(BIM) based energy model of the UCD Engineering Building

101 Pages·2014·1.92 MB·English

MEEN 40570: Building Information Model (BIM) based energy model of the UCD
Engineering Building

by
Richard Troy

The thesis is submitted to University College Dublin in part fulfilment of the requirements for
the degree:
ME in Energy Systems

School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Supervisor: Dr. James O’Donnell

April 2014
Copyright Declaration
This thesis is the copyright of the author’s original research. It has been composed by the
author and has not been previously submitted for examination which has led to the ward of a
degree.
The copyright of this thesis belongs to the author. Due acknowledgement must always be
made of the use of any of the material contained in, or derived from, this thesis.

Copyright © 2014 by Richard Troy
All rights reserved.

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Acknowledgements
I was privileged to work with Dr. James O’Donnell as my project supervisor. I am sincerely
grateful for his expert advice, guidance, encouragement and support throughout this study.

I would like to express my gratitude to the staff of the School of Mechanical and Materials
Engineering, in particular to Dr. David Timoney for sharing his knowledge and experience.

Thanks also to colleagues in ME Energy Systems Engineering for their friendship and good
humour throughout the course.

I will always be indebted to my parents for their patience, understanding and encouragement
throughout the research and writing of this thesis, and during my time at University College
Dublin.
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Abstract
A BIM is a digital representation of a building and its physical and functional characteristics.
It is a standardised, object oriented and life-cycle data model that is shared by all the project
stakeholders (Kim & Woo, 2011). Among other things, the information stored within a BIM
can be used for detailed building performance simulation.
Typical processes of carrying out building performance simulation are subjective, labour
intensive, time demanding and error prone (O’Donnell, Maile, Rose, et al., 2013). BIM has
the potential to streamline building performance simulation due to the quality of the
information it provides. This project aims to see just how streamlined BIM can make the
energy evaluation of buildings by testing how effective and accurate the most simplistic form
of energy evaluation is.
Part of what makes this method of BIM based energy evaluation so simplistic is that the only
software used in the project was ArchiCAD V16 and Solibri Model Checker. The report
describes and demonstrates each stage in the process of creating the BIM using ArchiCAD,
validating the BIM using Solibri Model Checker, inputting the parameters into the energy
evaluation tool in ArchiCAD and generating the results.
ArchiCAD has a built in add-in called The Energy Evaluation Tool. This is a building
performance evaluation tool embedded in the software. The objective of this project is to test
the effectiveness of this tool. The quality of the results generated by the Energy Evaluation
Tool invariably depends on the quality of the information that is entered into it. Great care
was taking in selecting the various energy performance parameters and the reasoning behind
their choice is outlined in this thesis.
The results showed that the information that was inputted into The Energy Evaluation Tool
was not detailed enough for accurate building performance simulation results. However if it
were possible to enter more detailed information into some of the more important energy
related parameters such as occupancy schedule and lighting then this method could become
practical in industry.
A more accurate method for performing this simplistic process would have many advantages.
According to the literature many problems exist when executing building performance
simulation in transferring data between different pieces of software. This would be eradicated
by using one program for creating the BIM and performing the BPS. The other major
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advantage of using this method is that energy consumption results can be generating
exceptionally quickly. These times savings could be invaluable in industry.

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Contents
List of tables .............................................................................................................................. ix
List of figures ............................................................................................................................. x
Nomenclature ........................................................................................................................... xii
1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1
1.1 BIM based energy model ............................................................................................ 1
1.2 Background to study.................................................................................................... 1
1.2.1 UCD engineering building HVAC design problems ........................................... 2
1.2.2 Tom O’Dea project 2008 ..................................................................................... 2
1.3 Project aims and objectives ......................................................................................... 3
1.4 Project overview .......................................................................................................... 3
2 Literature Review ............................................................................................................... 4
2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 4
2.2 World Energy Demand................................................................................................ 4
2.3 Energy in Buildings ..................................................................................................... 5
2.3.1 Energy consumption of buildings ........................................................................ 5
2.3.2 Buildings energy policy ....................................................................................... 6
2.3.3 Energy Benchmarking for Commercial Buildings .............................................. 8
2.4 Building performance simulation - BPS ..................................................................... 9
2.4.1 What is BPS? ....................................................................................................... 9
2.4.2 Problems facing energy performance analysts .................................................. 10
2.4.3 What is needed for successful BPS? .................................................................. 11
2.5 Building Information Model - BIM .......................................................................... 13
2.5.1 What is BIM? ..................................................................................................... 13
2.5.2 The benefits of using BIM ................................................................................. 14
2.5.3 The problems and current limitations of BIM ................................................... 14
2.5.4 Future direction of BIM based energy simulation ............................................. 15
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2.6 Geometry Modelling Guidelines for Building Energy Performance Simulation ...... 15
2.6.1 Heat transfer ....................................................................................................... 16
2.6.2 Solar radiation .................................................................................................... 16
2.6.3 Day lighting ....................................................................................................... 17
2.6.4 Common geometry problems ............................................................................. 18
2.7 HVAC software interoperability in simulation ......................................................... 20
2.8 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 20
3 Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 21
4 Model Development ......................................................................................................... 23
4.1 Creating the BIM ....................................................................................................... 23
4.1.1 Constructions in ArchiCAD - Walls and slabs .................................................. 23
4.1.2 Constructions in ArchiCAD - Windows and doors ........................................... 27
4.1.3 Constructions in ArchiCAD - Zones.................................................................. 29
5 Model Validation and Optimisation ................................................................................. 31
5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 31
5.2 The initial plan .......................................................................................................... 31
5.2.1 Create BIM in a CAD tool ................................................................................. 32
5.2.2 Validate BIM in model checking tool ................................................................ 32
5.2.3 Process geometry for the BPS tool .................................................................... 33
5.2.4 EnergyPlus ......................................................................................................... 33
5.3 Lessons learnt - Why the initial plan failed............................................................... 34
5.4 Technology used in the project ................................................................................. 34
5.4.1 ArchiCAD .......................................................................................................... 34
5.4.2 Solibri Model Checker - SMC ........................................................................... 35
5.5 Detailed selection of input energy model parameters ............................................... 36
5.5.1 Environmental settings....................................................................................... 36
a) Project location .......................................................................................................... 36
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b) Climate Data .............................................................................................................. 38
c) Wind protection ......................................................................................................... 41
d) External shading ........................................................................................................ 42
e) Grade level ................................................................................................................ 43
f) Soil type..................................................................................................................... 43
g) Surroundings Settings ............................................................................................... 44
5.5.2 Operation profile ................................................................................................ 45
a) Primary building function ......................................................................................... 45
b) Lighting ..................................................................................................................... 51
5.5.3 Building systems ................................................................................................ 52
a) Heating type .............................................................................................................. 52
b) Cooling Type ............................................................................................................. 52
c) Service hot-water generation ..................................................................................... 52
d) Ventilation Type ........................................................................................................ 53
5.5.4 Energy source factors ......................................................................................... 53
5.5.5 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 55
6 Results .............................................................................................................................. 56
6.1 ArchiCAD simulated performance results ................................................................ 56
6.1.1 Key values .......................................................................................................... 56
6.1.2 Energy consumption by sources ........................................................................ 60
6.1.3 Energy consumption by targets .......................................................................... 62
6.1.4 Monthly energy balance ..................................................................................... 65
6.2 Cylon “Smart Campus” energy meter - Measured results for the building .............. 66
6.2.1 Electricity ........................................................................................................... 66
6.2.2 Gas ..................................................................................................................... 69
6.3 e3 measured energy consumption results 2008 ......................................................... 71
6.4 CIBSE F benchmarks ................................................................................................ 73
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6.5 Comparison of predicted simulated results and the actual measured results ............ 75
6.5.1 Electricity consumption comparison.................................................................. 75
6.5.2 Gas consumption comparison ............................................................................ 76
6.5.3 CO emitted results comparison ......................................................................... 77
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6.5.4 Building energy rating - BER ............................................................................ 78
7 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 79
7.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 79
7.2 How effective is the most simplistic process? .......................................................... 79
7.3 Future work ............................................................................................................... 81
8 References ........................................................................................................................ 83

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List of tables
Table 2-1: Annual primary energy use according to the BER ................................................... 9
Table 4-1: Exterior wall types .................................................................................................. 24
Table 5-1: Wind protection from a given direction ................................................................. 41
Table 5-2: Shading from a given direction .............................................................................. 42
Table 5-3: Soil type options in ArchiCAD .............................................................................. 43
Table 5-4: Percentage floor areas for each ArchiCad zones .................................................... 46
Table 5-5: Correlation of zones and primary building function assumptions in ArchiCAD ... 47
Table 5-6: Human heat gain, services hot water and humidity loads for the building functions
chosen ...................................................................................................................................... 50
Table 5-7: Lighting type options from ArchiCAD .................................................................. 51
Table 5-8: Example air change rates for different spaces ........................................................ 53
Table 5-9: Energy source factors ............................................................................................. 53
Table 5-10: Irish electricity fuel mix disclosure ...................................................................... 54
Table 5-11: Irish 2012 Primary Energy Conversion Factor, TFC to TPER ............................ 54
Table 6-1: General project data from the ArchiCAD energy simulated results ...................... 56
Table 6-2: Building geometry data from the ArchiCAD energy simulated results ................. 56
Table 6-3: Building shell performance data............................................................................. 57
Table 6-4: Building hat transfer coefficients ........................................................................... 58
Table 6-5: Specific Annual Demands ...................................................................................... 59
Table 6-6: Energy consumption by sources ............................................................................. 60
Table 6-7: Energy consumption by targets .............................................................................. 62
Table 6-8: Energy consumption by targets percentages .......................................................... 63
Table 6-9: e3 energy metrics for the UCD engineering building (e3, 2008). .......................... 71
Table 6-10: e3 energy metrics for the UCD engineering building multiplied by the zonal floor
area ........................................................................................................................................... 71
Table 6-11: CIBSE Guide F good practice benchmark for natural gas usage in the UCD
engineering building ................................................................................................................ 73
Table 6-12: CIBSE Guide F good practice benchmark for electricity usage in the UCD
engineering building ................................................................................................................ 74
Table 6-13: Electricity consumption results ............................................................................ 75
Table 6-14: Gas consumption results ....................................................................................... 76
Table 6-15: CO2 emitted ......................................................................................................... 77

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