[Bldg-sim] Modelling simplification for structural concrete columns

Patrick Bivona patrick.bivona at gmail.com
Sun Mar 17 20:36:31 PDT 2013


Edwin, Graham,

Thanks for your advice. I had initially misunderstood what Joe was actually
proposing to do to take two dimensional conduction into account in and in
the vicinity of the columns. I'll follow his and your suggestion. It will
be a good learning experience for me anyway.

To answer your questions about the climate zone, this building is in South
Vietnam, so hot and humid all year around with some small variations. The
columns won't be insulated and the building will be air-conditioned. A nice
thermal bridge but not as bad as in a cold climate. Sadly, this is not the
type of project where the energy modelling is informing the design much...

Regards,
Patrick


On 18 March 2013 09:25, Wealend, Edwin <e.wealend at cundall.com> wrote:

>  Patrick,****
>
> ** **
>
> Those are some mighty columns! ****
>
> ** **
>
> I think it depends on what you’re trying to achieve with the model. If
> you’re looking at radiant temperatures, local thermal comfort or similar,
> then I would agree that taking an area weighted approach is going to
> neglect important local differences due to thermal inertia and other
> factors. However, if you’re looking at the energy use of the entire
> building, and it’s conditioned 24 hours, or in a climate with negligible
> diurnal swing, or with limited thermal mass generally, I would still say
> that a simplified approach would give you results that are accurate enough.
> I concur with Joe on the point about thermal bridging. Particularly if the
> remainder if the façade is insulated. Most construction inputs in energy
> modelling software don’t accurately account for thermal bridging, so if you
> think they’re going to be significant, then use a separate 2D calculation
> software and adjust your u-values appropriately. ****
>
> ** **
>
> That said, as they’re relatively large and it’s easy enough to divide up
> the walls into separate constructions, as it is with software like IES,
> then by all means model them separately and apply a different construction.
> ****
>
>
> Much of the importance of the above is also dependant on the climate your
> build is in. E.g. Un-insulated concrete columns in a northern European
> climate are a terrible idea and will come with a big energy penalty. In
> warmer climates, their contribution to the overall energy of the building
> will be much smaller and your efforts on the accuracy of their modelling
> may be better spent looking at something like the fresh air or building
> leakage.****
>
> ** **
>
> Regards,****
>
> Ed****
>
> ** **
>
> *Edwin Wealend*****
>
> Senior Engineer
>
> ****
>
> CUNDALL Hong Kong****
>
> 9th Floor Chinachem Johnston Plaza****
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