InPlan and VRVis develop a visualization and simulation package for energy planning of buildings, which enables intuitive optimization in terms of energy efficiency and comfort.

Energy efficiency and sustainability

In Austria, about half of the energy consumption is due to the heat consumption of buildings. In new construction and also in renovation, energy efficiency is an increasingly important topic not only for cost reasons but also in terms of sustainability. InPlan and VRVis research a visualization and simulation package for the energy planning of buildings, which enables an intuitive optimization in terms of energy efficiency and comfort.

Dashboard of a software that enables thermal and energy simulation of buildings.

Since there is a mutual influence of the thermal behavior of rooms, the neighborhood relationships are automatically recorded, so that through the model there is a thermal network (BEM - Building Energy Model).

Dashboard of a software that enables thermal and energy simulation.

The 3D model obtained via the international interface ifc provides the geometric data for the energy engineering simulations.

Several temperature curves in different colors showing the progression of the room temperature as the window percentage changes.

Curves of the room temperature on heat days with variation of the proportion of windows on the facade (window/sunshade combination with a transmittance of 16% and use of night ventilation).

VRVis researcher Andreas Walch sits in front of two screens and points to one, showing BEM planning.

VRVis BIM expert Andreas Walch during research work: the combination of BIM and BEM is an important development step for digitalized energy planning in the building sector.

Change in building design: from drawing board to BIM

Since the introduction of CAD technologies, the building design industry has been transforming from drawing boards to digital systems. As a result, buildings and technical building equipment are increasingly being created in 3D software programs. In the process, a lot of data is generated by the numerous planning participants from architecture, building physics, statics, and planning of the technical building equipment. In order to centralize this diverse data and to be able to use it more efficiently, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is becoming more and more prevalent with the help of the ifc data format. In the course of the planning and execution phases of a building, a digital twin is created with the help of BIM, so that the building can be visualized for operational management and the decisive operational data can be clearly retrieved.

Energy-efficient planning in conjunction with BIM and digital twin

An essential factor in addressing the climate crisis is the efficient use of energy to condition buildings. To combine energy-efficient planning with BIM and digital twins, VRVis and InPlan are researching a new software tool, which integrates simulation algorithms into the BIM world and casts them into a handy digital tool. This tool supports planners in all aspects of energy efficiency and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and plumbing) during the planning process. The digital building twin not only contains data but also clearly shows the dynamic behavior on cold winter days or during hot spells. The focus of the planned software package is on standard-compliant designs that ensure comfortable temperatures on the coldest winter days on the one hand and the summer suitability of buildings on the other. These calculations are part of the daily planning routine of building physicists and building services planners. The project represents an important research contribution to raise the planning quality of energy planners and to further increase the energy efficiency of buildings. The project was awarded the eAward in the category "Smart Data" in 2023.

The visualization and simulation tool provides a solution for various aspects of interactive real-time energy planning:

The geometry, component layouts, and spatial relationships are captured automatically, eliminating the need for error-prone manual data entry.
The influence of solar radiation and the shading of the building by the environment can be simulated and visualized realistically and in high quality.
Clearly arranged variant calculations optimize construction methods, thermal insulation, sun shading devices, ventilation strategies, and heating/cooling devices.

More information

The research goal of AMASE is to create a suite of tools and methods to ingest, process, visualize, and manipulate heterogeneous, large-scale geospatial data. This data is the constantly updated representation of the real world in the form of an evolving digital twin.

Together with Rhomberg Bau GmbH and convex ZT GmbH, VRVis is developing a concept for the use of Boston Dynamic's robot dog "Spot" for autonomous, immersive construction site documentation.

The main goal of this project is to enable a reliable decision support for large-scale infrastructure projects by providing solutions for a collaborative visual analysis of digital twins.