Simulation tool with its expert interface for passive solar design
Résumé
We present here a research tool, COMFIE (1), for the climatic or solar design of buildings. This tool is a simplified simulation coupled with an expert interface, and based on an object oriented programming. The object oriented programming allows to plan a building on the computer using concepts, which correspond to the real objects : materials, walls, windows ... Thanks to pointers, it is very easy to modify, replace, add or suppress any object in the structure. Such possibilities are quite adapted to the comparison of alternative designs. An expert interface helps the user in the thermal analysis. It chooses the appropriate level of complexity for the calculations, analyses the results and may propose some modifications to the project, that the user may test or reject. The model reduction technique used, based on the modal analysis, allows to simulate a multizone building on an AT computer within a few minutes per zone. The program has been applied to test new passive solar techniques, for instance transparent insulation.