Youming Chen 1, 2 Juan Zhou 1 Jeffrey D. Spitler 2
1 Department of Building Environment and Services Engineering
College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, Hunan, China
chlukesmile@yahoo.com, 1-405-744-2410 (O)
2 School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma 74078-5016, USA
ABSTRACT
Validation and verification of building simulation
programs and load calculation programs is of
continuing interest. Dynamic thermal behavior data,
including conduction
transfer
function
(CTF)
coefficients, thermal response factors and periodic
response factors, are used to calculate transient heat
conduction
through
building
constructions.
Computational inaccuracy sometimes occurs in
calculating CTF coefficients and response factors. In
this paper, a method for verification of the CTF
coefficients and response factors over the whole
frequency range is introduced. This method is
based on the equivalence of dynamic models for a
linear system and the frequency characteristics of
building transient heat transfer models. Polar
diagrams and error criteria are proposed to verify
the CTF coefficients and response factors. Some
examples are given to demonstrate the methodology.
INTRODUCTION
Conduction heat transfer through the building
envelope is one of the principal components of space
cooling/heating loads and energy requirements.
Models for transient heat transfer through building
constructions are important parts of building energy
and HVAC system simulation programs. In current
building simulation programs such as DOE-2,
TRNSYS and EnergyPlus (Crawley et al., 2001;
Strand et al., 2001), as well as space cooling load
calculations (ASHRAE 2001), the dynamic thermal
behavior data of building constructions including
thermal response factors, conduction transfer function
(CTF) coefficients or periodic response factors are
calculated by various algorithms, and then utilized in
conjunction with weather data to