Course syllabus

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Course-PM 

VBF021 VBF021 Building physics, advanced course lp4 VT21 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Architecture and Civil Engineering

Contact details

Examiner & teacher

Angela Sasic Kalagasidis, e-mail: angela.sasic@chalmers.se

Teaching assistants (computer labs and home assignments)

Yichi Zhang, yichi@chalmers.se, Simulink

Jan Mandinec, jan.mandinec@chalmers.se, Comsol

Guest lecturers

Anders Truchel, anders.truschel@chalmers.se, Automatic control

Pär Johansson, par.johansson@chalmers.se, Moisture risks with inside insulation

Course purpose

This course provides you with the knowledge about how buildings store thermal energy and buffer moisture in real situations, i.e. under varying indoor and outdoor conditions, how to use ground as a natural thermal storage and how natural ventilation works. The purpose is to learn to adequately combine these features in order to optimize the building’s performance in a given environment and minimize the risk of extreme energy use. You will be guided through different modelling techniques and technical solutions that describe and support these processes. These will be examined both independently and in the way they interact and affect one another.

Detailed schedule (preliminary)

Detailed time schedule VBF021 Building physics advanced 2021-02-26.pdf  

TimeEdit

Course literature, softwares and apps

Compendium, slides, recorded lectures and exercises are distributed through the course homepage. Manuals for computer programmes Matlab/Simulink and Comsol are specially designed for the course and can be also found on the course homepage.  

Matlab/Simulink and Comsol can be accessed in any of the suggested ways

CamScanner is a free of charge application for mobile phones that makes clear pdfs of hand-written documents. It works as a camera and turns image file formats into clear pdfs. Please use it to make pdf copies of your hand-written solutions to the home assignments and to the home exam that you will upload in the course homepage. The app can be downloaded from: https://www.camscanner.com/user/download

Course design

The course is mostly given online and combines synchronous (live) and asynchronous teaching with self-conduct learning activities (offline).  

Live activities include online instructions and discussions with the teacher or in groups. These activities are scheduled in Canvas calendar together with Zoom links. Approximately 2-4 hours per week are dedicated to live activities.   

Asynchronous teaching refers to pre-recorded lectures and tutorials, and the discussion forum. Pre-recorded lectures and tutorials are based on carefully developed supporting material to the course compendium, while computer manuals and closely connected to the home assignments. All pre-recorded material can be downloaded from Canvas.

Questions related to the studied topics, home assignments and the exam can be asked in the Discussion forum in Canvas. The teaching staff will answer the questions at the earliest convenience. All students are encouraged to both post questions but also contribute with answers.

Self-conduct learning activities are arraigned around six Home assignments whose aim is to initiate and assure the learning process. Home assignments are issued on weekly basis. Each home assignment involves one to two tasks that are closely related to the theory and calculation models presented in the course. Most of the task can be solved by hand calculations, but some tasks combine hand calculations and computer simulations in Simulink or Comsol. Guidelines for studying are presented in Canvas and include preparations for each Home assignment.

Compulsory activities 

Home assignments are compulsory for participation in the first exam after the end of the course. If you plan to take the exam at a later occasion, you don’t need to hand in these assignments.

Modelling lab Dare2Build Roofs - if the covid19 pandemic situation allows, we will meet on campus on May 12 to build parallell roofs in scale 1:10. This activity will help us to explore in 3D and with realistic building materials some basic principles for moisture safe design of roofs.

Changes made since the last occasion

The course has been run twice on line during the covid19 pandemic in spring and summer 2020. The former was a regular course at Chalmers and the latter was an open course for students and professionals outside Chalmers. At both occastions, the online form of the course was very successfull. Gradually, by udapting the course to the online form, the number of live lectures has been decreased on behalf of off-line lectures. 

Learning objectives and syllabus

Learning objectives:

Comprehend needs and conditions, and describe principles for:

  • thermal energy storage in buildings and in the ground
  • moisture buffering in indoor environment
  • natural ventilation of buildings

Conduct modeling, by the means of simplified analytical and numerical models, of:

  • transient heat storage and moisture buffering in buildings
  • transient heat storage in the ground
  • long-wave heat exchange in an enclosure
  • air flow and air pressure in a building in respect to the building's air tightness

Evaluate effects of:

  • building's thermal and moisture inertia on heating / cooling power demands
  • long-wave radiation on the thermal comfort in a room
  • air tightness of the building envelope on indoor air pressure

Apply scientifically verified numerical methods for:

  • practical design of floor heating systems
  • evaluation of transient heat loss from a building to the ground

Demonstrate ability to:

  • combine studied models when designing/assessing a new building
  • identify cause-effect relations from an incomplete information
  • solve open problems

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.

Study plan

Examination form

Individual written examination, between 8 -16 hours (home exam). Problems are published in Canvas at 8 am on the day of the exam. Hand-written or computer-written solutions must be handed in at 4 pm at latest, on the same day. Grades: 5, 4, 3 and Failed.

Oral exam (only re-examination) is also possible in agreement with the teacher and only for grade 3.

Preliminary examination date: 2021-06-02, 8-16 h.

Course summary:

Date Details Due