NIST Multizone Modeling Website
Simulation Results
CONTAM can provide you with several types of simulation results. The results available after a simulation depend on the simulation method and output parameter settings. Once the results are available, you can view results using ContamW or NIST-provided utilities or import files to a spreadsheet program for further analysis. Some files are created as text files while others are binary (non human-readable files).
Results Files
When ContamX performs a simulation, it creates a set of results files within the same directory that the project file is stored. These results files have the same file name as the project file with different extensions appended to indicate the type of results file. The following table lists the different file extensions and gives a brief description of the files. Details of each file are provided following the table.
| Extension | Type | File Description |
|---|---|---|
| .ACH | Text | Whole building air change rate — broken down into airflow path and ventilation system components and the combined value. This file can contain results for each time step and/or daily box-whisker results. |
| .AGE | Text | Age of air — age of air results for each zone at each time step and/or daily box-whisker results. |
| .BAL | Text | Balance — results of duct balancing calculation. |
| .CBW | Text | Contaminant box whisker results — only created for daily box-whisker results. |
| .CSM | Text | Contaminant source/sink summation — total mass of contaminants generated and/or accumulated by source/sinks and filters during a simulation. |
| .EBW | Text | Occupant exposure results — total exposure of each occupant to each contaminant for each time step and/or daily box-whisker results. |
| .LOG | Text | Controls log file — contains the output of all Report control nodes. |
| .RST | Binary | Simulation restart file — only for use by ContamX for restarting simulations at the beginning of intermediate days of a simulation. |
| .SIM | Binary | Detailed simulation results — airflow rates and pressure difference of flow links (paths and duct segments), pressures and temperatures of airflow nodes (zones and junctions), and contaminant concentrations of contaminant nodes at each time step. This is the file from which SketchPad results and graphs are produced and displayed using ContamW. It is also the file from which Export and Report files can be generated. |
| .VAL | Text | Model "validation" test results file — contains the results of either the Building Airflow Test or Building Pressurization Test airflow simulation methods. |
Table — CONTAM Results Files
