November 2023

ORNL Report

DEVELOPING 3D MORPHOLOGIES FOR SIMULATING BUILDING ENERGY DEMAND IN URBAN MICROCLIMATES

By:
Carvalhaes, Thomaz M; Seals, Matthew B; Dumas, Melissa R; New, Joshua R; Omitaomu, Olufemi A; Yuan, Jiangye
Publication Date:
November 9, 2023

Abstract

In order to simulate the effect of interactions between urban morphology and microclimate on demand for heating and cooling in buildings, we utilize source elevation data to create 3D building geometries at the neighborhood and city scale. Additionally, we use urban morphology concepts to design virtual morphologies for simulation scenarios in an undeveloped land parcel. Using these morphologies, we compute building-energy parameters such as the density for each surface and the frontal area index for each of the buildings to be able to effectively model the microclimate for the urban area.