Journal Article

Including thermal sensation into accuracy criteria for building simulation models

Gao, C, Rossi, R M, Psikuta, A

2025

Overview

Including thermal sensation into building simulation calibration is a novel idea when designing human-centred building operation concepts. So far, the same percentual error limits are applied to all indoor parameters, which are unrelated to their effect on occupant thermal sensation. This study aims to quantify the error propagation of indoor parameters, such as air temperature and air speed, on thermal sensation prediction and establish related error limits for these two parameters in building simulation. The thermal sensation was obtained using the human thermoregulation model with integrated dynamic thermal sensation (DTS) model and considering seasonal scenarios. The Morris method was employed to assess DTS sensitivities to changes of indoor temperature and air speed and error limits were determined based on these sensitivities and acceptable DTS errors. The combined error effect of the two parameters on DTS was also showcased. The results show that to ensure DTS prediction error within ±0.5 on a 7-point scale, air temperature and air speed require the highest accuracy in winter, which is ±1.93˚C and ±0.10m/s, respectively. The combined error effect is most significant in summer, which could bring an additional DTS error of up to 0.71. These error limits provide a more targeted reference for building simulation calibration by considering occupants’ thermal response.

• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Subject: Accuracy / Air temperature / Calibration / Parameters / Sensitivity analysis / Simulation / Simulation models / Thermal response / Thermal simulation / Thermoregulation