Assessing the thermal response of a multi-zone ventilated building using TRNSYS

Abstract

This work is aimed to provide a design model of a multi-zone building. The thermal response of a ventilated zone is calculated in conjunction with hourly change of outdoor air temperatures. Numerical simulations are carried out to investigate the effect of outdoor weather conditions on the indoor air temperatures. A simulation tool is developed to analyze the thermal performance of a multi-zone building’s envelope. The numerical solution is conducted using the commercial software package, TRNSYS. To evaluate the dynamic thermal performance of the residential apartment during the summer season, the first three days of June were selected as a time-simulated period. Based on an annual climatic profile weather record data, selected time-simulated periods characterized by high and low thermal conditions were further considered in order to perform a more detailed thermal analysis of the building performance. We found that the thermal response of building’s envelope in conjunction with insulation layer has a significant effect on reducing the variations of indoor air-temperature compared with only implementing ventilation system. The reduction of the indoor air-temperature is found to be in the range of 2-3 °C.