Advanced Building Simulation

Prologue
Introduction and overview of field
Ali M. Malkawi and Godfried Augenbroe
Building simulation started to stand out as a separate discipline in the late 1970s. It has
matured since then into a field that offers unique expertise, methods and tools for
building performance evaluation. It draws its underlying theories from diverse disciplines,
mainly from physics, mathematics, material science, biophysics, and behavioural
and computational sciences. It builds on theories in these fields to model the physical
behavior of as-designed, as-built, and as-operated facilities. At building scale, the theoretical
challenges are inherent in the complex interplay of thousands of components,
each with their own complex physical behavior and a multiplicity of interactions
among them. The diversity of the interactions pose major modeling and computational
challenges as they range from (bio)physical to human operated, from continuous to discrete,
from symmetric to non-symmetric causality and from autonomous to controlled.
Its ability to deal with the resulting complexity of scale and diversity of component
interactions has gained building simulation a well-respected role in the prediction,
assessment, and verification of building behavior. Specialized firms offer these services
in any life cycle stage and to any stake holder.
Although most of the fundamental work on the computational core of building
simulation was done two decades ago, building simulation is continuously evolving
and maturing. Major improvements have taken place in model robustness and
fidelity. Model calibration has received considerable attention and the quality of user
interfaces has improved steadily. Software tools are currently diverse whereas simulation
is becoming “invisible” and “complete” validation is considered an attainable
goal. Discussions are no longer about software features but on the use and integration
of simulation in building life cycle processes where integration is no longer seen
as elusive goal; realistic part solutions are proposed and tested.
Advancements in Information Technology have accelerated the adoption of simulation
tools due to the rapid decrease in hardware costs and advancements in
software tool development environments. All these developments have contributed to
the proliferation and recognition of simulation as a key discipline in the building
design and operation process. Notwithstanding, the discipline has a relatively small
membership and “simulationists” are regarded as exclusive members of a “guild”.
This book is a contribution to make designers, builders, and practitioners more aware
of the full potential of the field.
While commercial tools are continuously responding to practitioners’ needs, a
research agenda is being pursued by academics to take the discipline to the next level.
This agenda is driven by the need to increase effectiveness, speed, quality assurance,