Control system for absorption chillers

• US 5,557,939 A
• Filed: 05/10/1995
• Issued: 09/24/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Furukawa, Masahiro, Arima, Hidetoshi, Ozawa, Yoshio, Mizukami, Kazuaki, Ogawa, Atsushi, Yasuda, Masashi
• Primary Examiner(s): Wayner, William E.
• Application Number:
  US08/438,363
• Time in Patent Office: 503 Days
• Field of Search: 62/141, 62/148, 62/188, 137/389, 137/395, 137/392, 122/448.1, 236/78 D, 417/36, 417/40, 417/41
• US Class Current: 62/148
• CPC Class Codes: F25B 49/043 Operating continuously
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 137/7297 With second diverse control

Abstract

A control system for absorption chillers which comprises a device for measuring operating state data concerning components of the main assembly of the chiller and including the liquid level of a high temperature generator and the degree of opening of a gas valve, and a fuzzy control circuit for calculating the deviation of the liquid level from a target value based on the measured operating state data, predicting a variation in the liquid level from the deviation and another item of the operating state data and calculating a control input as to the inverter frequency of an absorbent pump based on the result of prediction, whereby even when a great disturbance occurs, the liquid level of the generator can be controlled with high responsiveness to minimize the variation of the liquid level.

Claims

1. A control system for an absorption chiller having pump means for recycling an absorbent through a generator and an absorber, the control system being operable for controlling the output of the pump means to maintain the absorbent in the generator at an approximately constant liquid level, the control system comprising:

data detecting means for detecting an item of or different items of operating state data at least including the liquid level of the absorbent in the generator,

main control means for carrying out a specified control rule based on the detected operating state data to calculate a control input for the pump means,

emergency detecting means for detecting a variation of the liquid level in the generator departing from a predetermined reference range or the liquid level departing from a predetermined reference range as indicating occurrence of an emergency, and

emergency control means for stopping the control operation of the main control means upon detection of the emergency and altering the control input for the pump means to the greatest possible extent to make the liquid level approximate to a target value.

2. A control system as defined in claim 1 wherein the main control means comprises fuzzy inference means for predicting a variation in the liquid level from the operating state data received as an input signal, and calculating means for calculating the control input for the pump means based on the predicted liquid level variation.