ArticlePDF Available

Prediction of wind pressure coefficients on building surfaces using Artificial Neural Networks

Authors:

Abstract and Figures

Knowing the pressure coefficient on building surfaces is important for the evaluation of wind loads and natural ventilation. The main objective of this paper is to present and to validate a computational modeling approach to accurately predict the mean wind pressure coefficient on the surfaces of flat-, gable- and hip-roofed rectangular buildings. This approach makes use of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to estimate the surface-average pressure coefficient for each wall and roof according to the building geometry and the wind angle. Three separate ANN models were developed, one for each roof type, and trained using an experimental database. Applied to a wide variety of buildings, the current ANN models were proved to be considerably more accurate than the commonly used parametric equations for the estimation of pressure coefficients. The proposed ANN-based methodology is as general and versatile as to be easily expanded to buildings with different shapes as well as to be coupled to building performance simulation and airflow network programs.
Content may be subject to copyright.
Prediction of wind pressure coefficients on building surfaces using
Artificial Neural Networks
Facundo Brea,b, Juan M. Gimeneza,c , V´ıctor D. Fachinottia
aCentro de Investigaci´on de M´etodos Computacionales (CIMEC), UNL, CONICET, Predio “Dr. Alberto Cassano”,
Colectora Ruta Nacional 168 s/n, 3000, Santa Fe, Argentina
bGrupo de Investigaci´on en Meanica Computacional y Estructuras (GIMCE), Facultad Regional Concepci´on del Uruguay
(FRCU), Universidad Tecnol´ogica Nacional (UTN), 3260, Concepci´on del Uruguay, Argentina
cFacultad de Ingenier´ıa y Ciencias H´ıdricas - Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Ciudad Universitaria, Paraje “El Pozo”,
Santa Fe, Argentina
Abstract
Knowing the pressure coefficient on building surfaces is important for the evaluation of wind loads and
natural ventilation. The main objective of this paper is to present and to validate a computational
modeling approach to accurately predict the mean wind pressure coefficient on the surfaces of flat-, gable-
and hip-roofed rectangular buildings. This approach makes use of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to
estimate the surface-average pressure coefficient for each wall and roof according to the building geometry
and the wind angle. Three separate ANN models were developed, one for each roof type, and trained
using an experimental database. Applied to a wide variety of buildings, the current ANN models were
proved to be considerably more accurate than the commonly used parametric equations for the estimation
of pressure coefficients. The proposed ANN-based methodology is as general and versatile as to be easily
expanded to buildings with different shapes as well as to be coupled to building performance simulation
and airflow network programs.
Keywords: Pressure coefficient, Natural ventilation, Building performance simulation, Artificial Neural
Network
1. Introduction
Energy consumption and indoor environment of buildings are influenced by air infiltration and venti-
lation [1, 2]. Wind induced pressure on the building envelope affects the air infiltrations because of the
indoor-outdoor pressure difference. Wind pressure is also an important boundary condition for a wide
range of problems, including heat, air and moisture (HAM) transfer, airflow network (AFN), and building
energy simulation (BES) [3]. Generally, the wind pressure is characterized by the pressure coefficient
defined as:
Cp=PxP0
ρU2
h/2,
where Pxis the static pressure at a given point on the building fa¸cade, P0is the static reference pressure
at freestream, ρU2
h/2 is the dynamic pressure at freestream, ρis the air density and Uhis the wind speed,
Preprint submitted to Elsevier November 29, 2017
which is often taken at the building height hin the upstream undisturbed flow.
A review of pressure coefficient data for building energy simulation and airflow network programs
was made by C´ostola et al. [3]. They classified the sources of Cpdata in two main groups: i) primary
sources, including full-scale measurements, reduced-scale wind-tunnel tests and computational fluid dy-
namics (CFD) simulations, and ii) secondary sources, like databases and analytical models. Usually,
because of their difficulty and cost, full-scale and wind-tunnel scale measurements are only used for the
development of wind pressure coefficient databases or the evaluation of complex high-rise buildings. Ana-
lytical models are commonly used to predict surface-average Cpon low-rise buildings, where the variation
of Cpover the surface can be neglected assuming that cracks are homogeneously distributed over the
building fa¸cades [4]. This simplified approach is widely used to include airflow network analysis in BES
[5].
Swami and Chandra [6] proposed simple equations for low- and high-rise buildings separately, which
were obtained using step-wise regression analysis to fit some previously published studies of wind pressure
coefficients. The Swami and Chandra’s equation for low-rise buildings –from now on, referred to as the
S&C equation– is a popular analytical model to predict surface average Cpthat has been implemented in
widely used BES programs like EnergyPlus [7]. It is valid for rectangular floor-plan buildings and depends
on two parameters: wind direction and side ratio. In the original work [6], the S&C equation was applied
to a broad range of data, including buildings with different heights and roof pitch angles, yielding an
acceptable correlation coefficient of 0.797. However, it needs to be improved and updated in the light of
the new high-tech measurement databases. A detailed description of the low-rise S&C equation and its
parameters can be found in the Appendix 5.1.
Grosso [8] proposed a set of complex parametric models in order to take into account sheltering
effects, which cannot be estimated using the S&C equation. However, because of the lack of complete and
high-quality experimental data, he recognized that the most useful contribution of his work may be the
proposed methodology rather than the specific results.
Recently, Muehleisen and Patrizi [9] developed a new parametric equation –the so-called M&P equation
henceforth– to predict wind pressure coefficient for low-rise buildings. This is a simple rational equation
calibrated on the based of the new, large and very detailed database of the Wind Engineering Information
Center at the Tokyo Polytechnic University (TPU) [10]. The M&P equation fits very well the TPU
database, with a coefficient of determination R2= 0.993. The low-rise M&P equation and its parameters
are detailed in the Appendix 5.2.
Compared to the S&C equation, the M&P equation better fits not only the TPU database but also the
database compiled by the Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre (AIVC) [11]. However, the S&C equation
performs better in the common case of buildings with unity depth-to-breadth ratio over a considerable
range of wind attack angles (90< θ < 165). So, both S&C and M&P equations have relative advan-
tages and disadvantages depending on their application. Furthermore, neither of them can be applied to
2
buildings with non-rectangular floor plans. Actually, up to the authors’ knowledge, this is the common
limitation of all the available analytical models.
To overcome such limitations, the current paper proposes a methodology to obtain a computational
model satisfying three main requirements: i) accurate prediction of Cp, ii) valid for buildings with various
floor-plan shapes (rectangular, U-shape, L-shape, etc.), and ii) easy coupling to AFN and BPS programs.
To this end, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are used to build an analytical model of the surface-
average Cpfor every surface of the building (walls and roofs) and for every wind attack angle. The
robustness of the method is proved through its application to three low-rise rectangular building cases: flat-
roofed, gable-roofed, and hip-roofed. Data for training and testing is taken from the TPU database [12].
Finally, the results obtained using the current models are compared with both S&C and M&P equations
and the TPU experimental database, highlighting the accuracy of the proposed methodology to fit the
experiments.
2. Methodology
This section defines the methodology proposed to develop analytical models of the surface-average Cp
in low-rise buildings. Section 2.1 details the method to build and calibrate of the ANN models. Section 2.2
describes the experimental database that served to calibrate the proposed model, together with the chosen
case studies.
2.1. Artificial Neural Networks (ANN)
An ANN is a massively parallel distributed processor made up of simple processing units that has
a natural propensity for storing experimental knowledge and making it available for use in analytical
way [13]. ANN is often used as a surrogate model or a response surface approximation model because of
its robustness to solve multivariate and nonlinear modeling problems, like function approximations and
classification.
Some authors have used ANN to predict or interpolate Cpvalues. Kalogirou et al. [14] used ANN to
predict Cpacross the openings in a light weight single-sided naturally ventilated test room. Chen et al. [15]
developed an ANN to predict Cpon gable roofs according to wind direction, roof height, and normalized
roof coordinates. This work was recently extended by Gavalda et al. [16] in order to include variable plan
dimensions and roof slopes as parameters. On the other hand, Fu et al. [17] developed a Fuzzy Neural
Network (FNN) approach to predict wind loads and their power spectra on a large flat roof. But, up to
the authors’ knowledge, neither ANN nor any other surrogate or response surface method can be found
in the literature to predict Cpfor every surface of a building for a wide range of input parameters.
In this work, a feed-forward multilayer ANN is used. Fig. 1 shows the general ANN architecture,
which has an input layer, a set of hidden layers and an output layer. In each hidden and output layer,
there are artificial neurons interconnected via adaptive weights. These weights are calibrated through a
3
training process with input-output data. For each artificial neuron, there is an activation function, which
can be any function with range [1,1]; the most common activation functions are the tangent sigmoid
and the logarithmic sigmoid [13].
The definition of an ANN architecture includes determining the number of inputs, outputs, and hidden
neurons, and the number of hidden layers [18]. The universal approximation theorem [19] states that a
feed-forward network with a single hidden layer containing a finite number of neurons can approximate
continuous functions on compact subsets of Rn, being nthe number of inputs. However, this does not
mean that an ANN with one single hidden layer is optimal in terms of versatility, learning time and ease
of implementation. Indeed, given the sets of input and output data, there is not a general rule to define
the best ANN architecture (number of neurons and hidden layers). We propose here a method to calibrate
the ANN architecture based on trial & error according to the complexity of each case. It consists of two
steps: 1) a coarse calibration is made to determine the number of hidden layers, and 2) training with a
increasing number of hidden neurons (starting with a few ones) until achieving the desired performance.
The so-determined ANN architectures for the three considered case studies are detailed in Appendix 5.3.
Input 2
Input n
Input 1
Hidden layers
Input layer
i
Output layer
o
Output 1
Output n
h1h2hn
Fig. 1. Artificial neural network architecture (ANN i-h1-h2-hn-o).
The ANN training process was made using the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) backpropagation algo-
rithm [20], considering the mean squared error (MSE) as convergence indicator and a maximum of 500
epochs. Let us remark that the LM method has second-order convergence rate and it was recommended
by Hagan and Menhaj [21] because of its efficiency for ANN with no more that a few hundreds weights,
as it is curently the case.
The previous guidelines to build an ANN models can be implemented on several computational plat-
form such as MATLAB [22], R [23], TensorFlow [24], among others.
Now, let us apply the proposed methodology to predict the surface-average Cpon low-rise building
surfaces. In this case, the ANN outputs are the surface-average Cps on the building surfaces, while the
4
ANN inputs define the wind direction and building characteristics, the latter being specific for each one
of the three case studies described in the Section 2.2.1, giving rise to particular ANNs. The input-output
data to train all these models is described below.
2.2. Databases
There are several databases containing measured Cpin building surfaces for various building geometries
and a wide range of wind attack angles. The NIST aerodynamic database [25] contains time series of wind
load data for low-rise gable-roofed buildings with various dimensions and terrain conditions use in the
design of low-rise buildings. The database from the ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamental [26] contains the
surface-average Cpfor low- and high-rise buildings with rectangular floor-plan, considering four different
side ratios and wind attack angles from 0to 180every 15. A more detailed Cpdatabase was compiled
by the Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre (AIVC) [11, 27]. It contains tables with surface-averaged
Cpfor each face of rectangular low-rise buildings for wind attack angles from 0to 180every 45, and
for three different shielding levels: exposed, semi-sheltered and sheltered.
More recently, the Wind Engineering Information Center of the Tokyo Polytechnic University (TPU)
published a comprehensive Cpdatabase derived from a series of wind tunnel tests on a wide variety of
buildings, including high-rise buildings and isolated and non-isolated low-rise buildings [12]. Given its
quality and completeness, the TPU database for isolated low-rise buildings [28] will be used to train and
test the ANN-based models of surface-averaged Cpin the current work. Such database contains 4176
contours of statistical values of local Cp, 700 graphs of statistical values of area-averaged Cpon the roof
or the wall surfaces and time series data of point Cpfor 812 test cases. The surface-averaged Cpon the
building surfaces (walls and roofs) are presented as plots of mean-surface pressure for wind attack angles
from 0to 90every 15.
2.2.1. Case studies
The TPU database for isolated low-rise buildings [28] gives the surface-averaged Cpfor all the surfaces
(walls and roofs) of rectangular floor-plan buildings with either flat, gable or hip roof, see Fig. 2. Specif-
ically, the surface-averaged Cp, say Cp, is given for some values of the depth-to-breadth (or side) ratio
D/B, the height-to-breadth (or height) ratio H/B, the pitch angle β(in case of gable and hip roofs) and
wind attack angle θ. Note that for gable- and hip-roofed buildings, His defined as the mean roof height.
In this database, θranges from 0 to 90every 15. Since Cpis measured on all the surfaces of rectangular
buildings, the upper bound of θis easily extended to 180considering that the Cpfor θat a given surface
coincides with the Cpfor the wind attack angle 180θat the opposite surface. In a similar way, results
for the side ratio D/B =S > 1 and 0θ90can be extended to D/B = 1/S 1 taking into account
that the Cpfor Sand wind attack angle θat a certain surface coincides with the Cpfor 1/S and wind
attack angle 90θat the perpendicular surface.
5
Also, although Cpmust be identical for opposite surfaces parallel to the wind direction, this is not the
case in the TPU database because of measurements errors which may have been derived from different
sources (e.g., sensor errors, nonuniform airflow through the wind tunnel, inaccuracies in the model con-
struction or in its orientation in the wind tunnel). In these cases, a unique Cpis defined as the mean of
the measured values.
12
3
BD
4
H
5
4
1
2
3
Wind
Wind
q
q
B
D
8
6
7
6
8
75
12
3
BD
6
5
5
4
1
2
3
Wind
Wind
q
q
B
D
b
46
H
12
3
BD
4
H
5
5
4
1
2
3
Wind
Wind
q
q
B
H
D
(a) Flat-roofed
(b) Gable-roofed
(c) Hip-roofed
Fig. 2. Definition of the building dimensions D,B, and H, the building surfaces, the wind attack angle θ
and the pitch roof angle βfor the analyzed cases: (a) Flat-roofed buildings, (b) Gable-roofed buildings,
and (c) Hip-roofed buildings.
6
In the formulation of the S&C equation for low-rise buildings, Swami and Chandra [6] assumed Cp
independent of the height ratio (H/B) and the roof angle (β). After processing the TPU database, we
realized that Cpis low sensitive to the height ratio but the variation of Cpwith different roof type and
roof pitch angle can not be neglected. Based on these observations, we decided to formulate a separate
ANN model for each roof type, to be trained using the following data:
Flat-roofed buildings: For all the walls (surfaces 1 to 4) and roof (surface 5), Cpis given for side
ratios D/B = 1/1,1.5/1,2.5/1,1/1.5,1/2.5, and wind attack angles θfrom 0to 180every 15.
This Cpis the average of the Cps for height ratios H/B = 1/4,2/4,3/4,4/4 in the database.
Gable-roofed buildings: For all the walls (surfaces 1 to 4) and roof (surfaces 5 and 6), Cpis given
for D/B = 1/1,1.5/1,2.5/1,1/1.5,1/2.5, θfrom 0to 180every 15, and β= 4.8,9.4,14,18.4,
21.8,26.7,30,45. Like in the previous case, this Cpis the average of those for H/B = 1/4,2/4,
3/4,4/4 in the database. Note that the roof pitch βhas been finely discretized, denoting how
relevant it is.
Hip-roofed buildings: For all the walls (surfaces 1 to 4) and roof (surfaces 5 to 8), Cpis given for
D/B = 1.5/1,1/1.5, θfrom 0to 180every 15, and β= 26.7,45; once again, it is the average
of the Cps for H/B = 1/4,2/4,3/4,4/4 in the database. . In this case, the Cpis smaller than in a
gable-roofed building for the same D/B,H/B,θand β. This database is not complete enough to
make a reliable model upon it, but it was included in this work in order to test the robustness of
the proposed ANN-based model.
Thus, the number and the nature of inputs and outputs of the ANN models for the case studies,
depending on the type of roof, are the following:
Flat-roofed buildings:
2 inputs: D/B,θ.
5 outputs: Cpfor walls (surfaces 1 to 4) and roof (surface 5).
Gable-roofed buildings:
3 inputs: D/B,β,θ.
6 outputs: Cpfor walls (surfaces 1 to 4) and roof (surface 5 and 6).
Hip-roofed buildings:
3 inputs: D/B,β,θ.
8 outputs: Cpfor walls (surfaces 1 to 4) and roof (surface 5 to 8).
7
Since each of these buildings have particular inputs and outputs, we formulate a separate ANN model
for each case, namely the FANN, GANN and HANN models for flat-, gable- and hip-roofed buildings,
respectively. Details on the formulation of each one of these models are given Appendix 5.3.
3. Results and discussion
First, let us evaluate the fitting between the Cps computed as outputs of the current ANN models
and those from the TPU experimental database, which are the ANN targets. Fig. 3 shows the correlation
between the ANN outputs and the measured Cpfor the three types of roof. The fitting is excellent in all
the cases: MSE = 0.0001 and correlation coefficient R= 0.9996 for flat-roofed buildings, MSE = 0.0002
and R= 0.9995 for gable-roofed buildings, and MSE = 0.0004 and R= 0.9990 for hip-roofed buildings.
Next, let us compare the current ANN results with those obtained using the popular S&C and M&P
equations for each case.
3.1. Flat-roofed buildings
Fig. 4 shows Cpfor the surface 1 (a wall) of a flat-roofed, square-plan building as a function of the
wind attack angle θ. The S&C and M&P equations accurately fits for θ90; for higher θ, S&C
performs usually better than M&P , as already noted by Muehleisen and Patrizzi [9]. On the other hand,
FANN fits the measured TPU data with high accuracy for any θ; further, the FANN interpolation of the
experimental measurements is smooth and free of overfitting. These two observations validate the chosen
ANN architecture and its usefulness to predict Cpover the whole range of wind attack angles.
Fig. 5 shows Cpon surface 1 for different D/B 6= 1 as a function of the wind attack angle θ. As
pointed out by Muehleisen and Patrizzi [9] when they proposed the M&P equation, the performance of
S&C is seriously deteriorated for D/B 6= 1; M&P gives definitely better results for these cases. But once
again, FANN exhibits the best fitting of the measured data for any D/B and θ; at the same time, it gives
a smooth interpolation of the measured data.
FANN also overcomes the S&C and M&P equations as it predicts Cpfor all the walls and the roof at
once. Let us remind that S&C and M&P equations determine Cpfor one surface at a time and are not
suitable for computing Cpfor the roof. As an example, Fig. 6 shows the variation of the remaining FANN
outputs, i.e., Cpwith respect to θfor the other walls (surfaces 2-4) and the roof (surface 5) for flat-roofed
buildings with a square floor-plan. Again, there is an excellent agreement between the Cpfrom the TPU
experimental database and that computed using FANN for any value of the wind attack angle.
3.2. Gable-roofed buildings
Fig. 7 shows the variation of Cpwith respect to the wind attack angle θfor the surface 1 (a wall) of
square-plan building having a gable roof with pitch angle β= 45. In this case, S&C gives the poorest
fitting of the experimental results, specially for 60< θ < 150; for instance, the difference between S&C
prediction and TPU for θ= 90is above 20%.
8
Fig. 3. Fitting between the ANN outputs and the measured targets: (a) Flat-roofed buildings, (b)
Gable-roofed buildings, and (c) Hip-roofed buildings.
9
Wind angle q [ ° ]
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
S&C
FANN
M&P
TPU data
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Cp
Fig. 4. Square plan flat-roofed buildings: TPU measurements vs. predictions of FANN model, the M&P
and the S&C equations of the variation of the surface-averaged pressure coefficient Cpwith respect to the
wind attack angle θon the surface 1.
On the other hand, GANN gives not only an excellent fitting but also a smooth interpolation of TPU
data.
Fig. 8 shows GANN results for all the surfaces of a square-plan building with 45-pitched gable roof.
Note that these coefficients were obtained evaluating the GANN only once per incidence angle.
Let us remark that the application of S&C equation to this case carries an excessive simplification:
Since it depends on D/B and θonly, it gives the same Cpfor walls with the same side ratio but geometri-
cally different (as it is the case for surfaces 1 and 2, for instance). Moreover, S&C equation is not suitable
for computing Cpfor the roof surfaces.
3.3. Hip-roofed buidlings
Fig. 9 shows the variation of Cpwith respect to the wind attack angle θfor the surface 1 of buildings
with a side ratio D/B = 1.5 and a hip roof with pitch angle β= 45. In this case, M&P is better than
S&C but it is still highly inaccurate to fit the experimental results. Meanwhile, once again, HANN gives
an excellent fitting as well as a smooth interpolation of the TPU data.
Fig. 10 shows Cpas a function of θfor the surface 1 of hip-roofed buildings with side ratio D/B = 1/1.5,
considering two roof pitch angles β: 26.7and 45. Besides the good agreement between HANN and TPU
data for both roof pitch angles and for any wind attack angle θ, this figure highlights the differences in
Cpdue to the difference in the roof pitch angle, specially for θ > 90.
3.4. Accuracy of the method
In this section, the accuracy of the current ANN-based models is quantitatively assessed in the light
of some examples.
10
(c) D/B=1.5
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
(d) D/B=2.5
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
(a) D/B=0.4
Wind angle q [ ° ]
(b) D/B=0.667
-1.2
-1
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Wind angle q [ ° ]
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Wind angle q [ ° ]
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Wind angle q [ ° ]
S&C
ANN-Model
M&P
TPU data
S&C
ANN-Model
M&P
TPU data
S&C
ANN-Model
M&P
TPU data
S&C
ANN-Model
M&P
TPU data
S&C
FANN
M&P
TPU data
S&C
FANN
M&P
TPU data
Cp
S&C
FANN
M&P
TPU data
S&C
FANN
M&P
TPU data
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Cp
Cp
Cp
Fig. 5. Flat-roofed buildings with side ratio D/B 6= 1: TPU measurements vs. predictions of FANN
model, the M&P and the S&C equations of the variation of the surface-averaged pressure coefficient Cp
with respect to the wind attack angle θon the surface 1.
Considering flat-roofed buildings with side ratio D/B = 1.5 and a wind attack angle θ= 90, Table 1
enables the comparison between the experimental Cpfrom the TPU database and the predictions given
by the S&C and the M&P equations and the FANN model. While the S&C and the M&P equations are
accurate enough only when they are applied to surface 2 (i.e., the windward surface), FANN is accurate
enough for all the surfaces, including the roof. Actually, the maximal error magnitude using FANN is
2.3%, while it rises up to 46.9% for the S&C equation and 21.7% for the M&P equation.
Now, let us consider gable- and hip-roofed buildings and compare the respective ANN models (GANN
and HANN) to the S&C equation. Note that the S&C equation was calibrated on the base not only of
flat-, but also of gable- and hip-roofed buildings [6], and it is widely used for all these types of buildings;
it is actually included in EnergyPlus, a popular software for building performance simulation.
Table 2 shows Cpfor gable- and hip-roofed buildings having a side ratio D/B = 1.5 and a roof pitch
angle β= 45for a wind attack angle θ= 90. Let us remind that the S&C equation does not take
11
FANN
TPU data
(a) Surf 2 (b) Surf 3
ANN-Model
TPU data
(d) Surf 5
ANN-Model
TPU data
(c) Surf 4
ANN-Model
TPU data
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Wind angle q [ ° ]
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Wind angle q [ ° ]
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Wind angle q [ ° ]
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Wind angle q [ ° ]
FANN
TPU data
FANN
TPU data
FANN
TPU data
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Cp
Cp
Cp
Cp
Fig. 6. Square plan flat-roofed buildings: TPU measurements vs. FANN predictions of the variation of
the surface-averaged pressure coefficient Cpwith respect to the wind attack angle θfor all the surfaces,
except the surface 1.
into account the pitch angle, which seriously affects its accuracy for buildings with pitched roof. Given
the magnitude of the errors in Table 2, S&C is directly useless for all the surfaces of such pitched-roof
buildings other than the windward wall. On the contrary, either GANN for gabled-roof buildings or
HANN for hip-roofed ones gives good results, with errors that are always below 4.3%.
Let us remark that the performance of the proposed ANN models for the computation of Cpis equally
good (actually, excellent) for flat-, gable- and hip-roofed buildings. Furthermore, they allow to predict
the Cpon roofs, enabling the study of air infiltration and ventilation in case of roof apertures.
Finally, note that, just modifying the ANN architecture (number of inputs and outputs, number of
hidden layers and neurons therein, etc.), the proposed methodology is versatile enough to be applied to
12
S&C
GANN
M&P
TPU data
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Wind angle q [ ° ]
-1.2
-1
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Cp
Fig. 7. Square-plan buildings with 45-pitched gable roof: TPU measurements vs. predictions of GANN
model, the M&P and the S&C equations of the variation of the surface-averaged pressure coefficient Cp
with respect to the wind attack angle θon the surface 1.
Table 1. Flat-roofed buildings with side ratio D/B = 1.5: TPU measurements vs. predictions of the S&C
and the M&P equations and the FANN model of the surface-averaged pressure coefficient Cpon all the
building surfaces for the wind attack angle θ= 90.
Surface TPU S&C M&P FANN
CpCperror [%] Cperror [%] Cperror [%]
10.580 0.308 46.906 0.533 8.154 0.567 2.327
2 0.618 0.604 2.394 0.607 1.779 0.621 0.437
30.580 0.308 46.906 0.533 8.154 0.577 0.534
40.284 0.377 32.945 0.345 21.728 0.286 0.882
50.727 - - - - 0.738 1.389
any building shape with an available database, which should be reliable enough to be used as target for
training the ANN.
4. Conclusions
In this work, we proposed and developed a novel methodology based on artificial neural networks
(ANN) to obtain analytical models to accurately predict the surface-averaged wind pressure coefficients
in all the surfaces (walls and roofs) of low-rise buildings with different types of roofs.
Three separate ANN models were generated, the so-called FANN, GANN and HANN, addressed to
13
(b) Surf 2
ANN-Model
TPU data
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Wind angle q [ ° ]
(a) Surf 1
GANN
TPU data
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Wind angle q [ ° ]
(d) Surf 4
ANN-Model
TPU data
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Wind angle q [ ° ]
(c) Side 3
ANN-Model
TPU data
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Wind angle q [ ° ]
(f) Surf 6
ANN-Model
TPU data
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Wind angle q [ ° ]
(e) Surf 5
ANN-Model
TPU data
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Wind angle q [ ° ]
-1.2
-1
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
-1.2
-1
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
-1.2
-1
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
-1.2
-1
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
-1.2
-1
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
GANN
TPU data
GANN
TPU data
GANN
TPU data
GANN
TPU data
GANN
TPU data
-1.2
-1
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Cp
Cp
Cp
Cp
Cp
Cp
Cp
Cp
Fig. 8. Square-plan buildings with 45-pitched gable roof: TPU measurements vs. GANN predictions of
the variation of the surface-averaged pressure coefficient Cpwith respect to the wind attack angle θfor
all the surfaces.
14
-1
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
S&C
HANN
M&P
TPU data
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Wind angle q [ ° ]
Cp
Fig. 9. Buildings with side ratio D/B = 1.5 and 45-pitched hip roof: TPU measurements vs. predictions
of HANN model, the M&P and the S&C equations of the variation of the surface-averaged pressure
coefficient Cpwith respect to the wind attack angle θon the surface 1.
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
HANN ( b = 45º )
HANN ( b = 26.7º )
TPU data ( b = 45º )
TPU data ( b = 26.7º )
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Wind angle q [ ° ]
Cp
Fig. 10. Hip-roofed buildings with side ratio D/B = 1/1.5 and different roof pitch angles: TPU measure-
ments vs. HANN predictions of the variation of the surface-averaged pressure coefficient Cpwith respect
to the wind attack angle θon the wall surface 1.
flat-, gable- and hip-roofed rectangular-plan buildings, respectively. They were trained and tested taking
as target the experimental database of the Wind Engineering Information Center of the Tokyo Polytechnic
University (TPU).
In the lights of the results for these three types of buildings, ANN models proved to be very accu-
rate, largely overcoming the widely used parametric equations proposed by Swami and Chandra [6], and
Mueleisen and Patrizi [9]. Actually, the performance of these parametric equations, which depend on the
15
Table 2. Relative error comparison between the novel ANN-Model and S&C equation for Gable-roofed
and Hip-roofed cases with D/B=1.5, β=45and θ=90.
Roof type Surface TPU S&C ANN
CpCperror [%] Cperror [%]
Gabled
10.832 0.308 62.994 0.82 1.526
2 0.604 0.604 0.099 0.597 1.225
30.832 0.308 62.994 0.844 1.454
40.571 0.377 34.005 0.589 3.169
5 0.293 - - 0.301 2.594
60.691 - - 0.698 1.100
Hipped
10.667 0.308 53.837 0.664 0.513
2 0.579 0.604 4.285 0.578 0.178
30.667 0.308 53.837 0.676 1.314
40.508 0.377 25.749 0.512 0.775
50.832 - - 0.808 2.826
6 0.239 - - 0.243 1.628
70.832 - - 0.797 4.242
80.625 - - 0.637 2.05
building side ratio and the wind attack angle only, was shown to be poor in general, and even very poor
for most of the surfaces of pitched-roof buildings.
Another advantage of the proposed ANN is their capacity of computing the pressure coefficients over all
the building surfaces at once. Unlike the above mentioned parametric models, also the roof is considered,
enabling the use of the current models in the study of phenomena like air infiltration and ventilation in
presence of roof apertures.
Although it was applied here to specific buildings, the proposed methodology is amenable to be ex-
tended to buildings with an arbitrary topology (U-shape, L-shaped, etc.), including the effect of surround-
ing buildings, provided that you have a reliable database for training the ANN for the desired building
shape and level of sheltering.
Furthermore, since the so-formulated ANN models are ultimately a closed, analytical expression of
the outputs as functions of the inputs, they can be easily incorporated into softwares for building energy
simulation, airflow network analysis, etc..
To ensure the accuracy of any ANN-based methodology, the ANN training has to be done with a
reliable Cpdatabase like the TPU database used in this work.
Note that the accuracy of the current models was proved for isolated buildings of three particular
16
types and for the range of the inputs in the database used for training, otherwise it is uncertain.
Motivated by the current findings, we aim to continue this work in three main directions: 1) to embed
the proposed models into EnergyPlus source code; 2) applications to low- and high-rise, isolated and
non-isolated buildings with different shapes, and 3) to test the reliability of computational fluid dynamic
(CFD) models to develop Cpdatabases of buildings with other shapes (U, L, etc.).
Acknowledgments
For funding this work, we would like to thank the Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation
(SECTEI) of the Province of Santa Fe (Argentina) via the Research Project 2010-022-16 “Optimization
of the Energy Efficiency of Buildings in the Province of Santa Fe”.
F. Bre is a doctoral student granted by the National Scientific and Technical Research Council of
Argentina (CONICET).
5. Appendix
5.1. Swami and Chandra (S&C ) equation
The S&C equation [6] defines the surface-average wind pressure coefficient at a wall of a low-rise
building as
Cp(θ, D/B ) = Cp(0) ln 1.248 0.703 sin(θ/2) 1.175 sin2(θ)+0.131 sin3(2)
+0.769 cos(θ/2) + 0.07G2sin2(θ/2) + 0.717 cos2(θ/2),
where θis the wind attack angle on the surface, and G= ln(D/B) is the natural logarithm of the side ratio
D/B, and Cp(0) is the Cpfor θ= 0, assumed by Swami and Chandra to be equal to 0.6 independently
of D/B.
5.2. Muehleisen and Patrizi (M&P ) equation
The M&P equation [9] defines the surface-average wind pressure coefficient at a wall of a low-rise
building using the following rational function of the wind attack angle θand the side ratio D/B:
Cp(θ, D/B ) = a0+a1G+a2θ+a3θ2+a4
1 + b1G+b2θ+b3θ2+b4,with G= ln(D/B),
where aiand biare adjustable coefficients. Muehleisen and Patrizi calibrated them using non-linear curve
fitting on the base of the TPU database for low-rise buildings [28], obtaining a0= 6.12 ×101, a1=
1.78 ×101, a2=1.15 ×102, a3= 3.28 ×105, a4= 1.67 ×103,b1=3.12 ×101, b2=1.59 ×
102, b3= 9.82 ×105, b4= 2.15 ×103. Note that in the original paper [9], b2has a typo mistake; we
fixed it after communication with Muehleisen.
17
5.3. Formulation of the ANN models
In this section, is given a detailed information to implement the ANN models developed. These ANN
models are available in doi:10.17632/mj6s6x37vm.3
An ANN is a set of unit cells (or artificial neurons) arranged in an input layer, one or more hidden
layers, and an output layer. Each neuron is connected to those neurons in the neighboring layers via
adaptive weights. Fig. 11 shows the model of a generic neuron jin the hidden layer k, whose output is
defined as follows:
yk
j=f n
X
i=1
wk
ij xk
i+bk
j!,
where wk
ij is the weight of the connection between the i-th neuron of the previous layer and the considered
neuron, xk
iis the input from i-th neuron of the previous layer, bk
jis the bias associated with the current
neuron, and fis the activation function. Here, we adopt the tangent sigmoid f(u) = 1+2/(1 + e2u)
for the hidden layers, and the linear function f(u) = ufor the output later.
Activation function
1
Tangent sigmoid
Neuron j in layer k
-1
Fig. 11. Model of the neuron jin layer k.
Table 3 gives the inputs, the outputs and the architecture (i.e., the number of layers and neurons per
layer) for the three ANN models.
Table 3. Parameters of the ANN models.
Parameter FANN GANN HANN
Inputs D/B,θ D/B,β,θ D/B,β,θ
Outputs Cpon surfaces 1-5 Cpon surfaces 1-6 Cpon surfaces 1-8
Architecture (I-H-. . . -O) 2-9-8-5 3-20-20-6 3-20-8
The inputs xand the outputs yare linearly normalized as follows:
xn= 2 xxmin
xmax xmin
1, yn= 2 yymin
ymax ymin
1,(1)
where xmin,xmax ,ymin and ymax for each ANN model are given in Table 4
18
Table 4. Minimum and maximum inputs and ouputs for the ANN models.
Parameter FANN GANN HANN
Min. Max. Min. Max. Min. Max.
Inputs D/B 0.4 2.5 0.4 2.5 0.667 1.5
β4.84526.745
θ018001800180
Outputs CpSurf. 1 0.6995 0.6334 0.9610 0.6695 0.7892 0.6403
CpSurf. 2 0.6939 0.6581 0.9516 0.6687 0.6672 0.6403
CpSurf. 3 0.6995 0.6334 0.961 0.6695 0.7892 0.6403
CpSurf. 4 0.6995 0.2179 0.961 0.1934 0.7892 0.2116
CpSurf. 5 0.8304 0.3000 1.1645 0.3315 0.9127 0.1291
CpSurf. 6 1.1645 0.2947 0.8640 0.2422
CpSurf. 7 0.9127 0.1291
CpSurf. 8 0.8640 0.2422
Finally, Tables 5, 6 and 7 give the results of training (i.e., the weights and biases) for FANN, GANN
and HANN, respectively.
Table 5. Weights and bias values for FANN.
Layer kNeuron j bk
jwk
1jwk
2jwk
3jwk
4jwk
5jwk
6jwk
7jwk
8jwk
9j
H1 1 6.89 -5.57 1.43
2 -1.13 0.74 -1.35
3 2.02 -2.98 -1.36
4 1.85 0.33 2.01
5 0.98 -1.09 1.57
6 0.26 -0.17 -1.56
7 -1.89 0.58 2.41
8 2.24 2.34 -2.23
9 -4.96 -6.16 -0.39
H2 1 0.50 3.87 -2.42 -0.02 -3.14 -1.76 2.45 0.85 -0.42 0.24
2 0.93 -1.03 -0.81 0.01 -0.57 -0.62 -0.59 -0.67 0.18 -0.04
3 -11.47 3.78 1.05 0.78 8.02 -5.28 -6.35 -1.39 0.14 0.05
4 -4.12 1.35 -14.32 1.30 -2.19 -8.91 -1.29 1.73 0.17 0.01
5 1.86 -0.66 -0.54 -1.08 0.17 -0.40 -0.70 0.69 0.53 -0.15
6 -2.53 2.53 4.85 0.12 1.27 1.61 -1.97 0.33 -0.10 0.03
7 -0.22 2.81 3.42 -0.32 -1.29 2.07 0.77 -0.43 -0.25 0.05
8 2.01 1.21 1.33 0.07 0.76 1.10 -1.80 1.92 -0.03 0.14
O 1 1.21 -0.83 0.08 0.18 0.42 0.45 1.45 2.71 -0.07
2 -2.87 0.11 -4.20 0.15 -0.44 0.46 -5.97 -2.58 -1.00
3 0.12 0.01 -4.43 0.24 -0.57 -1.92 -4.86 -6.93 -3.51
4 2.31 -1.62 4.44 -2.19 -3.37 -2.09 6.63 -0.72 2.47
5 1.22 -2.33 -6.11 -0.98 -3.93 -3.58 -4.60 -9.43 -3.74
19
Table 6. Weights and bias values for GANN.
L. kN. j bk
jwk
1jwk
2jwk
3jwk
4jwk
5jwk
6jwk
7jwk
8jwk
9jwk
10jwk
11jwk
12jwk
13jwk
14jwk
15jwk
16jwk
17jwk
18jwk
19jwk
20j
H1 1 -2.69 1.37 -0.02 2.17
2 1.58 -0.18 1.28 -1.24
3 -1.38 0.28 -1.22 1.06
4 -0.73 1.16 0.89 -0.22
5 -1.73 0.02 -0.03 -1.92
6 -1.34 -0.13 -0.76 -3.94
7 0.99 -0.16 -0.09 1.65
8 0.07 1.07 -0.38 -0.80
9 0.33 -1.06 0.02 -0.86
10 0.71 0.22 -2.25 -1.77
11 0.11 0.24 -0.02 1.22
12 -0.76 -0.62 1.82 -1.45
13 0.49 1.46 -0.08 -1.53
14 -0.56 -0.28 -1.93 -0.48
15 -3.76 -4.13 0.02 -1.35
16 -1.44 0.17 -0.01 2.07
17 2.06 2.53 0.01 0.47
18 4.76 5.64 0.19 -1.40
19 9.32 0.23 -7.48 -6.25
20 -6.30 -6.75 -0.18 0.17
H2 1 -11.11 -0.90 -1.83 -3.12 0.20 -8.39 0.20 -1.68 -0.04 1.25 -0.28 5.93 -0.05 1.61 0.94 3.06 -7.01 -2.39 -2.28 0.06 -2.94
2 1.01 -10.77 0.09 -0.36 -0.16 -0.37 0.06 -0.15 -0.29 0.28 -0.06 1.37 -0.06 0.84 -0.08 -0.17 11.69 -0.03 -0.33 -0.04 0.07
3 2.53 -9.09 -1.14 -1.52 -0.22 -0.16 0.22 -0.28 -0.48 0.40 -0.08 2.39 -0.07 0.81 -0.09 -0.06 9.38 0.56 -0.77 -2.00 -0.16
4 -1.44 -0.06 -0.93 -1.00 0.12 0.24 0.99 -0.27 0.19 -0.22 0.03 3.86 0.09 -0.21 -0.07 0.27 0.12 -2.69 0.18 0.04 -1.04
5 0.64 -0.36 0.83 0.78 0.06 -0.25 -0.20 -0.30 0.08 -0.24 0.02 -1.54 0.02 -0.02 0.03 0.04 0.16 0.36 -0.05 0.01 -0.02
6 0.04 0.27 -1.13 -1.00 -0.16 -0.04 0.16 -0.52 -0.22 0.11 -0.02 1.21 -0.06 0.25 -0.05 -0.36 -0.08 -0.46 -0.21 -0.02 -0.19
7 0.03 0.01 0.34 0.10 0.14 1.26 -0.15 1.46 0.53 -0.27 -0.04 -0.76 0.03 -0.62 0.05 0.21 -0.34 0.45 0.05 -0.02 0.08
8 -0.24 -8.61 -2.94 0.28 2.24 -2.19 0.36 1.56 8.03 6.45 -0.99 3.05 0.45 -2.86 0.68 -4.44 7.48 -8.15 6.12 0.72 4.85
9 -1.08 0.07 -0.86 -1.18 -0.29 0.45 -0.11 1.27 -1.91 -1.20 0.14 -0.51 0.31 1.39 0.55 -0.63 0.58 -3.07 0.12 0.33 -1.12
10 7.67 -0.60 0.32 0.49 -0.12 0.77 0.10 0.84 -0.07 -0.16 -0.06 -0.97 -0.17 0.52 -0.01 0.19 0.39 -0.96 -0.19 -0.09 5.81
11 0.23 -0.51 1.03 0.95 0.11 0.96 -0.05 0.28 0.21 0.04 0.01 -0.31 0.03 -0.14 0.01 0.15 0.57 -0.06 0.17 -0.01 0.12
12 6.82 -1.56 3.69 3.88 0.26 -2.41 -0.05 -10.41 0.11 2.12 -0.02 2.94 -0.07 1.02 -0.03 -0.71 1.03 -3.19 1.59 -0.01 1.75
13 1.80 0.08 -1.76 -1.11 -0.19 2.51 0.12 0.53 1.35 0.05 -0.19 -1.23 -0.21 -0.84 -0.41 -1.05 -0.59 1.71 -0.83 -0.16 0.72
14 0.20 1.29 -3.80 -4.10 -0.26 11.65 -0.02 12.03 -0.09 -1.88 0.06 -1.74 0.17 -0.75 0.06 0.17 -1.04 2.27 -1.28 0.08 -1.34
15 -0.46 0.16 1.45 1.46 0.31 -1.01 0.28 -1.42 -0.74 0.80 0.23 2.46 0.33 0.25 0.11 1.69 -0.26 1.48 1.06 0.26 0.50
16 1.12 0.18 -2.85 -2.83 -0.05 -0.56 0.27 -1.70 0.57 0.43 -0.06 1.62 -0.04 -0.12 -0.08 -0.14 0.18 0.04 -0.41 -0.03 -0.30
17 -2.56 0.79 -1.15 -1.13 -0.09 -0.60 0.01 -0.64 0.18 -0.22 -0.04 -0.88 -0.07 0.16 -0.01 -0.46 -2.84 -0.38 -0.32 -0.13 -0.31
18 10.31 -0.83 4.72 4.80 0.28 -0.47 -1.24 1.26 -0.30 -0.38 0.24 -3.25 0.15 0.11 -0.07 -0.38 1.69 -0.46 1.99 0.10 12.10
19 1.18 -0.15 -0.51 -0.33 0.27 0.32 0.04 -0.39 1.71 0.80 -0.10 -0.14 -0.16 -1.17 -0.37 0.25 -0.22 2.21 -0.16 -0.18 0.95
20 -6.65 1.52 4.89 3.76 -1.26 -0.66 0.00 2.62 0.02 -2.10 -1.91 -3.44 0.98 -0.09 1.75 -4.99 -1.18 2.72 -3.22 0.14 1.39
O 1 2.04 -0.02 -0.42 0.05 1.22 -1.54 -2.08 -0.95 0.01 0.29 0.27 0.10 2.83 -0.04 3.30 -0.03 -0.30 0.82 -0.14 0.48 -0.32
2 -2.90 -0.04 -1.06 0.26 -2.87 -0.88 -1.32 0.49 0.00 0.19 0.56 -2.09 -0.30 -0.07 -0.26 0.02 0.17 -0.13 0.19 0.34 0.13
3 -0.04 -0.04 1.33 -0.17 -2.17 -3.05 1.57 1.67 0.01 0.26 1.50 0.82 -2.29 -0.25 -1.86 0.75 -0.70 2.59 0.37 0.70 0.16
4 9.58 0.44 -2.67 2.31 6.08 -2.20 1.07 2.18 -0.03 -0.22 0.87 0.02 0.49 0.95 0.84 1.07 -2.53 2.66 -0.19 -0.76 -0.88
5 -4.38 -0.06 -7.09 3.84 -8.06 -0.21 -5.39 -5.50 -0.12 1.77 -4.24 -0.48 -0.41 -0.30 -0.11 -2.81 0.94 -3.00 0.25 1.75 1.16
6 -0.05 -0.02 2.30 -1.03 -0.32 -8.37 -15.15 -3.04 -0.21 -5.55 -0.56 1.42 -0.67 2.51 -0.58 -1.55 2.62 -4.53 -1.19 -10.17 0.69
Table 7. Weights and bias values for HANN.
L. kN. j bk
jwk
1jwk
2jwk
3jwk
4jwk
5jwk
6jwk
7jwk
8jwk
9jwk
10jwk
11jwk
12jwk
13jwk
14jwk
15jwk
16jwk
17jwk
18jwk
19jwk
20j
H1 1 1.09 -0.10 -0.40 0.96
2 1.43 0.10 1.29 -1.64
3 0.69 -0.11 -0.01 -0.80
4 4.51 -0.07 -3.98 2.59
5 -2.18 6.59 2.97 -6.17
6 1.92 -5.49 4.37 -4.49
7 -0.34 -0.08 -1.15 -0.96
8 0.43 0.12 -0.10 -2.70
9 0.43 0.15 -0.32 -1.29
10 -0.45 -0.18 0.08 -2.74
11 -0.09 -1.22 -0.01 0.05
12 -0.36 -0.07 0.82 -0.83
13 1.59 0.11 1.21 -2.44
14 -0.74 0.11 2.81 -1.99
15 0.72 0.20 -0.70 1.25
16 2.11 -0.10 -1.87 2.03
17 -3.77 -0.13 -3.96 1.33
18 -1.34 -0.12 0.03 -1.50
19 -24.70 -21.89 0.37 -19.45
20 5.65 1.51 4.05 1.34
O 1 0.16 1.09 -0.76 0.42 1.05 -0.03 -0.03 0.05 -1.01 -0.54 1.12 -0.23 -1.34 1.12 -0.64 -0.54 -2.69 -0.54 0.49 -0.01 -0.07
2 -2.03 2.10 4.61 1.02 -1.49 0.01 0.01 1.51 0.15 -0.04 -0.02 -0.44 2.00 -2.04 1.34 0.01 1.98 3.43 -1.62 0.02 0.01
3 -1.14 -0.74 -1.21 2.99 -0.59 -0.03 -0.01 -2.31 -1.22 0.15 0.34 -0.12 -3.95 0.42 0.04 -0.61 0.62 -1.01 0.96 -0.01 -0.08
4 8.64 1.77 34.64 -9.34 -13.16 0.11 0.03 12.52 6.71 -10.02 -0.80 -1.87 28.28 -16.45 1.87 4.71 19.97 25.59 -1.23 -0.03 0.42
5 14.60 2.68 5.35 -18.81 4.22 -0.24 -0.24 26.05 -4.72 -11.23 -0.74 -1.87 36.63 4.89 -9.45 0.47 -12.66 5.30 -12.86 -0.27 -0.77
6 6.50 -6.50 -34.06 -13.17 0.79 -0.31 -0.30 6.30 -0.05 7.22 0.02 2.10 3.56 10.28 2.37 2.68 0.38 -24.81 -6.97 -0.32 -1.39
7 -12.02 -3.93 16.18 20.03 -17.94 0.01 0.05 -19.96 9.30 2.52 1.12 -0.41 -34.71 -16.58 16.37 -4.99 32.15 9.08 10.47 0.04 0.08
8 -8.92 13.89 29.56 16.98 -7.89 0.36 0.21 -9.17 2.16 -8.21 -0.77 -2.58 9.10 -9.36 -5.49 6.73 5.98 23.91 13.29 0.27 1.13
20
References
[1] A. Rackes and M. S. Michael. Alternative ventilation strategies in us offices: Comprehensive as-
sessment and sensitivity analysis of energy saving potential. Building and Environment, 116:30–44,
2017.
[2] R. Ramponi, A. Angelotti, and B. Blocken. Energy saving potential of night ventilation: Sensitivity
to pressure coefficients for different European climates. Applied Energy, 123:185–195, 2014.
[3] D. Co´stola, B. Blocken, and J. L. M. Hensen. Overview of pressure coefficient data in building energy
simulation and airflow network programs. Building and Environment, 44(10):2027–2036, 2009.
[4] M. V. Swami and S. Chandra. Procedures for calculating natural ventilation airflow rates in buildings.
ASHRAE Final Report FSEC-CR-163-86, ASHRAE Research Project, 1987.
[5] D. C´ostola, B. Blocken, M. Ohba, and J. L. M. Hensen. Uncertainty in airflow rate calculations due
to the use of surface-averaged pressure coefficients. Energy and Buildings, 42(6):881–888, 2010.
[6] M. V. Swami and S. Chandra. Correlations for pressure distribution on buildings and calculation of
natural-ventilation airflow. ASHRAE transactions, 94(3127):243–266, 1988.
[7] D. B. Crawley, L. K. Lawrie, F. C. Winkelmann, W. F. Buhl, Y. J. Huang, C. O. Pedersen, R. K.
Strand, R. J. Liesen, D. E Fisher, M. J. Witte, et al. Energyplus: creating a new-generation building
energy simulation program. Energy and buildings, 33(4):319–331, 2001.
[8] M. Grosso. Wind pressure distribution around buildings: a parametrical model. Energy and Buildings,
18(2):101–131, 1992.
[9] R. T. Muehleisen and S. Patrizi. A new parametric equation for the wind pressure coefficient for
low-rise buildings. Energy and Buildings, 57:245–249, 2013.
[10] Y. Quan, Y. Tamura, M. Matsui, S. Cao, and A. Yoshida. TPU aerodynamic database for low-rise
buildings. In 12th International Conference on Wind Engineering, pages 2–6, 2007. URL http:
//www.wind.arch.t-kougei.ac.jp/info_center/windpressure/lowrise/mainpage.html.
[11] M. Orme and N. Leksmono. Aivc guide 5: Ventilation modelling data guide. International Energy
Agency, Air Infiltration Ventilation Center. AIC-GUI, 5, 2002.
[12] Tokyo Polytechnic University (TPU). TPU Aerodynamic Database. Global Center of Excellence
Program, Tokyo Polytechnic University, Tokyo, Japan, 2017. URL http://wind.arch.t-kougei.
ac.jp/system/eng/contents/code/tpu.
[13] S. S. Haykin. Neural networks and learning machines, volume 3. Pearson Upper Saddle River, NJ,
USA:, 2009.
21
[14] S. Kalogirou, M. Eftekhari, and L. Marjanovic. Predicting the pressure coefficients in a naturally
ventilated test room using artificial neural networks. Building and Environment, 38(3):399–407, 2003.
[15] Y. Chen, G. A. Kopp, and D. Surry. Prediction of pressure coefficients on roofs of low buildings using
artificial neural networks. Journal of wind engineering and industrial aerodynamics, 91(3):423–441,
2003.
[16] X. Gavalda, J. Ferrer-Gener, G. A. Kopp, and F. Giralt. Interpolation of pressure coefficients for
low-rise buildings of different plan dimensions and roof slopes using artificial neural networks. Journal
of wind engineering and industrial aerodynamics, 99(5):658–664, 2011.
[17] J. Y. Fu, Q. S. Li, and Z. N. Xie. Prediction of wind loads on a large flat roof using fuzzy neural
networks. Engineering Structures, 28(1):153–161, 2006.
[18] Daniel J. Fonseca, Daniel O. Navaresse, and Gary P. Moynihan. Simulation metamodeling through
artificial neural networks. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 16(3):177–183, 2003.
[19] B. C. Cs´aji. Approximation with artificial neural networks. Faculty of Sciences, Etvs Lornd Univer-
sity, Hungary, 24:48, 2001.
[20] D. W. Marquardt. An algorithm for least-squares estimation of nonlinear parameters. Journal of the
society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, 11(2):431–441, 1963.
[21] M. T. Hagan and M. B. Menhaj. Training feedforward networks with the marquardt algorithm. IEEE
transactions on Neural Networks, 5(6):989–993, 1994.
[22] Stefan Fritsch, Frauke Guenther, and Maintainer Frauke Guenther. Package ‘neuralnet’. 2016.
[23] H. Demuth and M. Beale. Neural network toolbox for use with matlab–user’s guide verion 3.0. 1993.
[24] M. Abadi, A. Agarwal, P. Barham, E. Brevdo, Z. Chen, C. Citro, G. S. Corrado, A. Davis, J. Dean,
M. Devin, et al. Tensorflow: Large-scale machine learning on heterogeneous distributed systems.
arXiv preprint arXiv:1603.04467, 2016. URL https://www.tensorflow.org/.
[25] T. C. E. Ho, D. Surry, D. Morrish, and G. A. Kopp. The uwo contribution to the NIST aerodynamic
database for wind loads on low buildings: Part 1. archiving format and basic aerodynamic data.
Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 93(1):1–30, 2005.
[26] Handbook, ASHRAE and others. Fundamentals. American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and
Air Conditioning Engineers, Atlanta, 111, 2001.
[27] M. W. Liddament. Air infiltration calculation techniques: An applications guide. Air infiltration and
ventilation centre Berkshire, UK, 1986.
22
[28] Tokyo Polytechnic University (TPU). Aerodynamic database for low-rise buildings. 2017. URL
http://www.wind.arch.t-kougei.ac.jp/info_center/windpressure/lowrise.
23
... The research results will provide designers with more scientific, reliable, and cost-effective ways to improve the wind resistance of buildings and technical references. Literature [13] introduces and verifies a method of using an artificial neural network to calculate the average pressure coefficient of a building surface, which has high accuracy and can be widely used in all kinds of architectural design and planning fields and through continuous innovation and improvement, it can make a positive contribution to guaranteeing the safety and comfort of people's living environment. ...
Article
Full-text available
The dynamic characteristics of buildings are the basis for studying the vibration of buildings under wind loads, while the innovative design of wind-resistant structures is an important guarantee for the safety and comfort of buildings under wind loads. In this paper, we calculate the building’s dynamic characteristics by establishing the vibration equations of the structure. We then convert the wind load into an equivalent static load and establish the necessary conditions to construct an optimized wind-resistant structural design model. The finite element modeling method is used to generate the building model of this paper and conduct research on its dynamic characteristics and wind-resistant design. In this paper, the model in the vicinity of 0.6Hz and the wind load along the parallel direction of the building, x direction appears to reach the peak amplitude response of 4.22cm. The pressure coefficients at each measurement point of the building are found to increase gradually with the increase of Re and reach the critical condition at Re = 1.02×10 ⁶ under 0° wind angle. Through the implementation of simulated wind tunnel tests on the building, this paper provides a preliminary assessment of the existing wind design methods and highlights the problems in these methods. Using the comparative analysis method, it can be obtained that the optimized wind-resistant structure model of the building designed in this paper reduces the base shear force in the crosswind direction by 3.73% and the base shear force in the downwind direction by 5.53%. At the same time, the inter-story displacement angle of the building is significantly reduced after optimizing the wind-resistant design.
... Artificial neural networks (ANN) [75] ANN is used to obtain analytical models to accurately predict the surface-averaged wind pressure coefficients in walls and roofs of low-rise buildings. ...
Article
Full-text available
Natural Ventilation Effectiveness (NVE) is a performance metric that quantifies when outdoor airflows can be used as a cooling strategy to achieve indoor thermal comfort. Based on standard ventilation threshold and building energy simulation (BES) models, the NVE relates available and required airflows to quantify the usefulness of natural ventilation (NV) through design and building evaluation. Since wind is a significant driving force for ventilation, wind pressure coefficients (Cp) represent a critical boundary condition when assessing building airflows. Therefore, this paper investigates the impact of different Cp sources on wind-driven NVE results to see how sensitive the metric is to this variable. For that, an experimental house and a measurement period were used to develop and calibrate the initial BES model. Four Cp sources are considered: an analytical model from the BES software (i), surface-averaged Cp values for building windows that were calculated with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations using OpenFOAM through a cloud-based platform (iia,b,c), and two databases—AIVC (iii) and Tokyo Polytechnic University (TPU) (iv). The results show a variance among the Cp sources, which directly impacts airflow predictions; however, its effect on the performance metric was relatively small. The variation in the NVE outcomes with different Cp’s was 3% at most, and the assessed building could be naturally ventilated around 75% of the investigated time on the first floor and 60% in the ground floor spaces.
... An example of deep neural network architecture[47] ...
Article
Full-text available
This paper provides an overview of the application of machine learning (ML) techniques for predicting the spatiotemporal evolution of thermal fields during additive manufacturing (AM) processes. AM, also known as three-dimensional printing, has gained significant attention in various industries due to its potential for rapid prototyping and customized production. However, accurately predicting and controlling the thermal behavior during the AM process is crucial for ensuring the quality and reliability of the printed components. Traditional physics-based models (PBM) often face challenges in capturing AM’s complex dynamics and inherent uncertainties. In recent years, ML algorithms, particularly neural networks (NNs), have shown promising results in predicting the thermal field evolution. This paper reviews the existing literature and highlights the critical methodologies and recent advancements in NN-based predictions. It explores novel perspectives by discussing the hybrid modeling approaches, including the combination of PBMs with NNs. This overview highlights the evolving landscape of predictive techniques in the context of AM and underscores the potential for enhancing accuracy and efficiency in thermal field prediction. The paper also discusses the challenges and outlines future directions for enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of thermal field prediction in AM. By synthesizing current research, this overview will guide researchers and practitioners toward leveraging NNs effectively for optimizing thermal management in AM processes. The insights presented underscore the transformative potential of NN predictions in advancing AM capabilities.
... Among these advancements, machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) have emerged as powerful tools for analyzing complex data and uncovering patterns that are not immediately apparent through traditional statistical methods [30][31][32]. Machine learning techniques are widely applied in built environment studies, including building energy consumption [33,34], thermal comfort [35,36], wind environment [37], and environmental pollution [38]. DL, particularly suited for handling high-dimensional and large-scale datasets, is used in image and video analysis for object recognition, image segmentation, and behavior detection, aiding in monitoring environmental changes and user interactions [39,40]. ...
Article
Full-text available
Restoring campus pedestrian spaces is vital for enhancing college students’ mental well-being. This study objectively and thoroughly proposed a reference for the optimization of restorative campus pedestrian spaces that are conducive to the mental health of students. Eye-tracking technology was employed to examine gaze behaviors in these landscapes, while a Semantic Difference questionnaire identified key environmental factors influencing the restorative state. Additionally, this study validated the use of virtual reality (VR) technology for this research domain. Building height difference (HDB), tree height (HT), shrub area (AS), ground hue (HG), and ground texture (TG) correlated significantly with the restorative state (ΔS). VR simulations with various environmental parameters were utilized to elucidate the impact of these five factors on ΔS. Subsequently, machine learning models were developed and assessed using a genetic algorithm to refine the optimal restorative design range of campus pedestrian spaces. The results of this study are intended to help improve students’ attentional recovery and to provide methods and references for students to create more restorative campus environments designed to improve their mental health and academic performance.
Chapter
Tarım arazilerinin bölge iklim koşullarına uygun olarak işlenmesi üretimi olumlu yönde etkilemektedir. Ülkemizde üretim açısından baklagiller tarım alanının önemli bir bölümünü karşılamaktadır. Bölge şartlarına uygun ürünlerinin yetiştirilmesinde tohum ıslahı büyük bir önem taşımaktadır. Bölgedeki araziye işlenecek olan ürünlerin türlerinin ve yetiştirilme koşullarının bilinerek koşullara uygun ürünlerin üretilmesinin sağlanması önemlidir. Üretim yapılırken alana tek tür tohumun ekilmesi üretim sonrası süreçte ürünün satış sürecini olumlu yönde etkilemektedir. Tarım alanında manuel olarak analizlerin yapılması zaman alması ve sürecin zorlu olması sebebiyle günümüzde daha az tercih edilmektedir. Bu çalışmada, baklagiller grubunun en önemli besini olan kuru fasülye türlerinin makine öğrenmesi teknikleriyle analiz edilmesine dair bir uygulama gerçekleştirilmiştir. Kuru fasulye tülerinin analiz edilmesinde özelliklerinin analiz sürecine etkisi değerlendirilmiştir. Örnek sayısı veya özellik sayısı arttılırak daha başarılı sonuçların elde edileceği düşünülmektedir.
Article
Full-text available
The building wind pressure coefficient (Cp) is an important quantity which is used in many fields of building engineering including heating and cooling load calculations, ventilation design, and structural design. Cp is a dimensionless quantity that represents the proportionality between the wind velocity and the pressure generated on the surface of the building. Values for Cp can be obtained from full-scale building tests, wind tunnel tests, or, more commonly, from parametric equations derived from tests. The purpose of this paper is to analyze a set of wind tunnel tests and to present a new set of surface-averaged wind pressure coefficient values for low-rise buildings and a new parametric equation determined from a curve fit to the surface-averaged data. The resulting equations are compared to another popular low-rise parametric equation and another popular wind pressure coefficient database. The new parametric equation is found to fit both databases better than the older parametric equation.
Article
Mature technologies exist to reduce the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) energy associated with ventilation and use ventilation proactively to save energy. This study investigated the energy use impacts in U.S. office buildings of multiple alternative ventilation strategies that combined: economizing, demand controlled ventilation (DCV), supply air temperature reset (SR), and/or a doubled ventilation rate. We used energy simulations in a Monte Carlo analysis, sampling 17 building inputs and varying locations to match the climate zone distribution of the U.S. office stock. Results indicated the possibility for significant savings compared to a baseline that ventilated constantly at a minimum rate in both a small office type with a constant air volume (CAV) HVAC system and a medium office type with a variable air volume (VAV) system. In 95% of instances, HVAC source energy savings were 5–25% in the small-CAV office (median: 11%) and 6–42% in the medium-VAV office (median: 27%). In the small-CAV office, DCV typically saved the most energy, usually from heating, and heating degree days and occupant density were decisive influences. In the medium-VAV office, economizing and SR were most important, DCV usually only had minor impacts, and zone temperature setpoints, along with climate indicators, were the critical influences. Other than infiltration, envelope characteristics did not strongly influence energy impacts. The untapped primary energy savings of alternative ventilation strategies over the 74% of U.S. office floorspace reasonably represented by our modeling was estimated at 36 TWh per year, with an annual value of U.S. $1.25 billion.
Article
The suitability of night ventilation to reduce the cooling demand in buildings can be evaluated by coupling Airflow Network Models to Building Energy Simulation tools. To estimate wind-induced ventilation, pressure coefficients (CO on the building envelope are key inputs, as well as local wind speed and direction. C-P data obtained by primary sources such as measurements or CFD simulations are considered the most reliable but can be difficult to obtain. An easy alternative are C-P secondary sources, such as databases providing literature data correlations. Therefore an issue arises regarding the choice of the source of pressure coefficients. This paper investigates the effects of C-P from primary and secondary sources on the predicted energy saving potential of night ventilation of an isolated office building for several European climates and some relevant design conditions and simulation parameters. Different C9 sources produce a dispersion of C9 data and differences in the calculated night ventilation rates up to 15%. Contrary to what might be expected, these differences influence only marginally the resulting passive cooling effects. Overall a stronger impact is observed for the colder climates, where higher temperature differences occur between desired indoor temperature and night-averaged outdoor temperature. Finally, for the building under study, the choice of the Cp source appears less crucial than the choice of other building simulation parameters, such as the internal Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient. This study can support building designers towards accurate energy simulations of naturally ventilated buildings.
Article
This report describes the theoretical development of work done within task group “wind pressure distribution” of the COMIS Workshop. The paper is divided into three Sections with an introductory part on the physical fundamentals. The first Section entails the objectives and the meaning of modelling wind pressure distribution as an integrated part of multizone airflow modelling. A literature review is presented, on calculation techniques and wind tunnel tests, and a description of the evaluation of an existing numerical model. The second Section is related to the development of the Cp calculation model. Objectives, characteristics and methodology of the parametrical approach chosen for the analysis are depicted, together with a description of the reference data, the regression technique, the algorithm, and the structure of the calculation model. The third Section is a detailed report of the results of the regression analysis. The curve-fitting process is explained with reference to the main factors affecting the wind pressure distribution on a building envelope: terrain roughness, surrounding buildings, aspect ratios, and wind direction. Figures of the curves are shown. In the Appendix, equations and relevant coefficients of the curve-fitting are presented.
Article
Database-assisted design (DAD) is emerging as an important tool to design buildings for wind effects. However, there is a need for robust interpolation methods for pressure coefficients to extend the range of conditions beyond those in the aerodynamic database from wind tunnel experiments. An interpolation methodology, using artificial neural networks (ANN), was developed to include variable plan dimensions and roof slopes in the set of parameters considered in earlier interpolation studies. In addition to expanding the capabilities for interpolation, the new models improved predictions in the lee of the ridges for gable-roofed and low-rise buildings.
Article
Fuzzy neural networks (FNN) have capability to develop complex, nonlinear functional relationships between input–output patterns based on limited and sometimes inconsistent data, and are therefore suitable to predict wind loads on buildings on the basis of data obtained from model tests in wind tunnels. In this study, simultaneous pressure measurements are made on a large flat roof model in a boundary layer wind tunnel. An FNN approach is developed for prediction of mean pressure distributions on the roof model, and parts of the wind tunnel test results are used as the training sets for the FNN to recognize the pressure distribution patterns. The procedure is further extended to predict the power spectra and cross-power spectra of fluctuating wind pressures for some typical tap locations in the roof corners and leading edge areas under different wind directions. It is found that the developed FNN approach can generalize functional relationships of wind loads varying with incident wind directions and spatial locations on the roof, and can successfully predict the wind loads on the roof which are not fully covered by the wind tunnel measurements. It is demonstrated from this study that the adoption of the FNN approach can lead to a significant reduction of the pressure measurement programs (e.g., incident wind direction configurations and number of required pressure taps) in wind tunnel tests.
Article
Mean wind pressure coefficients (C p) are key input parameters for air infiltration and ventilation studies. However, building energy simulation and stand-alone airflow network programs usually only provide and/or use a limited amount of C p data, which are based on several assumptions. An important assumption consists of using surface-averaged C p values instead of local C p values with a high resolution in space. This paper provides information on the uncertainty in the calculated airflow rate due to the use of surface-averaged C p data. The study is performed using published empirical data on pressure coefficients obtained from extensive wind tunnel experiments. The uncertainty is assessed based on the comparison of the airflow rate (φ) calculated using the surface-averaged C p values (φ AV) and the airflow rate calculated using local C p values (φ LOC). The results indicate that the uncertainty with a confidence interval of 95% is high: 0.23 φ AV < φ LOC < 5.07 φ AV . In cases with the largest surface-averaged ΔC p , the underestimation or overestimation is smaller but not negligible: 0.52 φ AV < φ LOC < 1.42 φ AV . These results provide boundaries for future improvements in C p data quality, and new developments can be evaluated by comparison with the uncertainty of the current methods.