Integration of agricultural spaces to buildings

评估多用途建筑的能源性能需要开发新的设计方法和运营策略。随着新的建筑用途的出现，有必要研究设计要求以及与各种其他建筑空间的可能相互作用。例如，人们越来越有兴趣开发将农业空间融入建筑物的解决方案，以改善室内环境或提供当地种植的食物。在这两种情况下，植物与建筑室内环境的复杂相互作用往往被忽视，但很重要，影响着建筑物的设计和运营。为了确保农业空间与建筑物的适当整合，提出了以下目标：（1）模拟植物以估计其对建筑物室内环境的影响，（2）开发一种方法来确定其加热，通风和空调（HVAC）设备的尺寸，以及（3）评估农业空间与其他建筑空间（负载和HVAC系统）的可能协同作用。为了估计植物对建筑物室内环境的影响，将评估现有的植物生长模型，并将其整合到建筑物性能模拟工具中。植物对室内环境条件（温度、湿度和CO2）的影响将针对不同的栽培密度和不同的植物种类进行数值评估。还将使用受控环境农业试验台和现有设施的测量数据来验证估计的影响。为了开发确定HVAC设备尺寸的方法，将讨论两个不同的方面。第一个是详细分析植物模型参数及其对显热和潜在负荷的影响，第二个是评估不同的HVAC设备，以保持室内环境条件。最后，综合农业空间与其他建筑空间（负载和HVAC系统）的相互作用将使用建筑性能模拟进行研究。这将为设计更节能的多用途建筑物提供基础。 结果将导致更好地了解植物对建筑物的影响，并为保持室内条件所需的HVAC设备的设计和尺寸提供新的方法。它还将评估工厂对整体建筑能源性能的影响，并为它们的无缝集成提供指导方针。

Assessing the energy performance of multi-usage buildings requires the development of new design approaches and operating strategies. As new building usages emerge, there is a need to study the design requirements and possible interactions with a variety of other building spaces. For instance, there is a rising interest to develop solutions to integrate agricultural spaces to buildings, either to improve the indoor environment or to provide locally grown food. In both cases, the complex interaction of plants with the building indoor environment is often neglected, but is important and influences the design and operation of buildings. To ensure proper integration of agricultural spaces to buildings the following objectives are proposed: (1) to model plants to estimate their impact on the building indoor environment, (2) to develop a methodology to size their heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, and (3) to evaluate the possible synergies of the agricultural spaces with the other building spaces (loads and HVAC systems). To estimate the impact of plants on the building indoor environment, available plant growth models will be evaluated and adapted for their integration to building performance simulation tools. The impact of plants on the indoor environment conditions (temperature, humidity, and CO2) will be assessed numerically for various cultivated densities and for different plant species. The estimated impact will also be verified using a controlled environment agriculture test bench and measured data from existing installations. For the development of a methodology to size the HVAC equipment, two different aspects will be addressed. The first is a detailed analysis of plant model parameters and their impact on sensible and latent loads and the second is the evaluation of different HVAC equipment to maintain the indoor environment conditions. Finally, the interaction of the integrated agricultural spaces with other building spaces (loads and HVAC systems) will be studied using building performance simulations. This will provide the basis for the design of more energy performant multi-usage buildings. The results will lead to a better understanding of the impacts of plants on buildings and provide new approaches for the design and sizing of the HVAC equipment required to maintain indoor conditions. It will also assess the impact of plants on the overall building energy performance and provide guidelines for their seamless integration.