An integrated pipeline for building performance analysis: Daylighting, energy, natural ventilation, and airborne contaminant dispersion

Abstract

Early design decisions influence the performance of a building significantly. Yet, computational support for performance assessment during early design is very limited. This research proposes an analysis pipeline for the accurate and comprehensive assessment of building performance by integrating simulation-based analysis tools that perform daylighting, computational fluid dynamics, energy, and contaminant transport simulations, as well as wind tunnel testing that performs velocity and pressure measurements to generate wind pressure coefficients. The pipeline is implemented in three different ways: hybrid, model-based, and empirical workflows. The hybrid workflow combines computational fluid dynamics simulations and wind tunnel testing, while the model-based and empirical workflows utilize computational fluid dynamics simulations and wind tunnel testing, respectively. In the pipeline, computational fluid dynamics is used early on to evaluate a high number of alternatives, leading to the selection of a limited number of good-performing options. Following this, wind tunnel testing is used to “correct” the initial wind pressure coefficient results for increased accuracy. Therefore, a hybrid approach operating with high accuracy that can effectively explore the design search space is needed. The pipeline is tested on a hypothetical office building with different shading device configurations. The coupling of computational and physical testing methods in a hybrid workflow significantly enhanced the accuracy of airflow-related data, which is underestimated by 15.4% using the model-based workflow. Moreover, the hybrid workflow managed the complexity of the design search space by the assessment and elimination of different design alternatives by the stepwise simulation workflow. The inclusion of shading devices also improved the accuracy of airflow-related data. If the shading devices had not been modeled for the simulations and had not been tested, the results would have overestimated the ventilation rate by 85% and underestimated the ventilation rate by 1.4%, respectively. The study's contribution is significant as it proposes a pipeline for a more accurate and comprehensive assessment of building performance, which can inform design decisions and improve the overall building's performance. © 2023 The Authors