An open building information modelling based co-simulation architecture to model building energy and environmental life cycle assessment: A case study on two buildings in the United Kingdom and Luxembourg

Abstract

Given the complexity and interconnection of different aspects involved in building evaluation, one of the most relevant, and challenging, research topics is the integration of different domain models (such as thermal comfort, indoor environmental quality and occupant comfort) to effectively describe and inform improvement strategies for the behaviour and performance of a building and building stock. Currently, this problem is unsolved with only one study attempting to integrate building energy simulation and life cycle assessments (separately, both practices are utilised to facilitate the design and management of buildings, traditionally consultancies offer building energy simulation services – most commonly for regulatory purposes – and more recently life cycle impact assessments), whilst no work has attempted this integration in a dynamic manner. This study addresses this gap by developing a dynamic, open building information modelling based co-simulation architecture. This architecture is the first to tightly couple and integrate EnergyPlus and Brightway2, in a way that does not rely upon heuristics or simplified tools. Furthermore, it is the first building energy simulation and life cycle assessment co-simulation to enable time-differentiated (dynamic) results and the first to be enabled only by open technologies. The architecture has been validated against two case-study non-domestic buildings located in the United Kingdom and Luxembourg, demonstrating its applicability to the construction and operational life cycle phases of buildings. The work presented in this paper has shown how a time-differentiated co-simulation approach across energy and lifecycle domains enables a more holistic analysis of whole buildings with greater accuracy and granularity.