00610nas a2200157 4500008004100000245009600041210006900137260003100206100001700237700001800254700002500272700002200297700002100319700002200340856009000362 2011 eng d00aDevelopment of a user interface for the EnergyPlus whole building energy simulation program0 aDevelopment of a user interface for the EnergyPlus whole buildin aSydney, Australiac11/20111 aSee, Richard1 aHaves, Philip1 aSreekanathan, Pramod1 aBasarkar, Mangesh1 aO'Donnell, James1 aSettlemyre, Kevin uhttps://simulationresearch.lbl.gov/publications/development-user-interface-energyplus02272nas a2200169 4500008004100000245007100041210006900112260001200181520171200193100002101905700001701926700001501943700001801958700002301976700001801999856008502017 2011 eng d00aSimModel: A domain data model for whole building energy simulation0 aSimModel A domain data model for whole building energy simulatio c10/20113 a

Many inadequacies exist within industry-standard data models as used by present-day whole-building energy simulation software. Tools such as EnergyPlus and DOE-2 use custom schema definitions (IDD and BDL respectively) as opposed to standardized schema definitions (defined in XSD, EXPRESS, etc.). Non-standard data modes lead to a requirement for application developers to develop bespoke interfaces. Such tools have proven to be error prone in their implementation – typically resulting in information loss.

This paper presents a Simulation Domain Model (SimModel) - a new interoperable XML-based data model for the building simulation domain. SimModel provides a consistent data model across all aspects of the building simulation process, thus preventing information loss. The model accounts for new simulation tool architectures, existing and future systems, components and features. In addition, it is a multi-representation model that enables integrated geometric and MEP simulation configuration data. The SimModel objects ontology moves away from tool-specific, non-standard nomenclature by implementing an industry-validated terminology aligned with Industry Foundation Classes (IFC).

The first implementation of SimModel supports translations from IDD, Open Studio IDD, gbXML and IFC. In addition, the EnergyPlus Graphic User Interface (GUI) employs SimModel as its internal data model. Ultimately, SimModel will form the basis for a new IFC Model View Definition (MVD) that will enable data exchange from HVAC Design applications to Energy Analysis applications. Extensions to SimModel could easily support other data formats and simulations (e.g. Radiance, COMFEN, etc.).

1 aO'Donnell, James1 aSee, Richard1 aRose, Cody1 aMaile, Tobias1 aBazjanac, Vladimir1 aHaves, Philip uhttps://simulationresearch.lbl.gov/publications/simmodel-domain-data-model-whole