RE: [EnergyPlus_Support] For Help! To simulate a skyscraper.

["Ellis, Peter" <peter_ellis@xxxxxxxx>]

Not too long ago I had to deal with exactly the same problem in order to model the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center (the previous twisty design, not the current one).  The results of that exercise ended up going into a paper called "Simulating Tall Buildings Using EnergyPlus" that I presented at SimBuild 2005.  The paper is available in the Conference Proceedings, or can be directly accessed at this link:  http://www.ibpsa.org/proceedings/BS2005/BS05_0279_286.pdf
 
The surprising conclusion (to me anyway) was that despite height dependent variation of air temperature, wind speed, and shading from surrounding buildings, you get less than 1% error by simulating a single floor with a multiplier, e.g., 80, as long as you pick it to be near the midheight of the building, i.e., floor number 40, when comparing whole-building annual energy results to a full simulation of all 80 floors explicitly.  
 
In the time since the paper was written, we have changed EnergyPlus so that, by default, the local air temperature and wind speed at a surface or a zone are now calculated based on its height above ground.  We have also made it easier for the user to control the height dependent variation of atmospheric properties in EnergyPlus, even allowing height dependent variation to be turned off, if desired.  See the WEATHER STATION object and SITE ATMOSPHERIC VARIATION object in the InputOutput Reference and Engineering Ref for more details.
 
Peter Ellis
NREL
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: EnergyPlus_Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:EnergyPlus_Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of well_kong
Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2006 6:08 PM
To: EnergyPlus_Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [EnergyPlus_Support] For Help! To simulate a skyscraper.



I was assigned to simulate a skyscraper with 80 floors using EP.
I tried multiplier,but there is a differential load between different 
high floors. For example,there will be about 0.6 C between 20m high.
And for so many floors,the gap cann't be ignored.
If I simulated every floors,It's really a huge job especially with a 
HVAC system.And the time of simulation also is a problem.
Who could help me? Is there any other way to shortcut the work.

Well Kong 



 


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