| The design of building enclosures demands an understanding of the synergistic interactions between internal and external boundary conditions, the multiple performance requirements, and the implications of alternative enclosure system configurations. Continuous advancements in computer technologies have spurred the development of numerous computational tools for the performance analysis of building enclosures. However, these tools have largely remained within educational and research communities and have found only limited application in architectural design practice. The role of performance simulation, if at all considered, is often relegated to the "back-end" of the design process merely as a confirmation step to gain a quantifiable measure of the performance of the "designed" facility. Its impact on and value to the overall design has been insignificant.;In response to this circumstance, this dissertation presents a strategic framework for the conception and development of a computational platform to support building enclosure design evaluation. To demonstrate the practical realization of this framework, a fully functional simulation program for the hygro-thermal analysis of complex enclosure system configurations is developed. It provides a systematic mapping and management of the complex information processing involved, which include the description of dynamic boundary conditions as well as the numeric computation of transient heat and mass transfer. Particular emphasis is directed at the creation of an interface which would facilitate an effective information flow between the various simulation modules and databases within the computational environment, as well as between the system and the user. The value and applicability of these modular "front-end" design support tools to architectural practice is discussed through case studies. |
