SIM-VICUS is a modern building simulation platform for the dynamic evaluation of the energy efficiency of a building. It has been specially developed to be able to efficiently calculate particularly complex and large buildings as well as to be able to manage the necessary amount of data. At the same time, the integrated physical models have a high level of detail, which is useful for the dynamic description of the building. In particular, the heavy construction in the European area is taken into account.

The code compliance checks regulated in the DIN standard 4108-3 and other national standards are not applicable for some insulated constructions, for example walls with capillary active interior insulation. For such constructions the Glaser-method in the standard would calculate an unrealistic condensation mass, as it does not take into account capillary conductivity. The software COND has been developed to evaluate such constructions. COND is a software for the hygrothermal evaluation of building envelope constructions, which uses a fast analytical calculation method that considers the redistribution of internal condensate.

The simulation model DELPHIN has been developed for the dynamic hygrothermal simulation of constructions and construction details. It combines a detailed physical model with a user-friendly interface, that allows modeling of coupled heat, moisture, and matter transport in porous building materials. The software‘s core is the physically detailed simulation model that uses laboratory calibrated material data. The calculation model is validated agaist numerous standardized test cases. The very efficient solver calculates the dynamic behaviour of 2D details and 1D constructions, e.g. walls, roofs, floors.

The simulation program THERAKLES calculates the dynamic thermal or hygrothermal behavior of rooms and buildings. The calculation tool is meant to be used by planning engineers and architects in the fields of building physics and building climatology, as well as HVAC engineering. A particular strength of the software is the detailed consideration of thermal storage effects in spatially resolved wall and floor constructions. The dynamic numerical simulation provides realistic assessments for the energy demand of a building in consideration of the user‘s behavior.

The simulation software NANDRAD has been developed by the IBK to calculate multizone complex and large buildings that represents the typical massive construction form in the European area. In particular, it takes into account the storage mass in buildings and the dynamic behavior of the construction. The kernel is based on modern solver technologies that enables a high accuracy calculation of very large buildings. NANDRAD includes FMI-tool coupling and is able to connect simulation models and external equipment and control modules at runtime, e.g. modeled with Modelica.

Modern simulation programs such as NANDRAD and DELPHIN can be coupled with other simulation programs at runtime via the standardized Functional Mockup Interface (FMI). The coordination of the collaborative simulation and the data exchange between simulation units is handled by the Simulation Master. Specifically tailored to the requirements of component and building simulation is our simulation master MASTERSIM. As a pure open source development, it also serves the development and testing of new coupling algorithms and parameters.

The scientific post-processing is used for all simulation programs developed by us and serves the clear presentation and analysis of the extensive simulation data. It is directly tailored to the evaluation of component and space simulation and therefore leads to results much faster than generic evaluation programs. The POSTPROC software uses the simulation result format DataIO (*.d6o and *.d6b files) developed at IBK, which is especially specialized for the efficient reading and processing of large simulation result files (from 2D/3D calculations).

The IBK offers regular trainings for several application-oriented issues and software applications. The following topics are covered: basics of coupled heat- and moisture transport, moisture protection, building’s energy balance, hygrothermal simulation of building components with DELPHIN, hygrothermal calculation with COND, the thermal room model THERAKLES for simulation-based evaluation of summer thermal comfort, further externally developed software EnergyPlus and BIM-HVAC.