A simulation-based optimization method for building thermal design

Abstract

Buildings have a remarkable impact on environment, therefore nding e cient design con gurations satisfying con icting criteria such as, economic and environmental performance has become an important task. The aim of this study is to provide a tool to aid designers in satisfying the requirements of government regulations and green building certi cation programs, while optimizing the costs and maintaining the thermal comfort. In this context, the developed tool combines a dynamic energy simulation module based on heat balance method and a Life Cycle Cost (LCC) module with an optimization toolbox (Matlab - OptimTool). The developed tool o ers an e ective method to perform large number of simulations to nd cost-optimal building con guration. The tool was tested on a case study that represents a typical residential building in Turkey. Based on an extensive market search for building materials, a database required for optimization process is developed. A genetic algorithm (GA) optimization technique is utilized to minimize the objective function and nd the cost-optimal building con guration for the selected building. Development of a simulation-based optimization method ful lls the need for a tool that assists designers to nd better design alternatives at the preliminary design stage. The tool requires least amount of data input for energy simulation process to improve usability. Besides, instead of coupling two separate software packages, performing the energy simulation and optimization processes on a single platform (Matlab) reduces the time required to nd cost optimal design and compatibility issues. The e ectiveness of the approach for nding cost optimal building con guration is demonstrated in the presented case studies.