An optimal control strategy for complex building central chilled water systems for practical and real-time applications

This paper presents an optimal control strategy for online control of central chilled water systems in complex building air-conditioning systems to enhance their energy efficiency. The optimal control strategy is formulated using a systematic approach by considering the system level and subsystem level characteristics and interactions among the overall system. The requirements and constraints of practical applications are also carefully considered during the development of this strategy. This optimal control strategy consists of the model-based performance predictor (i.e., simplified models), cost estimator (i.e., cost function), optimization technique, supervisory strategy and a number of local control strategies. The local control strategies are used to ensure the robust operation and keep track of control settings considering the dynamic characteristics of the local process environment. The performance of this strategy is tested and evaluated in a simulated virtual environment representing the complex central chilling system in a super high-rise building by comparing it with that of other control strategies. The results showed that this strategy is more energy efficient and cost effective than the other strategies for online applications. This strategy is being implemented in the super high-rise building under study for field application and validation.     

Energy efficient control of variable speed pumps in complex building central air-conditioning systems

This paper presents the optimal control strategies for variable speed pumps with different configurations in complex building air-conditioning systems to enhance their energy efficiencies. Through a detailed analysis of the system characteristics, the pressure drop models for different water networks in complex air-conditioning systems are developed and then used to formulate an optimal pump sequence control strategy. This sequence control strategy determines the optimal number of pumps in operation taking into account their power consumptions and maintenance costs. The variable speed pumps in complex air-conditioning systems can be classified into two groups: the pumps distributing water to terminal units and pumps distributing water to heat exchanges. The speeds of pumps distributing water to terminal units are controlled by resetting the pressure differential set-point using the online opening signals of water control valves. The speeds of pumps distributing water to heat exchanges are controlled using a water flow controller. The performances of these strategies are tested and evaluated in a simulated virtual environment representing the complex air-conditioning system in a super high-rise building by comparing with that of other reference strategies. The results showed that about 12-32% of pump energy could be saved by using these optimal control strategies.     

A fault detection technique for air-source heat pump water chiller/heaters

This paper describes a fault detection method and system to detect the faults in air-source heat pump water chiller/heaters. Principal component analysis (PCA) approach is used to extract the correlation of variables in heat pump unit and reduce the dimension of measured data. A PCA model is built to determine the thresholds of statistics and calculate square prediction errors (SPE) of new observations, which are used to check if a fault occurs in heat pump unit. The fault detection system consists of a PCA-based fault detection code, a backpack computer, a digital logger and eight easy-to-install temperature sensors. A real air-source heat pump water chiller/heater for the air-conditioning system of an office building provides the realistic test platform for the validation of fault detection method. The measured data from the heat pump unit under normal condition shows that the PCA model can capture the major correlation and variance among the test variables. Two levels of artificial condenser fouling fault are successfully detected. The results show that the PCA-based fault detection method is applicable and effective for air-source heat pump water chiller/heater.     

A development of easy-to-use tool for fault detection and diagnosis in building air-conditioning systems

There are many reports about faulty status in building air-conditioning systems recently. It becomes difficult to keep indoor air temperature appropriately as faults occur, and the faults cause waste of building energy consumption. The model-based fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) methods have been researched for specific parts of air-conditioning system such as chillers, coils, variable air volume units (VAV units), etc. It needs, however, much time and labor to monitor and check every single part because we cannot predict where and when the faults occur. The purpose of this study is to examine indoor air temperature changes and energy consumption increase when faults occur and to develop an easy-to-use FDD tool that helps to find out the faulty place through the whole building air-conditioning system. And then, we treat the reliability of the proposed FDD tool and effectiveness to control of indoor environment deterioration and energy consumption increase by the tool is evaluated based on building air-conditioning system simulation in this paper.     

A robust fault detection and diagnosis strategy for pressure-independent VAV terminals of real office buildings

A robust fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) strategy using a hybrid approach is presented for pressure-independent variable air volume (VAV) terminals in this paper. The residual-based cumulative sum (CUSUM) control charts are utilized to detect faults in VAV terminals. The residuals between the temperature error and its predication are generated using autoregressive time-series models. The standard CUSUM control charts are used to monitor the residuals which are statistically independent. If the CUSUM value exceeds the chart limits, it means the occurrence of fault or abnormity in the corresponding VAV terminal. The residual-based CUSUM control chart can improve the accuracy of fault detection through eliminating the effects of serial correlation on the performance of control charts. Also, the residual-based CUSUM control chart can enhance the robustness and reliability of fault detection through reducing the impacts of normal transient changes. A rule-based fault classifier consisting of expert rules and fault isolation algorithms is developed to isolate 15 fault sources. The FDD strategy was online tested and validated using in real time data collected from real VAV air-conditioning systems.     

A fault-tolerant and energy efficient control strategy for primary-secondary chilled water systems in buildings

Primary-secondary chilled water systems with decoupled bypass in building air-conditioning often cannot work in healthy condition as desired in practical operation, due to excess secondary flow demand resulting in deficit flow in the bypass line. This paper presents a fault-tolerant and energy efficient control strategy for secondary chilled water pump systems to solve this operation and control problem providing enhanced operation performance and energy efficiency of chilled water systems. The strategy employs the flow-limiting technique that ensures the water flow of secondary loop not exceed that of the primary loop while still maintaining highest possible delivery capacity of cooling to terminals. The strategy is also integrated with a differential pressure set-point optimizer to determine the optimal set-point. The performance of this strategy is evaluated in a simulated real-life environment representing the chilled water system in a super high-rise building by comparing it with two conventional control strategies. Results show that the proposed strategy can effectively eliminate the deficit flow at both starting and normal operation periods. The energy saving in the secondary chilled water pumps can be up to over 70% and 50% at system starting and normal operation periods respectively compared with the other strategies.     

建筑能源管理与控制系统中传感器故障及其检测与诊断

描述了传感器故障类型，给出了其故障函数。用主成分分析法对建筑能源管理与控制系统测量数据进行建模并对空调检测系统中的四类传感器故障进行检测与诊断。结果表明主成分分析法具有很好的故障检测和故障诊断能力。     

A system-level fault detection and diagnosis strategy for HVAC systems involving sensor faults

This paper presents a strategy for fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) of HVAC systems involving sensor faults at the system level. Two schemes are involved in the system-level FDD strategy, i.e. system FDD scheme and sensor fault detection, diagnosis and estimation (FDD&E) scheme. In the system FDD scheme, one or more performance indices (PIs) are introduced to indicate the performance status (normal or faulty) of each system. Regression models are used as the benchmarks to validate the PIs computed from the actual measurements. The reliability of the system FDD is affected by the health of sensor measurements. A method based on principal component analysis (PCA) is used to detect and diagnose the sensor bias and to correct the sensor bias prior to the use of the system FDD scheme. Two interaction analyses are conducted. One is the impact of system faults on sensor FDD&E. The other is the impact of corrected sensor faults on the system FDD. It is found that the sensor FDD&E method can work well in identifying biased sensors and recovering biases even if system faults coexist, and the system FDD method is effective in diagnosing the system-level faults using processed measurements by the sensor FDD&E.     

集中空调冷却水变流量问题辨析

指出集中空调冷却水系统为开式系统,一般不适用功率三次方定律,静压头应为冷却塔塔体扬程,并提出了冷却水泵变速时轴功率的计算公式;明确变流量的节能效果与控制方式密切相关,即使机组处于满负荷状态,但只要是在非设计工况,采用冷凝温度控制法,也可能实现变流量节能;指出制定多台冷水机组部分负荷性能指标的意义。     

Influence of building parameters and HVAC systems coupling on building energy performance

The performance of different HVAC systems varies when coupled with different buildings. This paper examines the relationship between building heating and cooling load and subsequent energy consumption with different HVAC systems. Two common HVAC systems in use throughout the UK office building stock, variable air volume (VAV) system and fan coil (FC) with dedicated outside air system, have been coupled with a typical narrow plan office building with and without daylight control and for both cellular and open plan.The results presented in this paper clearly indicate that it is not possible to form a reliable judgment about building energy performance based only on building heating and cooling loads. For the two investigated systems, variable air volume system and fan coil with dedicated outside air system, the difference between system demand and building demand varied from over −40% to almost +30% for cooling and between −20% and +15% for heating. If a heat recovery unit is used, the difference in heating performance is even greater, rising to −70%.     

Adaptive optimal control model for building cooling and heating sources

An adaptive optimal control model for building cooling and heating sources is presented with the aim of achieving global optimization and satisfying the requirements of time and accuracy in HVAC system control. The adaptive optimal control model includes the optimal control model, parameter identification and optimization algorithm. First, the penalty function is constructed to transform constrained optimization problem into unconstrained optimization problem, and then, the fuzzy self-tuning forgetting factor method is developed for parameter identification. In the end, the genetic algorithm (GA) is used to find the optimum values for the discrete and continuous variables. Optimization is applied for the building cooling source system in a publishing house located in Changsha, China. The optimization is expected to reduce the energy consumption of the cooling source system by 7%.     

Effects of alternative control strategies of water-evaporative cooling systems on energy efficiency and plume control: A case study

This paper reports the evaluations of energy efficiency, plume potential as well as plume control of a huge chiller plant using water-evaporative cooling towers for heat rejection for a super high-rising commercial office building in a subtropical region of Hong Kong. The evaluations were carried out in a dynamic Transient Simulation Program (TRNSYS)-based simulation platform using alternative control strategies including set-point control logics of the supply cooling water temperature and cooling tower fan modulation control methods as well as different number control means of cooling towers. The results show that different control strategies have significant effects on the energy efficiency of the chiller plant. The quantification of the energy efficiency demonstrates significant energy-saving potential by using advanced technologies for implementing optimal control strategies in this cooling system. The results also reveal that the plume may occur frequently in spring and summer seasons and occasionally in other months due to the odd subtropical weather conditions. Control strategies also have significant effects on the frequency of the plume occurrence. The effective energy efficiency control and effective plume control using wet–dry (i.e., hybrid) cooling towers are also discussed.     

稳健时序分析在建筑物沉降监测中的应用

以高层建筑物为研究对象,提高预报精度为目的,详细研究了时间序列方法建立预报模型的方法,基于测量数据中存在异常值是难免的,将稳健估计方法引入时间序列建模,提出了基于稳健估计的自回归建模方法,采用某仓库两个沉降监测点连续42期观测数据对该方法进行了验证计算与分析,结果表明数据中存在异常值时,稳健比常规自回归模型的预报精度有较明显的提高。     

Excel在制冷机组故障检测与诊断工具开发中的应用

用Excel表格作为后台数据库,在VC平台上结合.NET数据库技术,开发了大型制冷机组的故障检测与诊断工具。用现场实验数据进行检验表明,该故障检测与诊断工具具有运行稳健,故障检测准确、快速等优点,能够用于生产现场的实时故障检测与诊断。     

Artificial intelligence and networking in integrated building management systems

In recent years the emphasis has moved towards integrating all a building's systems via centralised building management systems (BMS). To provide a more intelligent approach to the facility management, safety and energy control in building management systems (IBMS), this paper proposes a methodology for integrating the data within a BMS via a single multi-media networking technology and providing the BMS with artificial intelligence (AI) through the use of knowledge-based systems (KBS) technology. By means of artificial intelligence, the system is capable of assessing, diagnosing and suggesting the best solution. This paper outlines how AI techniques can enhance the control of HVAC systems for occupant comfort and efficient running costs based on occupancy prediction. Also load control and load balancing are investigated. Instead of just using pre-programmed load priorities, this work has investigated the use of a dynamic system of priorities which are based on many factors such as area usage, occupancy, time of day and real time environmental conditions. This control strategy which is based on a set of rules running on the central control system, makes use of information gathered from outstations throughout the building and communicated via the building's data-bus.     

多联机与水系统集中空调技术差距及对策

从实用角度对比分析了进口多联机与传统水系统集中空调的技术差距和发展前景,认为传统集中空调设备厂家应该具有危机感,政府应该重视和支持企业的技术创新和组织管理。鉴于冷(热)媒水量(能量)调节已成为制约集中空调市场竞争力的关键技术难题,研制了基于功能材料的传感-控制-驱动/执行一体化自适应控制器,认为其经济、可行。     

楼宇自控在学校类建筑中央空调系统中的应用

论述了学校类建筑物中央空调系统设置楼宇自控系统的重要性和必要性,分析了空调监控系统的构成,对空调监控系统的监控原理及方法进行了详细介绍,以实现对建筑内空调设备有效、合理的监控和管理,使其达到最佳状态。     

集中空调冷却水系统的节能运行

简述了集中空调系统中冷却水系统典型运行方式,并指出这些运行方式不节能的原因。提出了冷却水泵变速驱动和风机起停控制的节能运行方式,并以算例分析了该方式的节能效果。     

集中空调冷却水系统结垢与腐蚀问题的探讨

从理论上分析了集中空调冷却水系统结垢、腐蚀、滋生菌藻的原因,给出了正确的运行管理方法。