Uncertainty Analysis for Thermal Comfort Evaluation in Naturally Ventilated Buildings: Fid-Bau Portal

Uncertainty Analysis for Thermal Comfort Evaluation in Naturally Ventilated Buildings

Chen, Jianli / Augenbroe, Godfried / Wang, Qinpeng / Song, Xinyi

Naturally ventilated building, which utilizes wind force and stack effect to circulate air of the building, has gained increasing interest among building owners due to the reduction in energy cost and the healthier indoor environment it could provide. Building simulation, as an important engineering analysis technique to evaluate the future building performance, has been frequently utilized to ensure the usability of naturally ventilated buildings during the design phase. Nonetheless, many of these fully natural ventilation buildings or zones still can’t meet the expected performance in real operation. One of reasons for these unexpected outcomes could be that design decisions are typically made based on only deterministic simulation without sufficiently taking into account the variability spring from the building’s local micro-climate, physical properties and actual operations. In this paper, we propose to use uncertainty analysis in building simulation in order to thoroughly assess the risks of thermal comfort for naturally ventilated buildings. Uncertainty sources for thermal comfort analysis through building simulation are identified first. Then an uncertainty analysis workbench is employed to conduct full uncertainty analysis for a prototype office building. These results are later compared with the deterministic simulation result to show the potential risks if the only deterministic result is considered in design decision making. After comparison, the most important uncertainties to be considered in building simulation are identified through sensitivity analysis.