Building Controls Virtual Test Bed

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BCVTB system model that links EnergyPlus with Simulink.

News
February 28, 2011: Version 1.0.0 has been released.
February 16, 2011: A mailing list has been started to provide support.

Links
Documentation: Manual and source code.
Download and getting started.
Help.

The Building Controls Virtual Test Bed (BCVTB) is a software environment that allows expert users to couple different simulation programs for co-simulation, and to couple simulation programs with actual hardware. For example, the BCVTB allows to simulate a building in EnergyPlus and the HVAC and control system in Modelica, while exchanging data between the software as they simulate. The BCVTB is based on the Ptolemy II software environment. The BCVTB allows expert users of simulation to expand the capabilities of individual programs by linking them to other programs. Due to the different programs that may be involved in distributed simulation, familiarity with configuring programs is essential.

Programs that are linked to the BCVTB are

In addition to using programs that are coupled to Ptolemy II, Ptolemy II's graphical modeling environment can also be used to define models for control systems, for physical devices, for communication systems or for post-processing and real-time visualization.

Typical applications of the BCVTB include:

The coupling of Modelica allows using EnergyPlus for modeling the building heat flow and daylight availability and using Modelica to model innovative building energy and control systems based on the library that is currently in development at http://simulationresearch.lbl.gov/modelica. This allows advanced users to

Contact

Michael Wetter and Philip Haves
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Building Technologies Department
{MWetter,PHaves}@lbl.gov

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Building Technologies of the U.S. Department of Energy, under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

Special thanks go to Prof. Edward A. Lee and Christopher Brooks from the University of California at Berkeley for their support in integrating the BCVTB functionality into the Ptolemy II software.

We would also like to thank