Integrated-Energy Modelling for Energy Efficiency and Sustainability in the Automotive Sector

The overarching aim of this research is to develop a software tool for automatically processing Point Cloud data and creating a Finite Volume Model (FVM) for Building Energy Modelling and Simulation (BEMS) with a focus on industrial buildings and factories. The software tool will require inputs of Point Cloud data, in a suitable format, captured from a time-of-flight laser scanner. The tool will produce a building geometry file, in a suitable format, that can be imported into industry leading BEMS software. The software will need to identify key building geometry features such as walls, floors, ceilings, windows and doors. In doing so the timescales required to perform BEMS will be significantly reduced compared with traditional BEMS workflows. This will be achieved with the following objectives;
1. Define optimal Point Cloud data resolution for generation of a BEMS FVM.
2. Detect primitive building structures, such as planes representing walls, floors and ceilings, for geometrical feature definition.
3. Identification of features within planes such as windows, doors and holes to enhance BEMS.
4. Process identified building features to form individual finite volumes for each room of a building in a FVM.
5. Convert FVM into appropriate format for use in commercially available BEMS software.
The potential application of this research is to considerably reduce the time taken to perform BEMS on buildings that are undergoing retrofit assessments by rapidly and automatically creating computer models suitable for engineering analysis. There is further future scope for this application to grow into automatically generating as-built Computer Aided Design (CAD) data for numerous applications, not just BEMS.
This will act to remove disincentives of the current BEMS workflow by reducing survey costs and minimising disruption to the building occupants and owners. This technology can contribute to the growing array of technology and practices that will help the UK meet its future environmental commitments.