Simulation of the climate system performance of a museum in case of failure events

The paper presents the evaluation of the current HVAC components and indoor climate of a high tech Naval Depot when the system fails. The methodology of the research was: first, implementation of the heat, air & moisture models of the building and HVAC components. Second, validation of the models using measured data from the existing building control system. Third, simulation of the current and new HVAC systems designs. Fourth, discussion of the usability of the approach. For this specific case, we concluded that the current system design performs well if, in case of a fault, the air supply to the depots is switched off automatically. The construction of the depots has sufficient thermal inertia to maintain a stable indoor climate for a period long enough to allow it to be repaired. The design could be further improved by controlling the indoor climate surrounding the depots instead of inside the depots itself. In such a case, even if the system did not detect a fault and continued supplying uncontrolled air to the surroundings of the depot, the indoor climate in the depot would remain stable. We conclude that the approach presented in this paper has a wider application than this single case study.