Object-oriented quasi-3D sub-zonal airflow models for energy-related system-level building simulation

This manuscript presents a “quasi-3D” modelling approach for the thermo-hydraulic simulation of airflows. The approach is tailored to low velocity motion fields, thus suited for building rooms, household refrigerator cavities, and so forth. Its goal is to somehow bridge the gap between fully mixed volumes, often too inaccurate for system-level studies, and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFDs) models, that for the same purpose are frequently too demanding from the computational standpoint. The proposed approach allows to conduct informative and scalable-detail studies, including relevant facts such as air movers’, heaters’ and sensors’ positioning, without resorting to co-simulation, to the advantage of engineering efficiency.