Questions about buildings without foundations

asked 2025-10-17 07:04:35 -0600

21 ●1 ●1

I am using EnergyPlus to simulate a structure made from modified shipping containers. This structure has no foundation, which distinguishes it from typical buildings. It consists simply of shipping containers placed on the ground with interior insulation installed. In this case, is it appropriate to use Kiva for calculating ground heat conduction? Or would it be acceptable to use Ground Surface Temperature? Note that I do not have data on the ground temperature at the building surface. Undisturbed ground temperature data can be obtained from EPW files.

answered 2025-10-17 12:20:42 -0600

Neal Kruis

4775 ●11 ●17 http://bigladdersoftware.com/

In your case, the structure is still in contact with the ground and will influence the surrounding ground temperature. You can model this in Kiva by making the footing wall construction use the same material properties the soil, with "Wall Height Above Grade" and "Wall Depth Below Slab" close to zero.

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Do you even need to describe a footing wall construction at all? My impression was that it wasn't actually required by the foundation object, and when I've set up similar things to connect, say, a subfloor zone to the bare ground it runs fine with an empty Kiva:Foundation object with 0 wall height and wall depth.

Jamie Sullivan ( 2025-10-21 14:49:53 -0600 )edit

@Jamie Sullivan, the default footing wall construction is "a 0.3 m wide poured concrete wall". So while it works, it may not be exactly what you are intending to model.

Neal Kruis ( 2025-10-21 15:06:28 -0600 )edit

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