Development of an Optimal/Robust Control Strategy for Electrical Energy Cost Minimization in an Air-Conditioning Plant

Abstract

This thesis concentrates on thermal behaviour modelling for constructions and fabricating an optimal control technique for AHU systems. The obstacle of designing an acceptable model to fetch the properties of heat storage and heat transmission for building thermal components like walls and rooms is addressed with the aid of the method of lumped capacitance. The equations that describe the dynamics of the system are fetched using the approach of thermal circuit, and by determining equivalent thermal resistors, thermal masses and thermal capacitors. In the control design section, it is shown a control algorithm which is represented by the controller of Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle. The optimal tracking issue is studied using Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle controller taking into consideration the walls interconnection. The controller of Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle is responsible for minimizing a quadratic cost function which consists of two quadratic parts or terms. The first term is responsible for the comfort level while the other term represents the control effort, which is the energy consumption for operation of the HVAC system. Simulation results for a single room example