar irradiation simulation.
CitySim is OpenSource and available to all via their website.
Website
www.citysim.epfl.ch/
References
Nahid Mohajeri, Govinda Upadhyay, Agust Gudmundsson, Dan Assouline, Jérôme
Kämpf, Jean-Louis Scartezzini, Effects of urban compactness on solar energy
potential, Renewable Energy, Volume 93, 2016, Pages 469-482, ISSN 0960-1481, DOI: Annual solar irradiation, kWh/m−2 (the colour bars shows the minimum and maximum
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2016.02.053. values) estimated using CitySim and facade orientations for 16 neighbourhoods in the
city of Geneva. Image from Mohajeri et. al., 2016.
30 31MICROSCALE
STEVE
STEVE
Screening Tool for Estate Environment Evaluation (STEVE) offers a method to predict the
local urban temperature and outdoor thermal comfort of a certain tropical urban area.
It was developed and built based on long term field measurement data in the Singapore
context.
It calculates minimum (Tmin), average (Tavg), and maximum temperature (Tmax) of a
certain point of interest for either the existing or future conditions of the estate or some
specific urban area. The temperature predicted at that particular point is as a result
of the surrounding environment within the buffer zone. Furthermore, it is also able to
calculate outdoor thermal comfort based on Thermal Sensation Vote (TSV) index, using
wind and temperature data. STEVE tool also implements greenery library which refers to
National Parks Board (NParks) database.
Currently, the STEVE application serves as a plug-in tool to be used under Sketchup.
Developers of STEVE can be contacted for licensing options.
References
Wong Nyuk Hien, Marcel Ignatious, Anseina Eliza, Steve Kardinal Jusuf & Rosita
Samsudin (2012) Comparison of STEVE and ENVI-met as temperature prediction
models for Singapore context, International Journal of Sustainable Building
Technology and Urban Development, 3:3, 197-209, DOI: 10.1080/2093761X.2012.720224.
Examples of output from tool. Image from Steve Kardinal Jusuf, developer.
32 33MESOSCALE
INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL
MODELLER (IEM)
IEM
IEM, previously known as, UM-MIST, is an urban microclimatic modelling tool
specifically designed for Singapore’s urban landscapes to help city developers draw
up UHI countermeasures. The tool provides mapping data for temperature, wind, solar
irradiation and shading. It aims to hinder any further rises in temperature and ambient
noise, thus improving the livability of Singapore.
The functioning of IEM depends on five interrelated but focused Work Packages (WP).
WP 1 to 3 address the physics of wind flow, heat, solar irradiance, acoustic noise, and the
coupling between them. Besides validation by commercial software, such as DIVA, STAR-
CCM+, and CadnaA, the above solvers and the produced results are to be validated by
ground truth through physical measurements from WP5. The focus of WP5 is to perform
the ground truth sensing on environmental data for wind, temperature, solar irradiance,
and noise. Statistical modelling based on measurement data is also conducted by WP5.
The simulation results generated by the solvers are integrated into the GIS layer through
the development work in WP4. The IEM tool with a customized GUI and overlaid results
empowers the urban planners to intuitively look into the impact of master planning and
urban design on environmental issues, perform proof of concept and what-if studies,
and devise and experiment with mitigation measures and plans.
This mapping tool can be useful for other cities as it is able to provide wind, shadow,
solar irradiance, thermal & noise mapping analysis; so that this environmental modelling
results can be integrated to master planning and urban designing in a single urban
digital platform. With this application tool, options can be exercised and prioritized
in order to test out various housing typologies and determine how best to site new
residential units to optimise wind flow, or to minimise heat and glare. It is also a useful
scientific assessment tool to investigate the UHI effect and help the town ship or city
planning process to incorporate the UHI mitigation or countermeasure strategies.
IEM is developed by researchers in A*Star, Singapore.
References
J.P. Hee, et al., Modelling of Urban Heat Island and Noise Propagation in Singapore
(2016), 4th International Conference on Countermeasures on Urban Heat Island,
National University of Singapore, 30-31 May and 1 June 2016. Singapore.
Output from model. Image from Poh Hee Joo.
34 35MICROSCALE
PHOENICS
Parabolic Hyperbolic Or Elliptic Numerical Integration Code Series (PHOENICS) is a
general-purpose commercial CFD code which is applicable to steady or unsteady,
one- , two- or three-dimensional turbulent or laminar, multi-phase, compressible or
incompressible flows using Cartesian, cylindrical-polar or curvilinear coordinates. The
code also has a spatial marching integration option to handle parabolic and hyperbolic
flows, as well as transonic free jets in the absence of recirculation zones.
PHOENICS performs three main functions:
1. problem definition (i.e. pre-processing), in which the user prescribes the situation
to be simulated and the questions which are to be answered;
2. simulation (i.e. data-processing), by means of computation, of what the laws of
science imply in the prescribed circumstances;
3. presentation (i.e. post-processing) of the results of the computation, by way of
graphical displays, tables of numbers, and other means.
Users are able to input data via formulae or via Virtual-Reality Editor. Because PHOENICS
has been in continuous use for more than 20 years, tens of thousands (more probably
millions) of calculations have been performed with its aid. The data-input files
corresponding to a tiny fraction (but still several thousand) of these have been included
with each delivered PHOENICS package, in the form of an input-file library.
Licensing options are available via their website.
Website
www.cham.co.uk/phoenics.php
References
https://www.comsol.com/paper/download/151595/schijndel3_paper.pdf
Result of simulation using prototype heat-island module. Image from case study found
http://www.cham.co.uk/phoenics/d_polis/d_docs/tr001/tr001.htm#what
on tool website.
36 37MICROSCALE
IES-VE
IES is a developer of 3D performance analysis software that is used to design tens of
thousands of energy efficient buildings across the globe. Their technology is supported
by integrated consulting services and today its capabilities are expanding from use on
individual buildings to helping create sustainable cities.
IES has many products which have different abilities and capacities.
Uncovering hidden cost, energy and carbon savings, their technology and consulting
services support smarter energy-efficient choices across new building investments,
building operation and refurbishment of existing buildings. IES has unique tools and
technology to assist regulatory and rating agencies, building owners, facilities managers,
sustainability and energy managers, architects and engineers in their objectives.
IES Virtual Environment (VE) is an energy analysis and performance modeling
software that offers a variety of custom modules designed to address different
building performance workflows. IES-VE can help you incorporate sustainable building
approaches and analyses into your BIM projects. VE Softwares available include:
- VE for Architect
- VE for Engineer
- VE Student Package
- VE Simplified Building Energy Model
IES also has other software and online tools related to city management and urban
planning. Users may refer to their website for details on licensing.
Website
Top: Example of simulation within a building. Image from tool website.
www.iesve.com
Bottom: Interface of IES-VE. Image from tool website.
38 39MICROSCALE
GRBEST
GRBEST
GrBEST building airflow modelling software is the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
airflow modelling and simulation coupled with the geometry input from BIM-REVIT.
CFD enables airflow simulation over an estate landscape and within the building interior
to be conducted as a design optimization and assessment tool towards achieving a
comfortable naturally ventilated environment in buildings in the Tropics.
It enables seamless workflow from the early Revit-centric drawing stage by exporting
the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) file from BIM-REVIT to the geometry input file for
airflow simulation analysis.
As GrBEST software is cost-effective, user friendly, and improves turnaround time (from
2 weeks to potentially less than 2 days for a typical building development simulation), it
motivates architects/consultants to widely adopt the tools to implement good natural
ventilation strategies at the early design stage.
It aims to assist green building practitioners to meet the CFD simulation requirements
for natural ventilation under the Green Mark scheme. With funding support from
MND, the pilot GrBEST version was soft launched for trial by industry in Mar 2014. It is
developed jointly by BCA and A*Star in Singapore. Developers may be contacted for tool
access.
Website
bimsg.org/resources/other-software-resources/grbest/
References
http://bimsg.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/GrBEST-workshop-Airflow-Modeling-Tool-
for-BIM.SG_.pdf
Example of simulation by tool. Image from Poh Hee Joo, developer.
40 41MICROSCALE
CITY ENERGY ANALYST (CEA)
The City Energy Analyst (CEA) is developed by ETH Zurich and consists in a collection
of tools for the analysis of urban energy systems. CEA aims to study the effects of urban
development on the performance of energy systems.
CEA is built on standard dynamic simulation models and an interdisciplinary body of
knowledge.
CEA is provided as either an stand-alone open-source tool or as a plug-in for ArcGIS for
different users. There is a light version of CEA which contains an easy-to-use interface
connected to one of the most popular GIS systems, ArcGIS 10.5. This added functionality
allows to map and visualize patterns of energy demand and consumption in buildings
using 3D geometry. The feature enables planners to compare physical trade-offs
between multiple urban design options. A detailed version of CEA for engineers and
researchers provides access to the source code. This entails libraries for analysis of energy
systems written in Python language.
The City Energy Analyst (CEA) is an urban building simulation platform and one of the
first open-source initiatives of computation tools for the design of low-carbon and highly
efficient cities. The CEA combines knowledge of urban planning and energy systems
engineering in an integrated simulation platform. This allows to study the effects, trade-
offs and synergies of urban design options and energy infrastructure plans.
Interested users are able to obtain the tool via their website.
Website
www.cityenergyanalyst.com
References
Fonseca J. A., Thuy-An N., Schlueter A., and Marechal F. 2016. “City Energy Analyst (CEA):
Integrated Framework for Analysis and Optimization of Building Energy Systems
in Neighborhoods and City Districts.” Energy and Buildings 113 (February): 202–26.
DOI:10.1016/j.enbuild.2015.11.055.
https://cityenergyanalyst.com/what-is/
Top: Outputs from CEA. Image from Jimeno A. Fonseca.
https://cityenergyanalyst.com/tryit/
Bottom: Interface of CEA. Image from Jimeno A. Fonseca.
42 43MICROSCALE
PSI-BOIL
PSI-BOIL
PSI-BOIL (Parallel SImulator - BOILing) is a C++ in-house computer program, aimed
at simulation of fluid flow, heat and mass transfer phenomena at various scales. PSI-
BOIL was designed to be computationally-efficient and cost-efficient for simulation of
turbulent fluid flow and heat transfer phenomena.
The paradigm for simulating turbulence is DNS (Dirent Numerical Simulation), or Large
Eddy Simulation (LES), meaning that all, or at least most, scales of motion should be
resolved on a numerical grid. The efficiency of PSI-BOIL is achieved through usage of
Cartesian orthogonal grids, multi-grid solution of discretized systems of equations
in addition to iterative conjugate gradient solvers, and parallelization for distributed
memory computers. Although the usage of orthogonal grids may suggest that the
program can only deal with problems in simple domains, this is not the case since PSI-
BOIL incorporates the Immersed Boundary Method feature, which allows to simulate
flows around complex geometries.
PSI-BOIL was also extended to simulate urban physics flows by incorporating solar
calculator and shading algorithms, and physical model for longwave radiation.
This tool is not open source and is developed by the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI).
Interested users may contact them for more information.
Website
www.kns.org/jknsfile/v42/JK0420620.pdf
References
Niceno, Bojan, Andreani, Michele, & Prasser, Horst-Michael (2008). PSI-BOIL, a building
block towards the multi-scale modeling of flow boiling phenomena. 190 Session
of the SHF’s scientific and technical committee: Modelling of convective boiling flows,
France.
Hassan Badreddine, Yohei Sato, Matthias Berger, and Bojan Ničeno, “A Three
Dimensional, Immersed Boundary, Finite Volume Method for the Simulation
of Incompressible Heat Transfer Flows around Complex Geometries,” International
Journal of Chemical Engineering, vol. 2017, Article ID 1726519, 14 pages, 2017
Simulation of heat released from bus stop. Image taken from screenshot of simulation
DOI:10.1155/2017/1726519.
by Dr Hassan Badreddine.
44 45MESOSCALE MICROSCALE
QUEST RAYMAN
QUEST RAYMAN
QUEST is a tool used to test the immediate microclimatic impact of development plans The RayMan software is worldwide applied in investigations on different issues in
and assess their long term impacts under future climate change scenarios. human-biometeorology. RayMan provides suitable simulation results for radiation flux
densities and thermo-physiologically significant assessment indices.
It is based on multi-scale environmental urban models from global to a very high
resolution meso-scale domain which is integrated with a multi-dimensional statistical The simulations of Tmrt and thermal assessment indices by RayMan are spot-related
model for weather variables estimation (wind, temperature and humidity) up to precinct in outdoor urban settings. However, the interaction between different meteorological
level. variables is not considered completly. Besides PET and predicted mean vote (PMV),
simulation tools of additional thermo-physiological indices such as modified
Users begin with a basic building, roads and greenery layer. They can then choose the physiologically equivalent temperature (mPET), perceived temperature (PT), standard
climate scenario they want to simulate, and they can input or adjust the building, roads effective temperature (SET*) and UTCI are included in RayMan Pro.
and greenery within the selected domain. The model will then produce results in terms
of temperature, wind speed and thermal comfort. Users can simulate multiple scenarios The aim of the RayMan model is to calculate radiation flux densities, sunshine duration,
to compare the thermal comfort of the proposed urban morphology. shadow spaces and thermo-physiologically relevant assessment indices using only a
limited number of meteorological and other input data.
QUEST can couple global-regional to mesoscale atmospheric models with multi-
dimensional statistical model to estimate wind, temperature and humidity. It allows Urban human-biometeorology has evolved to an application-oriented part of urban
planners to easily model various scenarios and obtain an overall thermal comfort meteorology. It provides results for urban planning, for which were of great necessity,
indicator score. Users can obtain results at a district, precinct or even a building level especially taking into account increasing heat due to regional climate change. In
scale to support urban planning and design in order to mitigate urban heat island and this context, models simulating the impacts of planning measures on the thermal
growing temperatures due to global warming. environment of citizens have a high priority.
RayMan Pro is free for use for academic and scientific purposes - The RayMan pro version
is only a beta and under continous development. More information on obtaining the
software is available on the website.
Website
www.urbanclimate.net/rayman
Reference
Matzarakis, A., Rutz, F., & Mayer, H. (2010). Modelling radiation fluxes in simple and
complex environments: Basics of the RayMan model. International Journal of
Biometeorology, 54(2), 131-139. doi:10.1007/s00484-009-0261-0
References Lee, H., & Mayer, H. (2016). Validation of the mean radiant temperature simulated by the
T.L. Lim, et al., Multi-scale urban system modelling for sustainable planning and design, RayMan software in urban environments. International Journal of Biometeorology, 60(11),
Energy Buildings (2017), http:/dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.02.024 1775-1785. doi:10.1007/s00484-016-1166-3
46 47MICROSCALE MICROSCALE
SOLWEIG I-TREE
SOLWEIG
The Solar LongWave Environmental Irrandiance Geometry model (SOLWEIG) simulates i-Tree Eco version 6 is a flexible software application designed to use data collected in
spatial variations of mean radiant temperature and 3D fluxes of longwave and shortwave the field from single trees, complete inventories, or randomly located plots throughout
radiation. SOLWEIG is a computer software model which can be used to estimate spatial a study area along with local hourly air pollution and meteorological data to quantify
variations of 3D radiation fluxes and mean radiant temperature (Tmrt) in complex urban forest structure, environmental effects, and value to communities.
settings.
i-Tree Eco has detailed, statistically based sampling and data collection protocols. These
SOLWEIG is written in MATLAB programming language and has a user-friendly graphical protocols allow for estimation of totals and variation related to urban forest structure
user interface. The internal estructure (matrices processing) is well optimized by MATLAB and population effects.
which results in fast, efficient and good outputs of the model. The graphical user
interface makes use of a runtime engine called the MCR (MATLAB Compiler Runtime), It has a mobile data collector for web-enabled smartphones, tablets, or similar devices
which makes it possible to run MATLAB application outside the MATLAB environment. that can be used for field data collection. Eco’s central computing engine that makes
The MCR is deployed royalty-free. scientifically sound estimates of the effects of urban forests based on peer-reviewed
scientific equations to predict environmental and economic benefits. It can produce
The model is also integrated in a GIS platform: UMEP (a pluggin for QGIS) which makes it summary reports that include charts, tables, and a written report.
easier to use.
Users have to create an account on the i-Tree website to download this tool.
Users would have to go through five major steps to use this tool:
- Load DSMs: vegetation data
- Specify output: Options to save a number of different grids at different temporal
resolution is included, both as tiff or ASCII grids.
- Load/Create SVF: This is the most time consuming part of the model execution.
The output of the SVF images generated is again as ESRI ASCII Grids.
- Load Metereological data: execute
To obtain this software, please refer to their website.
Website Website
www.gvc.gu.se/english/research/climate/urban-climate/software/solweig www.itreetools.org/eco
References
http://gvc.gu.se/digitalAssets/1536/1536051_solweig_manual.pdf
http://gvc.gu.se/english/research/climate/urban-climate/software/solweig
48 49WRF
ACCESS
CESM CAM5
TEB-SURFEX
TERRA URB
SUEWS
MESOSCALE TOOLS
Tools which are able to study the thermal environment from city to
regional scale.
52MESOSCALE
WRF
WRF
The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model is a mesoscale numerical weather
prediction system designed for both atmospheric research and operational forecasting
applications.
It features two dynamical cores,the Advanced Research WRF (ARW) and Nonhydrostatic
Mesoscale Model (NMM) . The model serves a wide range of meteorological applications
across scales from tens of meters to thousands of kilometers. or researchers, WRF can
produce simulations based on actual atmospheric conditions (i.e., from observations and
analyses) or idealized conditions.
Users have to generate input data from WRF Preprocessing System (WPS). This data is
then input into WRF to generate a simulation. WRF is capable of generating netCDF files
which can be post-processed using other software. There are a number of visualization
tools available to display WRF-ARW model data. Model data in netCDF format can
essentially be displayed using any tool capable of displaying this data format.
WRF offers operational forecasting a flexible and computationally-efficient platform,
while reflecting recent advances in physics, numerics, and data assimilation contributed
by developers from the expansive research community. It is suitable for a broad span
of applications across scales ranging from large-eddy to global simulations. Such
applications include real-time NWP, data assimilation development and studies,
parameterized-physics research, regional climate simulations, air quality modeling,
atmosphere-ocean coupling, and idealized simulations. As of this writing, the number of
registered WRF users exceeds 6000, and WRF is in operational and research use around
the world.
Users may download WRF modeling system source codes (including the WRF model,
the WRF Preprocessing System (WPS), graphics software, terrestrial datasets for WPS,
and test data for the WRF model) from the website. All questions regarding running and
using the software can be emailed to wrfhelp (wrfhelp@ucar.edu). Also the WRF user
forum is another venue for users to exchange experiences and help.
Website
www.mmm.ucar.edu/weather-research-and-forecasting-model
References
http://www2.mmm.ucar.edu/wrf/users/docs/user_guide_V3.9/contents.html Live forecast of surface air temperature. Image taken from screenshot of forecast from
http://www2.mmm.ucar.edu/wrf/users website.
54 55MESOSCALE MESOSCALE
ACCESS CESM CAM5
CESM
ACCESS CAM5
ACCESS is a tool used largely by the Australian Bureau of Metereology (BoM) and The CESM originated from the Community Climate Model (CCM) created by NCAR in
Australian climate researchers. This tool is able to simulate a variety of scales, from global 1983 as a freely available global atmosphere model for use by the wider climate research
to microscale and, depending on its model, can have a timestep and duration of hourly community.
to weekly.
CAM is used as both a standalone model and as the atmospheric component of the
It uses the seasonal prediction global coupled model from the UK Met Office (UKMO), CESM.
as well as their initial conditions, but the system is enhanced with the Bureau’s
perturbation scheme for the generation of the forecast ensemble (to make it CAM has a long history of use as a standalone model by which we mean that the
appropriate for multi-week forecasts), a larger forecast ensemble and a longer hindcast atmosphere is coupled to an active land model (CLM), a thermodynamic only sea
period. ice model (CICE), and a data ocean model (DOCN). When one speaks of “”doing CAM
simulations”” the implication is that it’s the standalone configuration that is being used.
Parameters considered in ACCESS are, When CAM is coupled to active ocean and sea ice models then we refer to the model
- Mean sea level pressure (MSLP) & rainfall as CESM. CAM produces a series of NetCDF format history files containing atmospheric
- Surface winds gridpoint data generated during the course of a run. It also produces a series of NetCDF
- MSLP & thickness format restart files necessary to continue a run once it has terminated successfully and a
- Wind speed and direction at 10m, 850hPa, 700hPa, 500hPa, 200hPa, and gradient series of initial conditions files that may be used to initialize new simulations.
- Geopotential height at 850hPa, 700hPa, 500hPa, and 200hPa
- Temperature at 2m screen, 850hPa, 700hPa, 500hPa, 200hPa The formulation of the CCM has steadily improved over the past two decades, computers
- 2m screen dew point powerful enough to run the model have become relatively inexpensive and widely
- Relative humidity at 2m screen, 850hPa, 700hPa, 500hPa, and 200hPa available, and usage of the model has become widespread in the university community,
and at some national laboratories. CESM is now a fully-coupled, community, global
ACCESS output is available in map form or as gridded data products. climate model that provides state-of-the-art computer simulations of the Earth’s past,
present, and future climate states.
It is useful for simulating the climate mean states, predicting large-scale climate drivers
such as ENSO, IOD and SAM and predicting regional climate. Version 5.0 of the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) is the latest in a series of
global atmosphere models originally developed at the National Center for Atmospheric
ACCESS was developed for use by the Australian Bureau of Metereology. Certain users Research (NCAR). The current development of CAM is guided by the Atmosphere Model
may contact the Bureau for more information. Working Group (AMWG) of the Community Earth System Model (CESM) project.
Website
Website www.cesm.ucar.edu/about/
www.reg.bom.gov.au/other/access.pdf
References
References http://www.cesm.ucar.edu/models/cesm1.0/cam/docs/ug5_0/book1.html
http://poama.bom.gov.au/info/publications.html http://www.cesm.ucar.edu/publications/bib/2016-bib-summer.pdf
http://www.bom.gov.au/research/publications/researchreports/BRR-019.pdf http://www.cesm.ucar.edu/models/cesm1.2/cesm/doc/usersguide/x290.html
http://www.bom.gov.au/research/publications/researchreports/BRR-020.pdf http://www.cesm.ucar.edu/events/workshops/ws.2012/presentations/sewg/bertini.pdf
56 57MESOSCALE MESOSCALE
TEB-SURFEX TERRA URB
SURFEX TERRA
URB
SURFEX is a surface-atmosphere exchange module developed by the research center TERRA_URB (Wouters et al., 2015, 2016) is the bulk urban land-surface scheme of the
of METEO FRANCE (CNRM-GAME). It computes the exchanges of heat (radiation, COSMO(-CLM) model. It represents the variability of ground heat and moisture transport,
conduction, convection), moisture, momentum and carbon dioxide between the earth the turbulent transfer of momentum, heat and moisture, and the surface–atmosphere
surface and the atmosphere. SURFEX also includes a Surface Boundary Layer model to radiative exchanges in urban areas.
determine the temperature, wind and moisture of the first levels of the atmosphere.
The initial release of TERRA_URB features the non-iterative calculation of surface-layer
SURFEX can be run either in a coupled mode in which case the atmospheric forcing stability functions accounting for the roughness sub-layer, the impervious water-storage
is provided by the host atmospheric model, or in a standalone mode where the parametrization based on a probability density function of water reservoirs, the Semi-
atmospheric drivers are derived from observations. In SURFEX, the earth surface is empirical Urban canopY dependency parametrization, and the coupling with the
classified in 4 tiles: sea, lake, vegetation, and the city. A grid value of the model is then turbulence kinetic energy-based surface-layer transfer module of the COSMO(-CLM)
simply an area averaged value of the different tiles present in the grid cell. model.
Over urban surfaces, SURFEX includes the Town Energy Balance (TEB) single layer urban Input of urban canopy parameters such as albedo, emissivity, heat conductivity etc. will
canopy module. TEB simulates heat and water exchanges and climate of three generic general bulk parameters.
surfaces (roof, wall, and road), where heat transfers by conduction are computed through
several layers of materials. Anthropogenic heat releases from the building for space TERRA_URB has been extensively evaluated in previous studies which study different
heating are parameterized in the model using a simplified modeling of the building urban surface energy balance components and the urban heat island.
energy budget.
In comparison to a more simplified statistical approach, TEB model, based on physics The TERRA URB model package cclm-sp 2.4 terra urb 2.2.tgz is available on theCLM-
law, can be used to explain or to predict some variations of the microclimate in response community project website.
to modification of the surface characteristics (urbanization, greening etc.). The SURFEX
code is freely available through their website.
Website Website
http://www.umr-cnrm.fr/surfex/ http://redc.clm-community.eu/login?back_url=http%3A%2F%2Fredc.clm-community.
eu%2Fprojects%2Fwg-soilveg%2Ffiles
References
Schoetter, R., Masson, V., Bourgeois, A., Pellegrino, M., & Lévy, J. (2017). Parametrisation References
of the variety of human behaviour related to building energy consumption in the Wouters, Hendrik & Varentsov, Mikhail & Blahak, U & Schulz, Jan-Peter & Schättler,
town energy balance (SURFEX-TEB v. 8.2). Geoscientific Model Development, 10(7), Ulrich & Bucchignani, Edoardo & Demuzere, Matthias. (2017). User guide for TERRA
2801-2831. DOI:10.5194/gmd-10-2801-2017 URB v2.2: The urban-canopy land-surface scheme of the COSMO model. DOI:0.131
RG.2.2.33691.87847/1.
Redon, E. C., Lemonsu, A., Masson, V., Morille, B., & Musy, M. (2017). Implementation of
street trees within the solar radiative exchange parameterization of TEB in SURFEX Wouters, H., M. Demuzere, K. De Ridder, and N. P. van Lipzig (2015), The impact of
v8.0.(author abstract). Geoscientific Model Development, 10(1), 385-411. DOI:10.5194 impervious water-storage parametrization on urban climate modelling, Urban
gmd-10-385-2017 Climate, 11, 24–50, DOI:10.1016/j.uclim.2014.11.005.
58 59MESOSCALE
SUEWS
SUEWS
Surface Urban Energy and Water Balance Scheme (SUEWS) is able to simulate the urban
radiation, energy and water balances using only commonly measured meteorological
variables and information about the surface cover. SUEWS utilizes an evaporation-
interception approach, similar to that used in forests, to model evaporation from urban
surfaces.
The model uses seven surface types: paved, buildings, evergreen trees/shrubs, deciduous
trees/shrubs, grass, bare soil and water. The surface state for each surface type at each
time step is calculated from the running water balance of the canopy where the
evaporation is calculated from the Penman-Monteith equation. The soil moisture below
each surface type (excluding water) is taken into account. Horizontal movement of water
above and below ground level is allowed.
SUEWS, designed specifically for urban areas, considers seven surface types: paved
surfaces (including roads, pavements, car parks), buildings, evergreen trees and shrubs,
deciduous trees and shrubs, grass, bare soil and open water (e.g. rivers, lakes, swimming
pools, fountains). Characteristics of these seven surface types must be provided as inputs
to the model, including albedo, emissivity, moisture storage capacity, building height,
tree height and, importantly, the plan area fractions of each surface type. SUEWS can be
run as a standalone model but also can be used within UMEP.
The model has been evaluated in offline mode against measurements in several cities
(Järvi et al., 2011, 2014; Ward et al., 2016; Karsisto et al., 2016; Alexander et al., 2016) and
used to estimate future climate scenarios in connection with local climate zones
(Alexander et al., 2016a).
The software can be obtained through filling up a form on their website.
Website
http://micromet.reading.ac.uk/software/
References
M. Demuzere, S. Harshan, L. Järvi, M. Roth, C. S. B. Grimmond, V. Masson, K. W. Oleson,
E. Velasco, H. Wouters. (2017). Impact of urban canopy models and external
parameters on the modelled urban energy balance in a tropical city. Quarterly
Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 143(704), 1581-1596. DOI:10.1002/qj.3028
60 61ENERGYPLUS
TRNSYS
SPECIFIC
APPLICATION TOOLS
Strategy-specific tools which can communicate through inputs and
outputs with the tools included in the other two categories.
64SPECIFIC APPLICATION TOOLS
ENERGYPLUS
EnergyPlus is a whole building energy simulation program that engineers, architects,
and researchers use to model both energy consumption—for heating, cooling,
ventilation, lighting and plug and process loads—and water use in buildings.
EnergyPlus can be used together with DesignBuilder which provides advanced
modelling tools in an easy-to-use interface. This enables the whole design team to use
the same software to develop comfortable and energy-efficient building designs from
concept through to completion.
EnergyPlus is a console-based program that reads input and writes output to text files.
It ships with a number of utilities including IDF-Editor for creating input files using a
simple spreadsheet-like interface, EP-Launch for managing input and output files and
performing batch simulations, and EP-Compare for graphically comparing the results of
two or more simulations.Several comprehensive graphical interfaces for EnergyPlus are
also available.
Some of the key features in EnergyPlus includes:
- Integrated, simultaneous solution of thermal zone conditions and HVAC system
response
- Heat balance-based solution of radiant and convective effects
- Sub-hourly, user-definable time steps for interaction between thermal zones
and the environment
- Combined heat and mass transfer model that accounts for air movement
between zones.
EnergyPlus is free, open-source, and cross-platform—it runs on the Windows, Mac OS
X, and Linux operating systems. Its development is funded by the U.S. Department of
Energy’s (DOE) Building Technologies Office (BTO). Along with OpenStudio, EnergyPlus is
part of BTO’s building energy modeling program portfolio. Interested users may refer to
their website for informaiton.
Websites
www.energyplus.net CFD Simulation of effects of urban design on outdoor thermal comfort, created by
www.designbuilder.co.uk Energy Plus coupled with Design Builder. Image taken from screenshot of report found
on website.
66 67MICROSCALE
TRNSYS
TRNSYS
TRNSYS is an extremely flexible graphically based software environment used to
simulate the behavior of transient systems. While the vast majority of simulations
are focused on assessing the performance of thermal and electrical energy systems,
TRNSYS can equally well be used to model other dynamic systems such as traffic flow, or
biological processes.
TRNSYS is made up of two parts. The first is an engine (called the kernel) that reads and
processes the input file, iteratively solves the system, determines convergence, and plots
system variables. The kernel also provides utilities that (among other things) determine
thermophysical properties, invert matrices, perform linear regressions, and interpolate
external part of the system. The standard library includes approximately 150 models
ranging from pumps to multizone buildings, wind turbines to electrolyzers, weather
data processors to economics routines, and basic HVAC equipment to cutting edge
emerging technologies. Models are constructed in such a way that users can modify
existing components or write their own, extending capabilities of the environment.
Users have to input weather data files (.tmy, .tn2, .dat), user-readable building files (.bui),
internal building description files (.trn, .bld) and more to run the simulation. TRNSYS
can then output data (i.e. temperature changes over time) a list file, .xls file, or other
extension chosen by the user.
TRNSYS continues to be a flexible, component-based software package that
accommodates needs of both researchers and practitioners in the energy simulation
community.
This software is available for purchase via their website.
Website
www.trnsys.com
References
http://web.mit.edu/parmstr/Public/TRNSYS/04-MathematicalReference.pdf
http://www.cmu.edu/iwess/workshops/TRNSYS_2004.pdf
68 69You can also read
