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\fB\s+9Section One\s0\fR
.sp 1
.ce
\fB\s+5General description of ESP-r\s0\fR
.sp 0.5
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\fB\s+5and its\s0\fR
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\fB\s+5associated documentation\s0\fR
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.SH
Contents
.sp 1
.IP 1.0
Introduction
.IP 1.1
Purpose of ESP-r
.IP 1.2
Structure of ESP-r
.IP 1.3
Machine environment
.IP 1.4
System documentation
.IP 1.5
Further information
.bp
.SH
1.0 Introduction
.LP
This first section of the User Guide gives a
general overview of ESP-r (\fIEnvironmental Systems Performance; r for "research"\fR);
a computing environment for building and/or plant energy simulation.
The application potential of ESP-r is outlined by citing some
typical design questions which the model has been used to answer.
Then, the program modules which comprise the system are
outlined, along with the essential hardware environment. Finally,
some further information sources are indicated.
.LP
ESP-r is the outcome of model development projects funded
over the years by the UK Science and Engineering Research Council
(now EPSRC)
and the European Commission's DGXII.  Significant contributions
have also been made by many individuals as
outlined in the \fIDevelopment history and acknowledgements\fP section.
.LP
ESP-r is free software. It is released under the
GNU General Public License.
.SH
1.1 Purpose of ESP-r
.LP
ESP-r is a transient
energy simulation system which is capable of modelling the
energy and fluid flows within combined building and plant
systems when constrained to conform to control action. The
package comprises a number of interrelating program modules addressing
project management, simulation, results recovery and display,
database management and report writing.
.LP
One or more zones within a building are defined in terms of
geometry, construction and usage profiles. These zones are then
inter-locked to form a building, in whole or in part, and, optionally,
the leakage distribution is defined to enable air flow simulation.
The plant network is then defined by connecting
individual components.
And, finally, the multi-zone building and
multi-component plant are connected and subjected to
simulation processing against user-defined control. The entire
data preparation exercise is achieved interactively, and with
the aid of pre-existing databases which contain standard (or
user-defined) constructions, event profiles and plant components. 
Additional modules exist to permit an increase in
simulation rigour if the related data is available.
.LP
A central Project Manager allows importing/ exporting of
building geometry from/ to CAD packages and
other specialised simulation environments such
as Radiance for lighting simulation.
.LP
ESP-r is equally applicable to existing buildings and new
designs, with or without advanced technological
features.
.\"	The package operates in
.\"	.ul 1
.\"	interactive menu
.\"	and
.\"	.ul 1
.\"	expert function
.\"	modes. In the former case the user picks a path through the
.\"	various program modules by selecting commands from the menus
.\"	displayed on the terminal. In this mode, the user is the expert;
.\"	in driving ESP-r, posing the design problem and interpreting
.\"	the simulation results. In the latter case a number of keyboard
.\"	function buttons are active, each one corresponding to a standard
.\"	performance appraisal such as comfort assessment, plant sizing,
.\"	control system analysis, energy consumption estimation, and so on.
.\"	Bound to each function button is a script which contains the
.\"	.ul 1
.\"	rules
.\"	to be obeyed by ESP-r during simulation processing of the user's
.\"	design problem. These rules can be examined at
.\"	any time and are entirely
.\"	user definable. Any new rules script can be easily bound to a keyboard
.\"	button of the user's choice. ESP-r is now in `expert' mode, conducting
.\"	simulations, analysing the results and recovering appropriate output
.\"	displays.
.\"	.LP
.\"	In either mode, ESP-r
The system offers sophisticated input/output facilities which
enable the user to answer such design questions as
.IP \(bu
What, and when, are the peak building or plant loads and
what are the rank-ordered causal energy flows?
.IP \(bu
What will be the effect of some design change, such as
increasing wall insulation, altering the window shape and size,
changing the glazing type or distribution, introducing
daylight control devices, re-zoning the building, re-configuring the
plant or changing the heating/ cooling control regime?
.IP \(bu
What is the optimum plant start time or the most effective
algorithm for weather anticipation?
.IP \(bu
How will comfort levels vary throughout the building?
.IP \(bu
What benefits can be expected from the different possible lighting control
strategies?
.IP \(bu
What are the relative merits of different heating and cooling
systems and their associated controls?
.IP \(bu
How will temperature stratification, in terms of zone sensor
and terminal unit location, affect energy consumption and
comfort control?
.IP \(bu
What contribution does building infiltration and
zone-coupled air flow make to the total boiler or chiller
load and how
can this be minimised?
.IP \(bu
How do suggested design alterations affect air flow and fresh air
distribution (i.e. indoor air quality) within the building?
.IP \(bu
What is the effect of special glazings (such as thermotropic, holographic,
low-e or electrochromic glazing) on summer overheating?
.IP \(bu
Which are the benefits from architectural building features such
as atria, sunspaces, courtyards, etc?
.IP \(bu
What is the contribution (in terms of energy saving and
thermal comfort) of a range of
passive solar (heating or cooling) features?
.IP \(bu
What is the optimum arrangement of constructional elements
to encourage good load levelling and hence efficient plant
operation?
.IP \(bu
What are the energy consequences of non-compliance with
prescriptive energy regulations or, conversely, how should a
design be modified to come within some deemed-to-satisfy
performance target?
.IP \(bu
Which heat recovery system performs best under a range of
typical operating conditions?
.LP
and so on. This allows the user to understand better the
interrelation between design and performance parameters,
to then identify potential
problem areas, and so implement and test appropriate building,
plant and/or control modifications. The design to result is
more energy conscious with better comfort levels attained
throughout.
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.PSPIC FIGS/fig1.1.epsi 14c 11c
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Figure 1.1 Structure of ESP-r
.sp
.KE
.SH
1.2 Structure of ESP-r
.LP
Figure 1.1 shows the relationship between the program
and database modules which form the simulation environment.
In this User Guide only the Users-side of the environment will
be addressed.
.LP
The \fIProject Manager\fR
allows the interactive definition of some building and plant
configuration which is to be subjected to some weather
influence and simulated over time. The complete description
of the building and plant configuration is called the product model.
All data items, as input,
are subjected to strict range and legality checks before
being directed to disk file for later recall. To ease the
input burden, the user is given access to standard databases
so that constructions, event profiles and plant components
can be accessed by name or simple code number reference. Also, many input
items have a corresponding default value so that typed responses
can vary as a function of the design information to hand at any
time during a design's evolution. The Project Manager also controls
user access to the other ESP-r programs such as the Simulator for
simulation and the Results Analyser for analysing the time-series
of state variables as generated by the Simulator.
.\"	.LP
.\"	The ESP-r Reference Guide details the data structures of the ESP-r
.\"	product model, as managed by the facilities of the Project Manager.
.\"	The Reference Guide also gives information on the Technical Domain
.\"	of the system. In this User Guide only some user related support
.\"	applications and databases are outlined:
.\".LP
The \fITutorial Module\fR is linked to the tutorial material now
held as Web pages. The content of the tutorial pages ranges from
a general introduction to information on how to use ESP-r in a real
world design context. The on-line tutorial mechanism is very powerful
since it allows a user to look something up quickly when actually
using ESP-r. Since they are in-built, the tutorials are much more
easily kept up-to-date than this User Guide.
.LP
The \fIEvent Profiles Database Management Module\fR manages
a number of standard or project-specific
profiles which define the time dependent
variations in zone occupancy, lighting, plant control and
miscellaneous appliance usage. These profiles can then be
accessed by the Project Manager to define zone and plant behaviour.
.LP
The \fIPlant Components Database Management Module\fR manages
a plant components database.
For each plant component, a summary
description is held, along with the data required by the Simulator
to allow the time dependent generation of the coefficients
of the differential equations which represent component heat
and mass balance. Component matrix template data is also
held to dictate the whole-system matrix building undertaken at
each simulation time-step. The database is then accessed
from the Project Manager to enable plant network formulation by
component interconnection.
.LP
The \fIClimate Database Management Module\fR manages and analyses
climatic data collections. A climate
collection spans any period from one day to one year and
contains hourly values of dry bulb temperature, direct
normal or total horizontal solar intensity, diffuse
horizontal solar intensity, wind speed, wind direction and
relative humidity. The climate management module
offers solar radiation prediction, curve fitting to daily
maximum and minimum data, statistical analysis, graphical
and tabular display and general data management. The climate data
is required by the Simulator to generate the time dependent
boundary conditions for the building and plant configuration.
.LP
The \fISimulator\fR is the
building and plant simulation
engine which predicts building and plant energy/ fluid flows
by a rigorous numerical method. The
building/ plant network is divided into a large number of
finite volumes. Then, at each time-step as a simulation proceeds, 
an energy and mass balance is applied for all volumes,
giving rise to a differential
matrix for the entire system. This is then solved by custom
matrix processing software in terms of any user-imposed control
objectives.
.LP
The \fIResults Analysis Module\fR operates on the simulation results located in a
database by the Simulator.
A variety of output options are available: perspective
visualisations, results interrogation, statistical analysis,
graphical display, tabulations, frequency binning and 3D
plotting.
.LP
The \fIInsolation and Shading Module\fP
is a support module which predicts the time-series shading
of external zone surfaces (opaque and transparent) as caused
by facade and site obstructions and/or the time-series
insolation of internal
zone surfaces (opaque and transparent) as caused by solar
penetration through windows. The predictions for any
surface can, optionally, be archived in a
shading/insolation
database for access and use within a simulation.
.LP
The \fIView Factors Module\fR
computes the black body view factors between each zone
surface pairing for use by the Simulator
to evaluate internal longwave radiative exchanges. It also
evaluates zone comfort level variations.
.LP
Building/ plant fluid flow simulation
can be performed by the Simulator
in tandem with the heat balance calculations. In this case
full account will be taken of buoyancy driven air movements
between outside and inside and between internal zones. If pressure
driven air flow dominates, it is possible to use
the \fIFlows Simulation Module\fR in stand-alone mode
to predict infiltration and zone-coupled air flow. Buoyancy
effects are still included but correspond to fixed zone
temperatures assigned by the user.
.LP
The \fIConstruction Data Management Module\fR
manages (creates, modifies, edits and lists) primitive
and composite constructions
databases. The materials database contains the
thermophysical properties of conductivity, density, specific
heat, solar absorptivity and emissivity for a number of
standard homogeneous elements. Diffusion resistance factors are
also held as required by ESP-r's interstitial condensation
computations. A second, project-related
database can also be created to hold multilayered
constructions formed from elements extracted from the
materials' database. Both databases can then be accessed
from the Project Manager as required.
.LP
A number of ESP-r modules create and/or manipulate
random access, binary disk files such as the
constructions databases, the event profiles database, and
the simulation results database. They also allow
for the transformation of ESP-r's binary files
to ASCII format and vice versa. This permits
the transmission of binary databases to
other computer sites (via tape for example) and, if
a user is experienced, direct file editing.
.LP
In normal use, the three main modules,
the Project Manager, the Simulator and the Results Analyser,
are used to investigate building and/or plant performance
and, by iteration, to assess the consequences of any change
to system design or control. The database modules
help to reduce the input burden and the support modules
exist to allow the subsystem they address to be treated with
greater rigour, if this can be justified by the design
objectives and data to hand.
.LP
The theories underlying ESP-r
and the validity of the Simulator
are summarised in Section 5 and presented, in detail, in the
following references:
.IP \(bu
Clarke J A
\fIEnergy Simulation in Building Design\fR, 2nd Edition,
Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, 2001.
.IP \(bu
Tang D
\fIModelling of Heating and Air-Conditioning Systems\fR,
PhD Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 1985.
.IP \(bu
Hensen J L M
\fIOn the Thermal Interaction of Building Structure
and Heating and Ventilating System\fR,
PhD Thesis, University of Eindhoven, 1991.
.IP \(bu
Aasem E O
\fIPractical Simulation of Buildings and AIr-Conditioning Systems in
the Transient Domain\fR,
PhD Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 1993.
.IP \(bu
Negrao C O R
\fIConflation of Computational Fluid Dynamics
and Building Thermal Simulation\fR,
PhD Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 1995.
.IP \(bu
Nakhi A E
\fIAdaptive Construction Modelling Within Whole
Building Dynamic Simulation\fR,
PhD Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 1995.
.IP \(bu
Chow T T
\fIAir-Conditioning Plant Component Taxonomy by
Primitive Parts\fR,
PhD Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 1995.
.IP \(bu
MacQueen J
\fIThe Modelling and Simulation of Energy Management Control Systems\fR,
PhD Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 1997.
.IP \(bu
Kelly N J
\fITowards a Design Environment for Building-Integrated
Energy Systems: The Integration of Electrical Power Flow
Modelling with Building Simulation\fR,
PhD Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 1998. 
.IP \(bu
Hand J W
\fIRemoving Barriers to the Use of Simulation in the Building
Design Professions\fR,
PhD Thesis University of Strathclyde, 1998.
.IP \(bu
Beausoleil-Morrison I
\fIThe Adaptive Coupling of Heat and Air Flow Modelling
Within Dynamic Whole-Building Simulation\fR
PhD Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 2000.
.SH
1.3 Machine environment
.LP
ESP-r requires the following hardware and software:
.IP \(bu
A UNIX\s-2\uTM\d\s0 or LINUX workstation\u#\d offering X-Windows
and with at least 128 MBytes RAM.  Implementations exist for
SUN, Silicon Graphics and Linux (PC and Mac) platforms.
.IP \(bu
A disk capacity to store the executables,
manuals, tutorials, training examples (~25 MBytes),
perhaps source code (~20 MBytes) and
simulation results (~2 MBytes per zone-year at
a one hour time step).
.IP \(bu
Fortran77 and C compilers.
.IP \(bu
A laser writer for graphical hard copy.
.SH
1.4 System documentation
.LP
In terms of usage, this User Guide and the web-based tutorial
facilities of ESP-r are the main sources of documentation. In addition,
a number of papers concerning ESP-r development and application can
be found in the literature. A full list of publications can be found
on the ESRU web site.
.LP
As indicated in the Table of Contents, the User Guide has a number of
appendices. These are available from our FTP server: they can
be automatically downloaded by accessing ESRU's publication list
on the WWW (\fIhttp://www.esru.strath.ac.uk/\fP) or
by direct \fIftp\fP (file transfer protocol) transfer. In the latter case,
ftp to \fIftp.strath.ac.uk\fP and login as
\fIanonymous\fP with your email address as the
password. The documents will be found in directory \fIEsru_public/documents\fR.
.LP
Papers and technical reports cover issues such as:
.IP \(bu
How to add new entities such as climate data,
project-specific construction databases and plant components.
.IP \(bu
A list of training assignments enabling an instructor to assess
whether the training material is absorbed properly, and enabling
the trainee to check whether the training material is understood.
.IP \(bu
Good practice guidelines for researchers interested in developing
or expanding parts of ESP-r.
.IP \(bu
A bibliography describing much of ESP-r's
technical detail and philosophy. This list includes books,
journal articles, conference papers and internal
ESRU reports.  In some cases \fIPostScript\fR or \fIpdf\fR versions of these
publications are available. 
.IP \(bu
A summary of the tasks to be undertaken when implementing ESP-r at a
particular site.
.IP \(bu
A summary of ESP-r's underlying data model.
.IP \(bu
Some step-by-step worked examples of simulation projects.
.SH
1.5 Further information
.LP
ESP-r is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
It can be used for commercial or non-commercial work
subject to the terms of this open source licence agreement.
.LP
Although ESP-r can be used for free, it is often the case that
a new ESP-r site will incur a nominal expense.  For example it may
be appropriate to send someone to one of the ESP-r courses which we
organise regularly at ESRU (the cost is approximately \(Po500
per person).  We strongly recommend this course of action for all
new users to ensure that the learning process is as short and
painless as possible.  Dates of forthcoming courses are listed
on the ESRU web site. In addtion, ESRU offer a range of
options for supporting the use of ESP-r in organisations.
Contact ESRU for details.
.LP
ESP-r can be downloaded from the web site http://www.esru.strath.ac.uk
by following the appropriate links to the software. Note that,
because ESP-r is under active development at a growing number of sites, there
are frequent updates and revisions.  
.LP
ESP-r is a building and plant energy simulation environment which
is under development at various research centres throughout Europe 
and elsewhere. These developments involve
both enhancements and new developments to the existing system as 
well as validation activities and application related research.
.LP
The people working with ESP-r keep in contact via
an electronic communication platform. The purpose of this is to keep
each other informed about ongoing and planned developments, system related
publications, new results, emerged problems, upcoming releases, etc.
To join, simply email the string "subscribe esp-r <your email address"
to \fImajordomo@strath.ac.uk\fR.  After your name has been
registered, you can communicate with 
other subscribers by sending messages to \fIesp-r@strath.ac.uk\fR.
Please note that any e-mail messages received by the virtual user
esp-r@strath.ac.uk will be forwarded unmoderated to all people
currently subscribed.
.LP
Further technical,
operational or commercial details on ESP-r may be obtained from
ESRU at the address on the front of this User Guide. Alternatively,
you may want to browse through our web pages, which
can be accessed from \fIhttp://www.esru.strath.ac.uk\fR.
