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Simupedia - A wiki about building simulation
Inhaltsverzeichnis |
Goal of Simupedia
The goal of Simupedia is to provide qualified informations about building simulation to different stakeholders of the built environment, with focus on energy consumption, thermal comfort, room airflow, daylighting and environmental impact. Based on practise in design of real buildings Simupedia shows that building simulations - as a new, innovative approach in the planning process - are superior to the standard way of planing. In particular for sustainable buildings they are a must, as they provide reliable projections of the planned building as basic informations for making decisions in building design and retrofit and for assessing the building performance.
Representing not only theory but also practical advise, Simupedia shows the benefits and limitations of simulations because simulations are not an end in itself. Thus Simupedia provides informations for deciding whether simulations can help answering a specific question, and if so, what type of simulation is the most adequate. For practitioners, Simupedia provides the planning team on overview about the many different types of simulations, and, specifically, what simulation is best suited for their specific planning task. Thus Simupedia instructs building owners, architects and engineers - in short term: all people who are concerned with planning and operating buildings - on how simulation can best be integrated into the building life cycle.
Where applicable, relevant energy codes and/or standards are pointed out, and questions of quality assurance, reliability and accuracy of simulations are discussed intensively.
Target audience
Representing not only theory, but also practise, Simupedia is not a purely scientific oriented information source and therefore targets on diverse stakeholders of the built environment:
- Building owners and developers
- Contractors
- real estate managers
- Mechanical engineers
- Architects
- Users of simulation programs
- Developers of simulation programs
- Researchers
To satisfy the diverse needs and backgrounds of this target audience in the best way, Simupedia is divided into the following two information-levels:
Basics This level targets users who want to obtain general information about building simulation and their potential benefits or users with a specific problem, searching for the appropriate simulation technics. Moreover novices can get an overview about simulations and help in getting started with building simulation.
Experts: This level targets experienced users, developers and researchers and hence provides technical information to simulation models and solution methods.
Start Simupedia
Basic-Level
Simupedia first provides easy to understand information about common questions concerning building simulations:
- Why do sustainable and energy-saving building concepts in particular require the use of simulations?
- What are the incentives and aims of simulations in common?
- How can facades be optimized concerning their energetic properties by using detailed calculation methods ?
- Innovations in the building sector and their relation to simulation techniques
- Why and in what situations are simulations - as more powerful planning tools - superior to standard planning methods ?
- How are temperatures or room indoor climate or thermal comfort to be classified?
Moreover following overviews are given, enabling a first orientation in building simulation:
- Easy to understand overview and short description of all simulation types
- Which simulation type to be used for what topic ?
- Uncertainties, reliability and accuracy of simulations
- Building simulations and their relation to standards and regulations
Expert-Level
The expert-level provides detailed technical approaches, theoretical discussions of implementations and solution algorithms for each simulation type. It is assumed that the reader has some experience with building simulation.
This level targets on simulationists, software developers and scientists and provides detailed instructions and basics for each simulation type (e.g. weather data, internal heat sources, resistance coefficients for air flow, etc.)
- Entry for detailed technical informations about simulation models, algorithms and techniques
- FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
Further resources
A comprehensive collection of information and pointers to building simulation programs is available from the Building Energy Software Tools Directory of the US Department of Energy.
Conference papers about building simulation applications, development and research are freely available from the IBPSA web page.
Background: working group
Currently the content of Simupedia is worked out mainly by IBPSA-Germany´s working group Anforderungskatalog an Simulationsprogramme und Marktanalyse (Simulation Program Requirements and Market Analysis); nevertheless articles from non-members are welcome also very much.
Latest news: As the potential and benefits of a simulation-wiki has been recognized, IBPSA-USA and even IBPSA-worldwide are discussing to join Simupedia.
An overview about further working goups of IBPSA-Germany can be found here.
