Surface Output Specifications

Surface Output Specifications are extra options that you can apply to surfaces in the model. The options allow TBD to output more data about selected surfaces when simulating. This data will be available with the rest of the results in the TSD file once the model has been simulated.

Creating Surface Output Specs

To create a new Surface Output Spec in your TBD file you need to right click on the tree view on the left then select ‘Surface Output Spec’. Alternatively you can click on the ‘New Surface Output Spec’ button on the ribbon.

Applying to Surfaces

Surface Output Specs can be applied to each surface individually or they can be applied to all the surfaces in a zone at once. But it is not recommended you apply it all the surfaces in a zone without checking the surfaces first as this can lead to errors like applying it to a null surface.

To apply a Surface Output Spec onto a single surface, the zone which contains that surface needs to be selected in the tree view on the left. Then the surface tab needs to be selected to show all the surfaces in the selected zone. Now you can select the Surface Output Spec from the by clicking on the relevant column and it will display a dropdown list to chose from. Alternatively, you can drag the Surface Output Spec from the tree view on the left to the Surface in the table.

To apply a Surface Output Spec onto all of the surface in a zone you need to drag and drop the Surface Output Spec on to the relevant zone in the tree view.

Properties

Property	Definition
Solar Gain	The amount of solar gain absorbed by the internal and external sides of the surface.
Aperture Data	Air that flows through the aperture and the percentage opening of the aperture.
Condensation	The amount of internal, external and interstitial condensation build-up for a surface. When this option is selected, the “Convection” and “Temperature” options will automatically be selected.
Conduction	External and internal conduction.
Convection	External and internal convection.
Long Wave	The amount of long wave radiation gain absorbed by the internal and external sides of the surface. When this option is selected, the “Solar Gain”, “Conduction”, and “Convection” options will automatically be selected as well.
Temperature	External and internal surface temperatures.