CONTEXT AND AIMS
The Urban Physics Joint Laboratory develops numerical tools and means of measurement to better
understand energy interactions (sound, light and heat) in urban environments, in order to propose
efficient solutions for architectural and urban projects.
The project proposed here consists in developing a finite element environment from existing free
codes, which allows simulating thermal transfers at the scale of a district or an entire city.
TASKS AND PROPOSED METHODOLOGY
The first task will be to choose a coherent combination of programs (an open source finite element
code, a mesh generator, a ray-tracing library, a graphical user interface) that will serve as the basis for
the code to be developed. The first step will be to introduce the extended view factors into the finite
element code for the calculation of thermal radiation (see: Improving the daylighting performance of
residential light wells by reflecting and redirecting approaches, A. Bugeat, B. Beckers and E.Fernández,
Solar Energy. Volume 207, 1 September 2020, Pages 1434-1444).
By the end of 2022, the team should have a working prototype, in order to collaborate fully on the
following tasks:
- Measurement campaigns
- Geometric modeling
- Comparison of measurements/simulations to verify the hypotheses of the proposed physical model
- Simulation of rehabilitation or modification scenarios of a neighborhood
By the end of 2023, the tool will have to be complete and well documented, so that it can be validated
by external users. The tool will be free and open source, in order to ensure the best diffusion.