In situ modeling methodologies in building operation: A review

Abstract

The building information and operational data generated during the building life cycle are essential for realizing energy-efficient operation, indoor environmental quality, and digitalization in the context of intelligent buildings. At the city scale, building operation information is necessary to evaluate and improve energy efficiency to achieve carbon neutrality in the building sector. When considering long-term operation over the building life cycle with the basic modeling environments available during the design stage, conventional modeling approaches for building informatization and digitalization provide limited reliability and availability owing to different building designs, gaps between design and operation, aging-related changes, and experimental issues. These challenges require an in situ modeling perspective throughout the building life cycle. Therefore, based on the literature reviews, this paper proposes and discusses in situ modeling methodologies for building operations according to six aspects: modeling environment, model purpose, model source, modeling approach, in situ verification, and in situ calibration. They are mainly discussed by two modeling environments including (1) in situ modeling with the model observations and (2) onsite modeling without the observations. Practical challenges for in situ modeling are discussed. Various in situ modeling scenarios and strategies are then suggested, and in situ model fusion is proposed to overcome the limitations of extant building operation modeling environments. Future research directions are proposed to facilitate continuous information modeling and digitalization of operations throughout the building life cycle.