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OpenStudio: can't calculate zone volume due to not enclosed surfaces

asked Mar 28

updated Mar 28

Hi, everyone!

I was running OpenStudio and got some severe errors like the following.

   ** Severe  ** For zone: ELC ROOM 1 it is not possible to calculate the volume from the surrounding surfaces so either provide the volume value or define all the surfaces to fully enclose the zone.
** Warning ** CalculateZoneVolume: The Zone="ELC ROOM 1" is not fully enclosed. To be fully enclosed, each edge of a surface must also be an edge on one other surface.
   **   ~~~   **   The zone volume was not calculated and an error exists. 
   **   ~~~   **   The surface "SURFACE 77" has an edge that was used 4 times: it is an edge on three or more surfaces: 
   **   ~~~   **     It was found on the following Surfaces: 'SURFACE 82' 'SURFACE 687' 'SURFACE 682' 
   **   ~~~   **     Vertex start { 65.5000, 121.2319, 8.0000}
   **   ~~~   **     Vertex end   { 72.9262, 113.3000, 8.0000}
   **   ~~~   **   The surface "SURFACE 77" has an edge that was used 3 times: it is an edge on three or more surfaces: 
   **   ~~~   **     It was found on the following Surfaces: 'SURFACE 78' 'SURFACE 210' 
   **   ~~~   **     Vertex start { 72.9262, 113.3000, 8.0000}
   **   ~~~   **     Vertex end   { 72.9262, 113.3000, 4.4000}
   **   ~~~   **   The surface "SURFACE 78" has an edge that was used 4 times: it is an edge on three or more surfaces: 
   **   ~~~   **     It was found on the following Surfaces: 'SURFACE 210' 'SURFACE 374' 'SURFACE 939' 
   **   ~~~   **     Vertex start { 72.9262, 113.3000, 8.0000}
   **   ~~~   **     Vertex end   { 69.3000, 113.3000, 8.0000}
   **   ~~~   **   The surface "SURFACE 78" has an edge that was used 3 times: it is an edge on three or more surfaces: 
   **   ~~~   **     It was found on the following Surfaces: 'SURFACE 79' 'SURFACE 210' 
   **   ~~~   **     Vertex start { 69.3000, 113.3000, 8.0000}
   **   ~~~   **     Vertex end   { 69.3000, 113.3000, 4.4000}

I've already checked the zones, and they are enclosed. According to some videos(https://youtu.be/Eex6T2SmqOc?si=gjAnyCZx_vbxH8wb), this can be fixed using the inspector in SketchUP, but I find it almost impossible, as my model is a shopping mall with 4 stories and complex structures. Computing the volume for each zone seems to be time-consuming.

I am a new user of OpenStudio and can't figure out the meaning of the upper code. My model can be viewed through this link. I try to save the file as idf. but failed.

Does anyone know how to solve the problem?

Thanks, any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

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I edited your Google Drive link, which wasn't working. I just requested access permission, but ideally this shouldn't require authorization - should be shared publicly.

Denis Bourgeois's avatar Denis Bourgeois  ( Mar 28 )
1

Thanks for reminding! I opened the access to the public just now.

LEUNG Peijun's avatar LEUNG Peijun  ( Mar 28 )

2 Answers

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answered Mar 28

The problem is that the spaces in your thermal zone (ELC ROOM 1) are separated from each other. image description

If you are going to combine spaces into a single thermal zone, they must be adjacent to each other (ie. share a common wall or floor or ceiling). This is discussed further in this video here: https://youtu.be/9vSApboNv8g

I would recommend each of these spaces associated with thermal zone ELC ROOM 1 (Space 261, Space 174, etc.) be assigned to its own unique thermal zone.

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1

Thank you so much for your help! I will try to solve it in this way!

LEUNG Peijun's avatar LEUNG Peijun  ( Mar 28 )
2

answered Mar 28

updated Mar 28

EDIT: Oops - didn't refresh the screen before posting my initial answer. @Ski90Moo provided the appropriate answer to your question. Hoping the following comments/suggestions are nonetheless useful to you.


It's challenging to go first through the (numerous) reported errors/warnings in the run/eplusout.err file, as most of the model's thermal zones are made up of several spaces - some have enclosure issues, others do not. So I suggest you go through (and fix) geometry errors and warnings first reported by the OpenStudio Application (App):

image description

For instance, "Space 210" is reported as not enclosed.

image description

Indeed, the volume isn't enclosed - there's what looks like to be an empty archway (immediately beneath "Surface 2624", highlighted in yellow) - there can't be gaps like that. This should be an easy fix.

There are other easy fixes, such as these 2 degenerate surfaces (i.e. not valid polygons) - just delete them from the .osm file.

image description

image description

Take advantage of the App's Geometry Diagnostics - they're pretty useful to identify/illustrate common issues.

image description

Less critical issues, but I'm sure you'd like to fix, include subsurface vertex limitations: 3 to 4 vertices max per subsurface polygon. "Sub Surface 18" has 24, so EnergyPlus ends up ignoring it. A solution would be to breakup this large skylight subsurface into multiple triangular ones. There are many subsurfaces like this in your model.

image description

So it's best to first go through errors the App is highlighting, before individual spaces are merged into a single thermal zone in the IDF. I suspect this will be a somewhat iterative cleanup ...

Hope this helps.


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Thanks a lot, this is a helpful and detailed comment! I would try to carefully fix all geometry problems before merging the thermal zone.

LEUNG Peijun's avatar LEUNG Peijun  ( Mar 28 )
1

@Denis Bourgeois Thank you! I had not noticed these geometry diagnostics in the App. You learn something every day!

Ski90Moo's avatar Ski90Moo  ( Mar 29 )

@Ski90Moo, yes - great features. Kudos to the OpenStudio Coalition for introducing these over the last 3 or 4 releases (if I remember correctly).

Denis Bourgeois's avatar Denis Bourgeois  ( Mar 29 )

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Asked: Mar 28

Seen: 77 times

Last updated: Mar 28