Sports building envelope optimization using multi-objective multidisciplinary design optimization (M-MDO) techniques: Case of indoor sports building project in China

Sports building envelopes are complex systems involving multiple architectural and engineering performance requirements that are sometimes in conflict with each other. Typically, daylight usage and energy efficiency, as two primary concerns in building envelope design, are of those conflicting aspects. To improve overall performance (including daylight and energy performance) by changing the geometries of the envelope, windows and shading elements as well as the selection of construction materials, Multi-objective Optimization (MOO) is a natural choice. Based on the generated Pareto front, trade-off decisions between competing performance objectives can be made. However, as the number of design variables from different disciplines increases, the huge design space and the specialization of disciplines make the optimization process less efficient. Therefore, two possible Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) frameworks, namely Individual Disciplinary Feasible (i.e. IDF, a single-level MDO framework) and Collaborative Optimization (i.e. CO, a bi-level MDO framework), are investigated to combine with MOO. Resorting to the capability of MDO in decomposition and coordination between different disciplines, parallel disciplinary simulations and/or bi-level optimizations can be realized, which compresses design cycle time and achieves better overall performance. Through the combination of MOO and MDO, Multi-objective Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (M-MDO or multi-objective MDO) problems are expected to be solved more effectively and efficiently. The whole process of the proposed method consists of three phases (i.e. preprocessing, solution and post-processing phases), in which variable screening, multi-objective MDO solving and Pareto front comparison are performed respectively. An ongoing real project located in China, is used as a case study to test the proposed method. For now, the research work is in the preprocessing phase. Preliminary observations and res- lts are obtained, and future research is discussed.