ASHRAE and IBPSA-USA have announced a joint conference that merges the IBPSA-USA SimBuild and ASHRAE Energy Modeling Conferences. The joint conference, entitled 2014 ASHRAE/IBPSA-USA Building Simulation Conference, Sept. 10-12, 2014, Atlanta, Ga., currently has a call for papers.

“This conference is a first for the industry, and we’re excited about the benefits it can bring to the building energy analysis and performance simulation community,” Dennis Knight, Conference chair, said.  The conference seeks to improve the industry’s ability to accurately model building performance.

Modelers, software developers, owners and researchers will address the practices of energy modeling and building performance simulation using existing simulation tools, software development, and future simulation research and applications.

The conference is focusing on "BIM, BEM and SIM – Integrated Building Design and Modeling,” addressing building information modeling, building energy modeling and building simulation.

“The most pressing need facing modelers is transferring data between tools, and this conference seeks to provide answers through the conference content and by bringing together practitioners, software developers and the research community,” Knight said.

Currently, organizers are seeking papers on topics addressing the integration and interoperability of analytic modeling tools (BEM and SIM) with physical modeling tools (BIM). In addition, papers are sought describing workarounds, case studies, how to's, challenges, barriers and cloud based solutions.

Topics include:
•       Energy efficiency
•       HVAC component modeling
•       Urban scale modeling
•       HVAC load analysis
•       Lighting and daylighting
•       Computational fluid dynamics
•       Data exchange and interoperability
•       Energy auditing
•       Life cycle cost and economic analysis
•       Model calibration and validation
•       Combined use of multiple tools
•       Co-simulation
•       Optimization
•       Model and algorithm advances
•       Moisture
•       Weather data

Abstracts (400 or less words in length) are due Nov.  4, 2013. If accepted, papers are due March 3, 2014. The conference papers will be a maximum of 8 pages in length.

To submit an abstract or for more information, visit www.ashrae.org/simulation2014.

A call for presenters will be announced after the call for papers closes.  Invited speakers and keynote speakers will be announced.

The conference will cover two-and-a half days and will be preceded by two days of training seminars and short courses.

“The goal of the conference is help make better decisions through the application of simulation and modeling over the entire building life cycle from the earliest concept through operation and maintenance,” Knight said.