openBAM - Open Building Automation Modelling - Open modeling of building automation over the entire building life cycle

Starting point / motivation

Highly efficient buildings, whose entire energy consumption (building operation and use) can be covered by local energy generation, are essential elements of climate-neutral cities and urban districts. These plus-plus-energy buildings have already been implemented in practice in various forms, but many projects have shown that their actual energy consumption is higher than the originally planned consumption.

One of the reasons for this can be traced back to the fact that the building automation is not planned in detail until the buildings are commissioned. Due to this reason, and due to lack of time and budget the full energy savings potential, which the building automation could provide, is rarely realized. Thus, buildings have higher energy consumptions than necessary.

Contents and goals

Since every kilowatt-hour of energy not consumed contributes to achieving the goal of "climate neutrality", buildings with well-designed and perfectly operating building automation systems are needed to ensure optimal building performance. Otherwise, highly efficient buildings can result in additional energy consumption of up to 54%.

In order to be able to design the building automation - in particular the control and regulation logic - for optimal operation in advance, it is necessary to develop it based on a digital, simulation-capable representation (digital twin). All relevant aspects of the building (control logic, utilization information, geometry, structural engineering and building services engineering) should be mapped in various degrees of detail - from simplified to very detailed - in order to ensure target-oriented planning.

In the project, a method for platform-independent modeling of the control and regulation logic will be created and integrated into an open data model. This allows the control logic to be linked to the components and parameters of building models already in the planning phase and over the entire building life cycle.

Methods

For a proof-of-concept, the IT ecosystem SIMULTAN is used, which provides a platform for existing open data models such as IFC (ISO 16739) and BACNET (ISO 16484). Based on this, interfaces are methodically developed to transfer the platform-independent modeled control logic into platform-specific solutions (e.g. simulation tools, engineering tools).

Proven planning documents and tools (e.g. building automation function list according to ISO 16484-3) will be reused. Building models are then extended by control and regulation logic and simulation tools can be invoked. This allows in more detail the interaction of building automation information with building engineering and enables the development of more energy-efficient, sustainable automation solutions. Additionally, the information can be transferred to engineering tools for further processing. The practical suitability of the methodology is demonstrated by application in a laboratory scenario.

Expected results

The goal is an optimal planning of the building automation considering the system retroactive effects. The focus is on enabling generic, technology-independent planning of building automation in a dedicated tool (openBAM).

The project result will set a milestone in the field of building automation and in terms of "climate neutrality" of cities regarding plannability and open exchange.

Project management

Institute of Material Technology, Building Physics, and Building Ecology, TU Wien

Project or cooperation partners

• Institute of Computer Engineering, TU Wien
• Sauter Meß- und Regeltechnik Gesellschaft m.b.H.

Prof. Thomas Bednar
Karlsplatz 13, E207-02
A-1030 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (1) 58801 207201
E-Mail: thomas.bednar@tuwien.ac.at
Web: www.bph.tuwien.ac.at