Development and inter-model comparative testing of a novel earth-contact heat-transfer simulation method

Abstract

This paper describes the theory and inter-model comparative testing of a new earth-contact heat-transfer simulation method that is flexible, fast and accurate. The method combines the finite volume and response factor techniques and is intended to aid the design of buildings by contributing to the rapid parametric analysis of a structure. In other words, the method is at its most useful when being used to provide an accurate yearly simulation of the earth-contact heat transfer in situations when it is required to know the effect of repeatedly varying other aspects of the design. Work undertaken so far for a typical basement shows extremely good hourly heat transfer correlation between the time series method and a three-dimensional finite volume method, coupled with dramatically improved run times (of the order of a factor of 1000) when the method is used in its parametric analysis role.

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