Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Evaluation Of Implicit Numerical Methods For Building Energy Simulation, Michael Crowley, Saleem Hashmi

Articles

The stability of numerical methods used for finite-difference thermal modelling of buildings is discussed. A known instability in a commonly used process is described and alternative numerical methods with suitable stability properties are identified. With a view to selecting the optimum numerical method, the building energy simulation problem is characterized mathematically and appropriate implicit solvers are compared on the basis of accuracy and computational effort using a building related test problem prepared for this purpose. A recently developed numerical method with the necessary strong stability is found to possess higher computational efficiency than methods frequently used in this application and …