Thermal Environment Simulator for Office Building with Multi-agent-Based Simulation Technique

Abstract

There is a growing interest to introduce split-ductless air conditioning systems into an office building both for realizing energy saving and comfort to office workers. Building energy management systems (BEMS) are expected to establish sophisticated controlling methods for the split-ductless air conditioning system. For creating the methods, simulators for thermal environment in a building are required. However, existing simulators necessitate a building information model (BIM) and huge amount of data for parameter tuning. Moreover, the existing simulators have difficulties to express spatial and temporal dynamics in each space in a building. The spatial and temporal dynamics in a space are indispensable for creating methods for controlling split-ductless air conditioning systems, because the systems independently manage devices dispersed in a room. A thermal environment simulator with multi-agent-based simulation (MAS) technique was proposed in the paper. The simulator can work without BIM and visualize spatial and temporal dynamics with limited numbers of parameters, which are easily obtained from BEMS. The simulator with MAS was implemented and applied to a field test in winter and summer seasons. As a result, high precision for reproducing spatial and temporal thermal dynamics was confirmed through the field test.