Research and development in the fields of building technologies and community energy systems have caused in recent years a transition away from stand-alone components towards dynamically interacting systems. However, the precise modeling and simulation of such complex cyber-physical systems proves challenging for the established simulation tools. This paper illustrates the applicability of co-simulation and model exchange concepts based on the Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI) specification for the simulation of buildings and community energy systems by comparing several state-of-the-art approaches. The presented applications thereby demonstrate the suitability and relevance of such modular and flexible simulation concepts for these fields. At the same time the importance of a common simulation interface is emphasized, which allows the reuse of individual components for a diverse range of applications
In this study, the possibility to interface a commercial building simulation tool with Modelica models is investigated. In this application, the zonal model VEPZO - modeled in Modelica - is coupled to the software TRNSYS - mainly programmed in Fortran - to be able to perform a dynamic co-simulation. The objective of this coupling is to obtain refined airflow and air temperature prediction, while retaining computation effort low enough to allow for transient computation. In a first attempt, a coupling using FMI was tested without success due to a lack of adequate solvers for FMI export. Therefore, a script coupling was implemented. Further steps include a validation and evaluation of the programmed interface and the results of the coupled system in respect to computation time, quality of results, usability and further development
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