Evaporative Cooling for Corridor Overheating Mitigation – HVAC and EMS DesignBuilder Simulation

Vasiliki Kourgiozou of Hodkinson Consultancy, presented her shortlisted case study for the CIBSE Building Simulation Group Prize at Build2Perform 2018 and was awarded runner up.

Corridor overheating mitigation is a real-life concern as it affects occupant satisfaction and the thermal performance of adjacent homes. Measures to future-proof designs in this respect are becoming even more relevant.  Vasiliki discusses her entry below and her presentation can be viewed here.

This entry was based on a communal corridor overheating assessment at the Kidbrooke Village Phase 3 development by Berkeley Homes (East Thames) Ltd. The 20-year regeneration scheme consists of various phases connected with a state-of-the art communal heating network. Corridor overheating mitigation was a significant design consideration.

A passive evaporative cooling system was proposed to mitigate the heat gains within the corridors that is energy efficient and environmentally friendly, avoiding active cooling by reducing summer temperatures by circa 5°C at peak external temperatures.

Dynamic Thermal Modelling was required to verify the effectiveness of the passive evaporative cooling system. Instead of using refrigerants and energy intensive cooling systems, evaporative systems can maintain indoor thermal comfort, cooling the air through a water wetted pad and passive adiabatic cooling. The modelling was undertaken using Detailed HVAC simulation and a script (EMS module) adapting the simulation to modulate airflows and make the fan operation energy efficient.
The simulation outcomes were also compared against real-life environmental monitoring that were undertaken in one of the communal areas of Kidbrooke’s previous phases. Both assessment methods concluded that comfortable temperatures are achieved, and the evaporative cooling system is capable of mitigating the heat gains incurred within the corridors from the communal heating network.

Written by Vasiliki Kourgiozou - Posted by Darren Coppins - CIBSE Building Simulation Group Vice Chair.

Parametric Modelling on The Shenzhen World Exhibition and Conference Centre

Shikha Bhardwaj presented ChapmanBDSP's finalist entry for the 2018 CIBSE Building Simulation Group Prize at Build 2 Perform in November 2018.  The fast paced 5 minute presentation can be seen here.  The judges were impressed with how challenges relating to the scale of the project was overcome as well as language barriers with excellent visual communication.  

Shika discusses their winning entry below.  Click the link above to view the winning presentation.

The project will provide 400,000m2 of prime exhibition when completed next year. Designed by French architectural firms Valode et Pistre and AUBEit, it contains a 1.8km long air-conditioned walkway connecting 19 hall spaces. About 50m wide, the walkway has two levels - upper for transit the lower for breakout spaces - with multiple entrances and an independent roof open to the elements at the sides.

Our work, together with V&P, included simulating the impact of wind-driven precipitation, multi-parameter optimisation of the corridor roof design and thermal and visual comfort modelling. This was achieved during a ‘small window’ less than four months before finalisation of tender design. We believe that wind-driven precipitation modelling on this scale is unprecedented.

The main outcomes of the simulations and design guidance was to:

•         Confirm distribution, pattern and specification of transparent and opaque roof elements including solar protection;
•         Propose solutions for improving lower-level daylighting;
•         Develop roof edge detailing (louvres) to minimise rain penetration towards the centre;
•         Propose solutions for improved thermal comfort through natural and mechanical means.

Simulations were carried out using XFlow software (CFD) for wind, rain and thermal studies, Grasshopper (daylighting and UTCI) and EDSL-TAS (thermal).

Written by Shikha Bhardwaj - Posted by Darren Coppins - CIBSE Building Simulation Group Vice Chair

Using Simulations To Help The Design Team To Make Well-Grounded Decisions

Santeri Siren of Ramboll was selected as a finalist for the 2018 CIBSE Building Simulation Group Awards and traveled all the way from Finland to present his entry at CIBSE Build 2 Perform 2018.  Santeri discusses his entry below which was awarded Runner Up.  You can see Santeri's presentation here 

Too often energy simulations are used only to make the mandatory building code calculations or to verify the effects of already made design choices. This is truly a waste of potential because energy simulations can be used in making those design choices and to provide real benefit to the project if used correctly.

Our project was all about using simulations to help the design team to make well-grounded decisions and thus create a real impact on the design choices made in a construction project of an apartment building in Helsinki (120 apartments).

I will write about three important steps for effectively using a simulation study in a construction project.

The first step is to plan and run the first simulations at very early stage in the design schedule when the design parameters are not yet locked.

In this project we started to plan our simulation study with other designers before the architect had even released the first version of building floor plans. Thus, we were able to flexibly choose meaningful design options to study with the simulations for example window sizes, glazing types, cooling systems, envelope insulation and AHU options.

The second step is to have enough extensive study to be able to form a comprehensive overall picture and add value to the project. In this case we studied 1840 different combinations i.e. 1840 possible ways to design the same building. For each of these possibilities we calculated the building energy consumption, energy CO₂ emissions, local building code energy rating, building code indoor air requirements, investment costs, lifecycle cost and indoor air quality study for every bedroom and living room.

This way we had enough data to manage many aspects on how different variables affect the project. E.g. if you change the window sizes you can see how it effects the energy consumption, indoor air temperatures, required cooling system and what is the influence on the cost etc. There were many interesting cause and effect relations to be found.

The whole point is in managing the overall picture and understanding how one change will affect multiple areas of the project and building performance.

The final step is to present all this information to other parties in an approachable way. This is extremely important because without an efficient way to present and manage the results all your hard work can go to waste. Luckily there are good software’s in the market that can be used to do this. We created interactive visualizations of the data that are easy to use for non-technical people also.

Results were studied by the design team in several meetings and were used to make well-grounded decisions and steer the design choices to optimal direction

Written by Santeri Siren, Posted by Darren Coppins - CIBSE Building Simulation Group Vice Chair