HVAC system

Field trips for an air handling system and the Richter utility plant

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 22:18:05 +0000

Field trips for an air handling system and the Richter utility plant Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/21/2017 - 16:18

Jing Wang

On Wednesday (04/19/2017) and Friday (04/21/2017), Dr. Zuo organized two field trips for some UM students. In these trips, the students visited an air handling system and the Richter utility plant. They had a deeper understanding of HVAC systems through the trips.

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1661-TRP, Development of Near-Optimal Control Sequence for Chiller Plants with Water Side Economizer using Dynamic Models

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 07:00:00 +0000

1661-TRP, Development of Near-Optimal Control Sequence for Chiller Plants with Water Side Economizer using Dynamic Models Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/01/2017 - 00:00

A water-side economizer (WSE) is a cooling system by which the chilled water is cooled by the cooling tower directly/indirectly without the use of mechanical cooling. Employing WSEs can decrease the building energy consumption by reducing the chiller operating time or increasing the chiller efficiency. WSEs, however, may pose challenges to the operation of chiller plants. For example, using WSE may result in chiller short cycling and temporary loss of chilled water supply temperature control. Moreover, having cold condenser water may cause the chillers trip on low head pressure, i.e., a lower pressure difference between the condenser and the evaporator. The above challenges can be addressed by adopting certain control sequences and there have been several control sequences successfully demonstrated in real-world applications. However, they are not intensively evaluated against all plant configurations, under all possible weather conditions. It is necessary to consider the effects for all plant configurations and all weather conditions when developing and evaluating a near-optimal WSE control sequence for large-scale applications.

Therefore, the objectives of the proposed research is to:

evaluate state-of-art control sequences for water side economizer (WSE) and develop a near-optimal sequence based on the comparison;
develop open-source dynamic models for controls evaluation of the chilled water plants with WSEs;
demonstrate the value of using a multidisciplinary modeling and analysis environment for integrating and sharing research among different TCs.

To achieve the above objectives, researchers in our lab will

conduct a comprehensive review on the state-of-the-art control sequences for WSEs.
develop Dynamic Models for Different Configurations of Chiller Plants with WSEs.
evaluate Strategies for WSE Sequencing.
develop a Near-Optimal Control Sequence for WSEs.

Publications

C. Fan, K. Hinkelman, Y. Fu, W. Zuo, S. Huang, C. Shi, N. Mamaghani, C. Faulkner, X. Zhou 2021. "Open-source Modelica Models for the Control Performance Simulation of Chiller Plants with Water-side Economizer." Applied Energy. 299, pp. 117337.
Y. Fu, X. Lu, W. Zuo 2019. “Modelica Models for the Control Evaluations of Chilled Water System with Waterside Economizer.” Proceedings of the 13th International Modelica Conference, pp. 811-818, March 4-6, Regensburg, Germany.

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Coupled Simulation of Indoor Environment, Envelope, HVAC, and Control Systems

Anonymous — Thu, 01 May 2014 06:00:00 +0000

Coupled Simulation of Indoor Environment, Envelope, HVAC, and Control Systems Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 05/01/2014 - 00:00

This research is to create a coupled simulation of indoor environment, envelope, HVAC and control systems to support the controls design and evaluation of energy efficient ventilation. The fast fluid dynamics (FFD) model is adopted to model the indoor environment with stratified air distribution. The Modelica Buildings library is used to model the building envelope, HVAC and related control system. The models have been publically released as a part of the Modelica Buildings library since 2015.

Collaborators

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Publications

Journal articles:

W. Tian, X. Han, W. Zuo, Q. Wang, Y. Fu, M. Jin 2019. “An Optimization Platform Based on Coupled Indoor Environment and HVAC Simulation and Its Application in Optimal Thermostat Placement.” Energy and Buildings, 199, pp. 342-251.
W. Tian, X. Han, W. Zuo, M. Sohn 2018. "Building Energy Simulation Coupled with CFD for Indoor Environment: A Critical Review and Recent Applications." Energy and Buildings, 165, pp.184-199.
W. Tian, T. A. Sevilla, W. Zuo, M. Sohn 2017. "Coupling Fast Fluid Dynamics and Multizone Airflow Models in Modelica Buildings Library to Simulate the Dynamics of HVAC System." Building and Environment, 122, pp. 269-286.
W. Zuo, M. Wetter, W. Tian, D. Li, M. Jin, Q. Chen 2016. "Coupling Indoor Airflow, HVAC, Control and Building Envelope Heat Transfer in the Modelica Buildings Library.” Journal of Building Performance Simulation, 9(4), pp. 366-381.

Conference proceedings:

W. Tian, Y. Fu, Q. Wang, T. A. Sevilla, W. Zuo 2018. “Optimization on Thermostat Location in an Office Room Using the Coupled Simulation Platform in Modelica Buildings Library: A Pilot Study.” Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Building Energy and Environment (COBEE2018), pp. 569-574, February 5-9, Melbourne, Australia.
W. Tian, W. Zuo, T. A. Sevilla, M. Sohn 2017. “Coupled Simulation Between CFD and Multizone Models Based on Modelica Buildings Library to Study Indoor Environment Control.” Proceedings of the 12th International Modelica Conference, pp. 55-61, May 15-17, Prague, Czech Republic.
M. Wetter, M. Bonvini, T. S. Nouidui, W. Tian, W. Zuo 2015. “Modelica Buildings Library 2.0.” Proceedings of the 14th Conference of International Building Performance Simulation Association (Building Simulation 2015), pp. 387-394, December 7-9, Hyderabad, India.
W. Zuo, M. Wetter, D. Li, M. Jin, W. Tian, Q. Chen 2014. “Coupled Simulation of Indoor Environment, HVAC and Control System by Using Fast Fluid Dynamics and the Modelica Buildings Library.” Proceedings of the 2014 ASHRAE/IBPSA-USA Building Simulation Conference, pp. 56-63, September 10-12, Atlanta, GA.
W. Tian, W. Zuo 2013. “Literature Review and Research Needs to Couple Building Energy and Airflow Simulation.” Proceedings of the APEC Conference on Low-carbon Towns and Physical Energy Storage, pp. 492-496, May 25-26, Changsha, China.

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