Multizone Airflow Model in Modelica

We present the implementation of a library of multi-zone airflow models in Modelica and a comparative model validation with CONTAM. Our models have a similar level of detail as the models in CONTAM and COMIS. The multizone airflow models allow modeling the flow between rooms through doors, staircases or construction cracks. The flow can be caused by buoyancy effects, such as stack effects in high rise buildings or air temperature imbalance between adjoining rooms, by flow imbalance of a ventilation system, or by wind pressure on the building envelope. The here presented library can be used with a Modelica library for thermal building and HVAC system simulation to compute interzonal air flow rates. The combined use facilitates the integrated design of building systems, which is typically required for analyzing the interaction of room control loops in variable air volume flow systems through open doors, the flow in naturally ventilated buildings and the pressure in elevator shafts caused by stacked effects.