Coupling occupant behaviour with a building energy model - A FMI application

Abstract

This paper illustrates the use of Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI) [1] to couple an occupant behaviour simulator and a building model. Due to their intrinsic nature, occupant behaviour and building and its energy systems are usually represented by different modelling paradigms. The occupant behaviour is here described by Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) whereas the building is described by a set of hybrid and differential algebraic equations , typical of dynamic thermal modelling. Such different complex systems cannot be efficiently simulated in a single tool. Therefore, one solution is the tool coupling approach. The FMI standard for co-simulation was used to couple the SMACH occupant behaviour simulator and a building energy model built with the BuildSysPro Modelica library. Variables of interest are passed from one model to another at fixed synchronization time steps.