Representation and evolution of urban weather boundary conditions in downtown Chicago

Jain, Rajeev; Luo, Xuan; Sever, Gökhan; Hong, Tianzhen; Catlett, Charlie

doi:10.1080/19401493.2018.1534275

Representation and evolution of urban weather boundary conditions in downtown Chicago

Journal Article · Tue Nov 06 23:00:00 EST 2018 · Journal of Building Performance Simulation

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/19401493.2018.1534275· OSTI ID:1484209

Jain, Rajeev ^[1]; Luo, Xuan ^[2]; Sever, Gökhan ^[1]; Hong, Tianzhen ^[2]; Catlett, Charlie ^[1]

Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Building Technology and Urban Systems Div.

Our study presents a novel computing technique for data exchange and coupling between a high-resolution weather simulation model and a building energy model, with a goal of evaluating the impact of urban weather boundary conditions on energy performance of urban buildings. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is initialized with the operational High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) dataset to provide hourly weather conditions over the Chicago region. We utilize the building footprint, land use, and building stock datasets to generate building energy models using EnergyPlus. We mapped the building exterior surfaces to local air nodes to import simulated microclimate data and to export buildings' heat emissions to their local environment. Preliminary experiments for a test area in Chicago show that predicted building cooling energy use differs by about 4.7% for the selected date when compared with simulations using TMY weather data and without considering the urban microclimate boundary conditions.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Energy Efficiency Office. Building Technologies Office

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1484209

Journal Information:: Journal of Building Performance Simulation, Journal Name: Journal of Building Performance Simulation Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 13; ISSN 1940-1493

Publisher:: Taylor & FrancisCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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