Wuppertal doctoral students honored for building simulation
The award winners (from left to right): Tugcin Kirant-Mitic, Ghadeer Derbas, Isil Kalpkirmaz Rizaoglu and Karl Walther.
Isil Kalpkirmaz Rizaoglu, Tugcin Kirant-Mitic and Ghadeer Derbas and Karl Walther, doctoral students from the Department of Building Physics and Technical Building Equipment (Prof. Karsten Voss) at the University of Wuppertal, were recognized by the International Building Performance Simulation Association IBPSA for their simulation study on the office building " 2226” was awarded 1st prize. The award ceremony in the "Students modeling competition" took place as part of the "Building Simulation" conference in early September in Bruges, Belgium.
The four doctoral students examined the thermal indoor climate, the visual comfort for daylight and artificial light, the building-grid interaction and aspects of user behavior. The jury was convinced by the highest level of agreement with the calculations from the real design phase and building operation, as well as the high quality and depth of detail of the elaboration. It was also recognized that the people from Wuppertal were particularly active in sharing their knowledge with other participating teams via an interactive platform during the competition phase.
The analyzes were carried out with dynamic building and system simulations. These are an important design tool for innovative building concepts and are also used in teaching and research projects in the department. “Simulations make it possible to recognize, understand and communicate the relationships between climate, building construction and user behavior in buildings in order to build better buildings. In addition to the challenges of the energy transition, the central goals are to provide pleasant temperatures, good air quality and a high level of visual comfort for use. The analysis of the "2226" concept was a great opportunity to combine different focal points of building research in our team in an exciting practical project," says Karl Walther, one of the award winners.
The object of the competition was the 2,400 m² office building "2226", which was designed by the architects Baumschlager & Eberle and completed in 2013 in Lustenau (Austria). While buildings are typically equipped with technical systems for heating, cooling and ventilation, the "2226" concept completely dispenses with systems such as heat pumps, gas boilers, radiators or air conditioning. Fresh air is also only supplied by "natural ventilation" via the automated opening of ventilation wings and thus without a mechanical system. Above all, however, the focus is on a very high storage mass thanks to 80 cm thick outer walls made of brick and floors made of reinforced concrete. This makes the indoor climate particularly robust against short-term and seasonal climatic influences. However, doing without systems for heating and cooling requires a particularly careful analysis of climatic variations, also against the background of increasingly extreme climatic periods. The task of the competition was the implementation of the building concept from the original location in Lustenau to Kortrijk (Belgium).
Contact:
Karl Walther
Department of building physics and technical building equipment
Phone: 0202/439-4160
E-Mail kwalther{at}uni-wuppertal.de
