METHOD FOR DETERMINING PARAMETERS FOR CONTROLLING AN HVCA SYSTEM

• US 20130144444A1
• Filed: 08/01/2011
• Published: 06/06/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Schneider Electric Industries SAS (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: Schneider Electric Industries SAS (Schneider Electric SE)
• Inventors: Ligeret, Christophe
• Application Number:
  US13/816,325
• Publication Number:
  US 20130144444A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/276
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/00 Control or safety arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 17/02 electric

Abstract

A method for determining parameters for regulating an HVAC system including thermal elements configured to be regulated by regulation loops, including: simulation in steady state of thermal and electrical behaviour of the modelled HVAC system, computing energy consumption of the modelled HVAC system for different values of physical magnitudes and different values of set points to be applied at an input of the regulation loops; determination of values of set points for which energy consumption of the modelled HVAC system is lowest; simulation in dynamic state of the thermal and electrical behaviour of the modelled HVAC system, computing values of output physical magnitudes of the thermal elements; computation of parameter values of the regulation loops, based on values of output physical magnitudes of the thermal elements and for each of the regulation loops.

Claims

1-15. -15. (canceled)

16. A method for determining parameters for regulating an HVAC system including thermal elements configured to be regulated by regulation loops, the method comprising:

simulating in steady state of thermal and electrical behaviour of the HVAC system modelled by mathematical models of thermal and electrical behaviour of the thermal elements of the HVAC system, computing energy consumption of the HVAC system, modelled for different values of physical magnitudes influencing energy performance of the thermal elements, and different values of set points to be applied at an input of the regulation loops;

determining values of the set points for which energy consumption of the modelled HVAC system is lowest;

simulating in dynamic state the thermal and electrical behaviour of the modelled HVAC system, computing values of output physical magnitudes of the thermal elements; and

computing, based on the values of output physical magnitudes and for each of the regulation loops, the parameter values of the regulation loops.

17. A method according to claim 16, wherein the simulating in dynamic state of the thermal and electrical behaviour of the modelled HVAC system is carried out by varying values of input signals of the thermal elements of the modelled HVAC system, computing the values of the parameters of the regulation loops being carried out based on parameters of transfer functions of the thermal elements corresponding to ratios between the values of the output physical magnitudes of the thermal elements and the values of input signals of the thermal elements.

18. A method according to claim 16, wherein the regulation loops are of predictive control.

19. A method according to claim 16, wherein the simulating in dynamic state the thermal and electrical behaviour of the modelled HVAC system is carried out by successively applying, on the inputs of each thermal element, signal variations of a step.

20. A method according to claim 16, wherein the simulating in dynamic state the thermal and electrical behaviour of the modelled HVAC system is carried out for values of the set points for which the energy consumption of the modelled HVAC system is lowest.

21. A method for regulating an HVAC system comprising thermal elements, comprising:

thermal and electrical modelling of the HVAC system by mathematical models of thermal and electrical behaviour of the thermal elements of the HVAC system;

defining regulation loops in the modelled HVAC system, configured to be used by at least one controller of the HVAC system, each regulation loop being associated with at least one thermal element of the HVAC system and taking account of physical magnitudes influencing energy performance of the thermal element and quality of regulation of the thermal element;

use of a method for determining parameters for regulating the HVAC system according to claim 16;

programming a controller of the HVAC system based on the values of the set points and on the values of the parameters of the regulation loops computed during the method for determining parameters for regulating the HVAC system.

22. A method according to claim 21, wherein the thermal and electrical modelling of the HVAC system comprises:

describing the thermal elements of the HVAC system in a description software associating the thermal behaviour of each type of thermal element with one of the mathematical models;

describing, in the description software, hydraulic and/or electrical links between the thermal elements;

and in which the defining the regulation loops comprises describing, in the software;

regulators capable of carrying out a closed-loop regulation of the thermal elements associated with the regulation loops;

sensors for measuring output physical magnitudes of the thermal elements placed on hydraulic links, of which the measurements are to be delivered as input signals to the regulators;

pre-actuators associated with the thermal elements and configured to receive as inputs control signals delivered by the regulators.

23. A method according to claim 22, further comprising, prior to use of the method for determining parameters for regulating the HVAC system, defining ranges of possible values of control signals to be delivered by the regulators.

24. A method according to claim 22, wherein the simulating in steady state of the thermal behaviour of the modelled HVAC system also determines values of the control signals to be applied at the input of the thermal elements.

25. A method according to claim 21, wherein the defining the regulation loops also comprises defining ranges of possible values of the set points of the regulation loops.

26. A method according to claim 21, further comprising, prior to use of the method for determining parameters for regulating the HVAC system, defining ranges of possible values of the physical magnitudes.

27. A method according to claim 21, wherein, when the controller of the HVAC system is a programmable controller, the programming of the controller is carried out by:

defining interactions, in a controller programming software, between algorithms relating to energy optimization of the HVAC system based on the determined values of the set points and algorithms relating to the regulation of the HVAC system based on the computed values of the parameters of the regulation loops;

generating a control program encoding the algorithms and the previously defined interactions;

loading the control program into the programmable controller.

28. A method according to claim 21, wherein, when the controller of the HVAC system is a parameterizable controller, the programming of the controller comprises entering determined values of the set points and computed values of the parameters of the regulation loops into the controller.

29. A method according to claim 21, wherein the programming of the controller of the HVAC system is carried out based on data in which the values of the set points and the values of the parameters of the regulation loops computed during the method for determining parameters for regulating the HVAC system are encrypted.

30. A device for determining parameters for regulating an HVAC system comprising thermal elements configured to be regulated by regulation loops, comprising means for using a method for determining parameters for regulating an HVAC system according to claim 16.