Research into the next generation of simulation tools and techniques is being carried out at universities, but much of this information is not transferred to the practitioners. For this SimClub event, graduate students from the University of Colorado-Boulder and the Colorado School of Mines will give short summaries of their current research projects.

Our seven presenters will each give a 10-minute talk on their work with about 2-minutes of Q&A for each presenter.

The presenters and their topics are as follows:

University of Colorado — Boulder

Presenter: Cary Faulkner

Degree pursuing: Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Colorado Boulder

Presentation title: Investigation of Building Operational Strategies During COVID-19 Pandemic

Description of presentation: To operate safely and remain open during the COVID-19 pandemic, buildings must provide the best indoor air quality possible to limit the risk of infection through airborne transmission. This work investigates and compares the strategies of dilution through supplying 100% outdoor air to the building, and filtration using two different HVAC filters. The results are compared in terms of indoor air quality as well as energy consumption.

URL: https://www.colorado.edu/lab/sbs/cary-faulkner

Presenter: Chengliang (Leo) Fan

Degree pursuing: Ph.D. in Heating, Ventilation and Air-conditioning from Guangzhou University

Presentation title: Evaluation of Advanced Control Sequences for Chiller Plants with Water-side Economizer

Description of presentation: The advanced control sequences are key to achieve the efficient operation of chiller plants with integrated water-side economizers (WSE). This presentation is to implement the three WSE control sequences with Modelica models and evaluate their control performance in terms of temperature dynamic transient and energy consumption.

URL: https://www.colorado.edu/lab/sbs/chengliang-fan

Presenter: Jing Wang

Degree pursuing: Ph.D. in Architectural Engineering from University of Colorado Boulder

Presentation title: Optimal Renewable Resource Allocation and Load Scheduling of Resilient Communities

Description of presentation: A methodology for enhancing community resilience through optimal renewable resource allocation and load scheduling is proposed. The proposed hierarchical control architecture distributes the computational effort and is easier to be scaled up than traditional centralized control. Each layer of the control is formulated as model predictive control problems.

URL: https://www.colorado.edu/lab/sbs/jing-wang

Presenter: Katy Hinkelman

Degree pursuing: Ph.D. in Architectural Engineering from University of Colorado Boulder

Presentation title: Modeling and Simulation of District Cooling Systems with Modelica

Description of presentation: The popular, open-source Modelica Buildings library is expanding its capabilities from building-scale analyses to include district-scale capabilities. We will present our newly developed district cooling models that will be publicly released in the Buildings library. CU Boulder’s district cooling system was modeled and simulated as a case study.

URL: https://www.colorado.edu/lab/sbs/katy-hinkelman

Presenter: Yingli Lou

Degree pursuing: Ph.D. in Architectural Engineering from University of Colorado Boulder

Presentation title: Building Energy Models for Commercial Buildings Based on CBECS Data

Description of presentation: I will introduce the method to create building energy models based on CBECS Data. The Medium Office building will be used as an example to illustrate the method.

URL: https://www.colorado.edu/lab/sbs/yingli-lou

Colorado School of Mines

Presenter: Karl Heine

Degree pursuing: Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines

Presentation title: Optimizing Cool Thermal Energy Storage as a Distributed Energy Resource

Description of presentation: A simulation-optimization workflow that integrates open-source building energy simulation tools and mixed-integer linear programming is presented to optimize ice thermal energy storage in the connected community context. Results for packaged ice storage optimization in a seven-building case study are presented. Ongoing work simulating and optimizing multiple chilled water loops at the Mines campus will also be shown.

URL: amber.mines.edu/team/heine-karl

Presenter: Mohammadhasan Fathollahzadeh

Degree pursuing: Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines

Presentation title: Holistic optimization approach for electric central chiller plants in connected communities

Description of presentation: A holistic, model-based approach for electric power demand minimization of central chiller plants in connected communities considering explicit performance models of all deployed components — including chillers, cooling towers, and pumps will be discussed in this presentation. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, this study uses a specific branch of connected communities, academic and/or research campuses. Specifically, the Colorado School of Mines’ main chilled water plant validates the proposed models and methodologies.

URL: amber.mines.edu/project/fathollahzadeh-mohammad-hassan/