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CHAMPS in Building Envelope Systems

CHAMPS-BES is a software tool for free non-commercial use. The CHAMPS-BES user community includes research institutes and consulting companies.

CHAMPS Research Focus

  • Develop mathematical models and computer simulation tools for the assessment of the long-term energy, indoor environmental quality, and durability performance of building envelope systems
  • Develop a mathematical model and simulation tool for simulating the salt transport in construction materials and its impact on the durability of materials
  • Develop an integrated computer simulation environment for assessing the Combined Heat, Air, Moisture and Pollutants Transport in a whole building system
  • Develop fast CHAMP simulation models for real-time predictive control of building environmental systems
  • Benchmark and validate the simulation models by conducting small and full-scale laboratory experiments, and field tests (working closely with the hygrothermal group)

Our Research Facilities

  • Full-scale Coupled Indoor/Outdoor Environmental Simulator (C-/I/O-ES)
  • 64-nodes parallel computing facility
  • Hot wire anemometers, PDPA/LDA, and stereo PIV
  • Hygrothermal performance simulation software: Delphin, LATENITE, and FSEC3.0
  • hauilding Energy performance simulation software: EnergyPlus, HAP and ESPR
  • Multizone pollutant transport simulation software: CONTAM and COMIS
  • Integrated building simulation tools: EDAR
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation software: Fluent
  • IAQ simulation tools: MEDh4-IAQ and IAQX

The Research Team

  • Dr. Jensen Zhang
  • Yixing Chen
  • Zhaozhou Meng
  • Shiwangizaw Semahegn
  • Francesca Ling
  • Korh4aga Woldikidan
  • Lixing Gu
  • Dan Rice

Other active collah4orating faculty:

  • Professor Michael Pelken, School of Architecture, Syracuse University
  • Dr. Lixing Gu, Florida Solar Energy Center, Central Florida University
  • Dr. John Grunewald, Professor and Director, Technical Universtiy of Dresden, Germany
  • Dr. Andreas Nicolai, Technical University of Dresdent, Germany
  • Dr. Thong Dang, Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Syracuse University

Active Projects

  • Development of a “Virtual Building” Testh4ed
  • Development of an integrated building design process
  • Development of CHAMPS-multizone model
  • Development of a Virtual Design Studio

Past Projects

  • CHAMPS-Envelope model development (M. Salonvaara/A. Nicolai)
  • Development of a database program for material properties (A. Nicolai)
  • Effects of a leakage flow on VOC emissions and transport in wood-framed wall assemblies (H.Li)
  • Effects of leakage airflow on moisture transport in wood framed wall assemblies (M. Salonvaara)
  • Modeling particle penetration through residential and small commercial wall assemblies (Z. Gao)
  • Experimental and numerical modeling of particle deposition and re-suspension (S. Wang)
  • Salt transport model (A. Nicolai)

CHAMPS Software