Open AccessThermal - electrical analogy in dynamic simulations of buildings: Comparison of four numerical solution methods
Author(s) -
Piotr Michalak
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of mechanical and energy engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2544-1671
pISSN - 2544-0780
DOI - 10.30464/jmee.2020.4.2.179
Subject(s) - transient (computer programming) , computation , thermal , range (aeronautics) , computer science , analogy , simple (philosophy) , differential equation , mechanics , simulation , mathematics , algorithm , engineering , physics , mathematical analysis , aerospace engineering , thermodynamics , epistemology , linguistics , philosophy , operating system
The lumped capacitance method is widely used in dynamic modelling of buildings. Models differ in complexity, solution methods and ability to simulate transient behaviour of described objects. The paper presents a mathematical description of a simple 1R1C thermal network model of a building zone. Four numerical methods were applied to solve differential equation describing its dynamics. For validation purposes two test cases (600 and 900) from the BESTEST procedure were used. In both cases detailed results were given. Better ability of the simulation model to reproduce transient behaviour of the modelled buildings was noticed in case of the lightweight object (case 600). Annual heating and cooling demand was within the reference range for heavyweight one (case 900). The kind of the computation method had no significant effect on simulation results.