Dynamic thermal modeling of buildings and
application to a hospital
Octavian G. Pop
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca, Romania
octavian.pop@termo.utcluj.ro
Angel M. Dogeanu
Advanced Research Center for Ambiental Quality and
Building Physics (CAMBI)
Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest
Bucharest, Romania
angel.dogeanu@utcb.ro
Lucian Fechete Tutunaru
Dept. of Automotive Engineering and Transports
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca, Romania
lucian.fechete@auto.utcluj.ro
Abstract—The study presents an original implementation of
an algorithm capable to describe the thermal behavior of
buildings. The envelope structure and the climatic data are used
as input data. The algorithm identifies shares of heating and
cooling loads for walls, windows and fresh air. The results were
obtained for a real hospital based on hourly calculations. Based
on the provided results, energy efficient solutions, including
shielding technologies, can be hierarchized considering the
thermal losses and gains corresponding to each component.
Keywords—thermal model; building; cooling load; heating
load; hospital
I. INTRODUCTION
Buildings are important energy consumers representing
40% from the total worldwide energy consumption [1].
Increasing the energy efficiency of buildings requires a lot of
study and knowing the thermal behavior of buildings is
critical. Different studies are treating this subject by electrical
analogy [2-4], by specialized computer simulation software
[5-7], by the use of stochastic differential equations [8] or by
the use of finite difference mathematical modeling [9].
Hospitals are representing about 7% of the non-residential
buildings in Europe [10] and different strategies to increase
the thermal efficiency of their envelope are described in [11].
Energy consumption in hospitals is analyzed in [12, 13].
‹,(((
Ancuta C. Abrudan
Dept. of Building Services
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca, Romania
ancuta.abrudan@insta.utcluj.ro
Adrian G. Pocola
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca, Romania
adipocola@yahoo.com
Mugur C. Balan*
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca, Romania
mugur.balan@termo.utcluj.ro
The aim of this study is to present and apply a dynamic
model capable to reveal the influence of each component of
the building that causes heat losses or gains, and to present
their shares to the global heating and cooling load. The study
is focused on the response of the building’s envelope and the
thermal load of the supplied air. Therefore, the internal heat
sources comprised of lighting system, electrical equipment
and heat released by the occupants have been neglected.
This investigation is continuing previous approaches
concerning the energy efficiency in buildings at the Technical
University of Cluj-Napoca [14-21].
II. MATERIAL
The studied building is a Children's hospital situated in
Sighetu Marmaţiei (Romania) at 47.929° N latitude, 23.888° E
longitude, 270.0 m altitude and the time zone is GMT+2h.
The climatic data was taken from the available typical
meteorological year (TMY) for the considered location,
corresponding to the 10 years period of (2006 - 2015) [22].
The following parameters represent the meteorological
input data: global horizontal radiation (Igl,o [W/m2]), direct
horizontal radiation (Idir,o [W/m2]), diffuse horizontal radiation
(Idif,o [W/m2]), ]), diffuse vertical radiation (Idif,v [W/m2]),
wind velocity (w [m/s]) and outside temperature (text [°C]).
 The daily movement of the sun was tracked by The adopted average interior air temperature is 24°C
determining the angle of the solar altitude and the angle of the during winter and summer.
solar azimuth and the direct incident solar radiation on the
vertical surfaces of the building’s envelope corresponding to III. METHOD
each cardinal point was determined with an algorithm based The mathematical model capable to estimate the thermal
on the methodology presented in [23, 24]. loads of the building is based on the methodology presented in
[25]. This model was already used in a previous study to
Fig. 1 presents a 3D model of the building. estimate the cooling load of an office building [14]. This new
implementation extends the applicability of the model by
estimating the steady and transient response of the building
during both heating and cooling periods.
A. Thermal loads of the elements with thermal inertia
The conduction through the opaque elements is modeled by
using an exact solution to Fourier law in time dependent
sinusoidal regime. The temperature and heat flax variation to
which the wall is subjected undergo a sinusoidal fluctuation in
time. The thermal load of the building elements with thermal
inertia has a steady (Q̇ e,s [W]) and periodic (Q̇ e,t [W])
component:
Fig. 1 3D representation of the hospital building
Q̇ e =Q̇ e,s +Q̇ e,t (1)
The main facade presented in fig. 1 is oriented
south/south-west. Q̇ e,s =Sbe ·k· tsa -ti (2)
Table I presents the surfaces of the envelope elements.
Q̇ e,t =Sbe ·η·αi · ts,r -tsa (3)
2
TABLE I. SURFACES OF THE ENVELOPE ELEMENTS [m ]
Elements N NE E S
294.14 229.16 442.93 349.99 where:
Walls
144.23 100.00 150.4 138.68 Sbe [m2] is the surface area of the element;
Windows
SV V NV Roof k [W/m2·K] is the global heat transfer coefficient;
295.60 300.28 182.62 735
ti = 24 °C is the adopted average interior air temperature [25];
161.00 88.80 28.38 0.00
αi = 8 W/m2·K is the interior coefficient of convection;
ts,r [°C] is the conventional exterior temperature;
Table II presents thickness (δ [mm]) and thermal
tsa [°C] is the average conventional exterior temperature;
conductivity (λ [W/m·K]) of each layer of the envelope.
η [-] is the coefficient of temperature oscillation damping
TABLE II CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BUILDING’S ENVELOPE
effect.

Envelope δ λ The temperatures ts,r and tsa are influenced by the solar
Material
element [mm] [W/m·K] radiation and were determined according to [25]. The
Cement mortar 15 0.87 coefficient η takes into account the damped harmonic
Exterior Brick 300 0.8 oscillation of the interior wall temperature over a period of
wall Rock wool 150 0.037
Cement mortar 15 0.87
24h. The phase shift in the propagation of heat flux caused by
Cement mortar 5 0.87 the thermal inertia and heat accumulated in the wall or roof
Concrete 120 2.03 structure determine a delayed effect of the exterior air
Roof
Screed 50 0.93 temperature on the inner environment of the building. Fig. 2
Polystyrene 200 0.038 shows the influence of η on the interior amplitude (Ai) of the
Bitumen 5 0.17
temperature oscillation. Ae represents the exterior amplitude.
Screed 50 0.93
Rock layer 150 0.7
Screed 50 0.93
Hydro insulation 5 0.17
Concrete 150 2.03
Ground
Mosaic 20 2.03
Polystyrene 100 0.038
Screed 50 0.93
Floor tiles 10 2.03
Glass 3x4 0.75
Windows Fig. 2 Temperature oscillations on the layered wall structure [25]
Argon 2x9 0.01635
 αi
Min
1= (4) ts,e [°C] is the exterior surface temperature of the glass;
s1 ·√i
Rc,r [m2·K/W] is the thermal resistance of the glass and gas
in layers.
s fin fin sinh R1 ·s1 ·√i + M1 ·cosh R1 ·s1 ·√i
Min 1
2 = ·M1 ;M1 = (5)
s2 β1 The heat transfer through natural convection in the
confided layer between the glass elements is assimilated with
s fin fin sinh R2 ·s2 ·√i + Min
2 ·cosh R2 ·s2 ·√i conduction by determining the value of λgas,j as a function of
Min 2
3 = ·M2 ;M2 = (6)
s3 β2 the Prandtl (Pr [-]) and Grasshof (Gr [-]) numbers of the gas
layers [28]. The equivalent thermal conductivity was
... determined with:

s sinh Rn ·sn ·√i + Min

n ·cosh Rn ·sn ·√i λgas,j m·(Gr·Pr)r
Min n fin fin
air = ·Mn ;Mn = (7) = 1+ (Gr·Pr)+n (13)
αe βn λgas,eff

βn = cosh Rn ·sn ·√i + Min

n ·sinh Rn ·sn ·√i (8) where:
λgas,j [W/m·K] is the equivalent thermal conductivity of the j th
βair =1+ Min
air ·√i (9) gas layer;
λgas,eff [W/m·K] is the effective thermal conductivity of the gas
layer.
where: The values of m, n and r depend on the geometry and heat
flux propagation. For thermally insulated windows the values
Minn [-] is the momentum coefficient at the initial step for the of m, n and r are 0.0236, 1.01·104 and 1.393 respectively [28].
nth layer;
th The heat gains caused by the direct and diffuse irradiance
Mfin
n [-] is the momentum coefficient at the final step for the n through the windows are calculated as:
layer;
βn [-] is the transient response coefficient for the nth layer of; Q̇ g,I =c· Si ·τdir ·Idir +Sg ·τdif ·Idif (14)
i2 =-1;
Rn [m2·K/W] is the thermal resistance of the nth layer;
c = 0.55 [25] is the shielding factor of the window;
sn [W/ m2·K] is the coefficient of thermal accumulation;
Si [m2] is the sunny surface of the window;
The coefficient sn is determined with the following τdir = 0.81 [25] is the transmittance factor of the direct solar
equation [26, 27]: irradiance;
τdif = 0.74 [25] is the transmittance factor of the diffuse solar
2·π irradiance;
sn = λρc (10) Idir [W/m2] is the direct solar irradiance normal to the building
P·3600 n n pn
exterior elements;
where: Idif [W/m2] is the diffuse solar irradiance.
P [h] is the time period of 24h. C. Thermal load of the supply air
The time lag (εlag [h]) is determined as the phase angle of β
and η as the inverse of the module of β. The thermal load required for the heating or cooling of the
supply air of the building (Q̇ sa [W]) was determined with the
B. Thermal loads of the elements without thermal inertia following equations:
The thermal load of the building elements without thermal xv
inertia determined in steady regime has two components: Q̇ sa =na ·Vb,i · ρsa ·csa + 1000 ·cw · text -tsa (15)
ρsa
global heat transfer (Q̇ g,h [W]) and solar radiation
transmittance (Q̇ [W]). g,I where:
na =4 [m3/h/m3] [29] is the specific air flow rate;
Q̇ g =Q̇ g,h +Q̇ g,I (11) Vb,i [m3] is the inner volume of the building.
ρsa [kg/m3] is the density of the supply air;
The global heat transfer is determined by the following csa = 1.005 kJ/kg·K is the specific heat of the supply air;
equation: xv [g/kg] is the absolute humidity;
cw = 1.875 kJ/kg·K is the specific heat of the water vapors;
1 tsa = 22 °C is the temperature of the supply air;
Q̇ g,h =Sg ·αi · ts,i -ti =Sg · · ts,e -ts,i =Sg ·αe · text -ts,e (12)
Rc,r
The model was implemented in Excel and was used to
where: evaluate the thermal loads of a hospital building.
Sg [m2] is the surface area of the windows;
ts,i [°C] is the interior surface temperature the glass;
 Fig. 3 presents the structure of the algorithm. during the warm period of the year. This is mostly due to the
high amount of fresh air flow rate recommended for this type
of building. As an example of such a case the period of 23 – 25
July was selected and represented in fig. 5 o highlight the
periods of the summer day when heating is required.
150

Thermal load [kW]

100
50
0
-50
-100
-150

4873
4877
4881
4885
4889
4893
4897
4901
4905
4909
4913
4917
4921
4925
4929
4933
4937
4941
23-25 Jul [h]

W G F

Fig. 5 Hourly variation of the heating and cooling load during 23-25 July

Fig. 3 Logical scheme of the algorithm

The model was validated and the results are presented in
[14]. The deviations between the presented program and the
reference model [30] where between 2.87% and 11.75%.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
To provide a better illustration of the influence of each
building element on the global thermal energy demand,
neglecting internal heat sources the, fig. 6 and 7 present the
shares of each element during the cold and hot periods
respectively.
100%
Heating energy demand [%]

Considering the climatic conditions of Sighetu Marmaţiei 80%

and the interior thermal comfort condition according to [31],
the hourly thermal demands resulting from heat transfer 60%
through walls (W) and windows (G) and the heating/cooling of 40%
the supply air (F) where determined for an entire year as
presented in fig. 4. 20%
0%
200
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Thermal load [kW]

0
Months [-]
-200
-400 W G F
-600
-800 Fig. 6 The shares of each building element to the heating load
-1000
100%
1
463
925
1387
1849
2311
2773
3235
3697
4159
4621
5083
5545
6007
6469
6931
7393
7855
8317

Cooling energy demand [%]

80%
Time [h]
60%
W G F
40%
Fig. 4 Hourly variation of the heating and cooling load for an entire year
20%
During the cold hours of the year the energy required for 0%
the heating of the supply air contributes significantly to the 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
thermal energy consumption of the building. This high energy Months [-]
demand is due to the high temperature differences between the
interior and exterior environment. During the hot season the W G F
predominant element generating cooling load is the glazed
elements due to the transmittance of direct and diffuse solar Fig. 7 The shares of each building element to the cooling load
radiation.
Considering the destination of the building and the high
requirements regarding thermal comfort, heating is still needed
 The global yearly thermal energy demand of each element V. CONCLUSIONS
of the studied building is presented in table III. The program proved to be suitable for complex
understanding of the dynamic thermal behavior of the
TABLE III. GLOBAL THERMAL LOADS [kWh/m2]
buildings and to identify the influence of building components
Mode W G F Global on the thermal loads.
Heating -18.08 -40.89 -650.97 -709.93 Following the simulation on a hospital building it was
Cooling 0.25 31.65 2.20 34.10 concluded that:
- The heating load is significantly higher than the cooling load.
- Due to the high comfort demands, heating is necessary even
The program is capable to determine the size of the shade in summer during nights and days in the colder periods.
covering the windows and Fig. 8 presents the hourly variation - The heating load is determined mainly by the fresh air.
of the sunny surface of the windows on the southern façade for - The cooling load is determined mainly by the windows.
one year. This shading occurs due to the window frame and - Solar radiation is considerably affecting the cooling load in
offset between the glazing surface and the exterior wall summer and shielding technologies may be considered to
surface. improve the building energy efficiency.
- The amplitude of the interior temperature is considerably
100%
decreased by the thickness of the insulation layer.
Sunny / Shaded surface [m2]

80% - Phase shift between the exterior and interior peak

60%
temperatures presents an inflection point around 10 cm of
insulation an another one around 100 cm.
40%
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
20%
The results presented in this paper were obtained with the
0%
support of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca through
1
463
925
1387
1849
2311
2773
3235
3697
4159
4621
5083
5545
6007
6469
6931
7393
7855
8317

the research Contract no. 2013/12.07.2017, Internal

Time [h] Competition CICDI-2017.

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