Auroville Language Laboratory: Modelling and Calibration of a building through simulation software and on-site measurements

Ana Cecilia Garza González collaboratively worked on the thermal simulation with Hala Higazi. They both modelled the comfort strategies applied in the building.

Abstract:
Nowadays, it is becoming more crucial than ever to develop systems that not only improve the quality of indoor comfort, but also have low energy consumption. In the township of Auroville in India, an educational building was designed with the intent to ensure passive cooling and dehumidification by a desiccant- tower system linked to an earth duct that leads to inlet shafts connected to the rooms. For exhaust, these rooms have solar chimneys, creating a buoyancy effect for hot air to exit. The construction of the system was not finished. The purpose of this paper is to explain the process of the simulation of the actual construction as a “base-case scenario” and how its calibration was done with real measurements taken on-site in order to make sure that it is the closest possible model to the real building. Setting this model is very important to be able to test proposals of improvements as a next step.

Mentors: Mohammad Hamza, Michelle Hur, Jochen Lam, Jakob Merk

final documentation - draft version >

Ana Cecilia Garza González – Mexico

Ana Cecilia Garza González – Mexico

Ana Cecilia graduated as an Architect from the ITESM in Monterrey, Mexico and did a Master's degree in Energy Efficiency and Sustainability from the University of Barcelona. She worked at 7-Eleven Mexico for more than 6 years as National Leader of Energy and Sustainability. She is founder of E.LAB, a company consulting sustainable building design and energy efficiency. Through E.Lab, she has taught sustainable building courses to more than 150 people.