Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 1125e1134

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Modelling and adaptive control of small capacity chillers for HVAC applications
A. Beghi a,1, Luca Cecchinato b, *, 2
a b

Dipartimento di Ingegneria dellInformazione, Universit di Padova, via Gradenigo 6/B, I-35131 Padova, Italy Dipartimento di Fisica Tecnica, Universit di Padova, via Venezia 1, I-35131 Padova, Italy

a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history: Received 28 May 2010 Accepted 2 December 2010 Available online 10 December 2010 Keywords: Adaptive control Computer Aided Control Systems Design Efciency Scroll compressor Water chiller

a b s t r a c t
An adaptive controller for single and uneven tandem scroll compressor, packaged air-cooled water chillers is described. The designed controller allows to substantially increase the energy performance of the system, as well as to achieve excellent regulation performances in process applications. The controller parameters are adapted on the basis of estimates of the plant thermal load, that are computed by using a Kalman lter. An ad hoc approach is used to dene a relay control logic, which is based on a numerical optimization procedure. To support controller design, a detailed simulation environment is developed and validated on an experimental facility. Performance of the algorithm is described with both simulation and experimental data. At low part load ratio values the proposed algorithm grants a 0.6e0.7 K improvement in the regulation performance in terms of supply water temperature standard deviation and mean supply water temperature deviation. The unit energy efciency improvement with respect to supply water temperature control varies from 7.3% to 3.0% while the experimental seasonal energy efciency rating improvement is 9.1%. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction It is generally agreed that, in spite of the advancements made in computer technology and its impact on the development of new control methodologies for Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, the process of operating HVAC equipment in commercial and industrial buildings is still a low efcient and high-energy consumption process [1]. Classical control techniques such as ON/OFF controllers (thermostats) and proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers are still very popular, due to their low cost and ease of tuning and operation [2,3]. However, more advanced control systems that are able to efciently track the actual cooling/heating power requests from the plant, such as predictive or adaptive controllers, are best suited to meet the challenge of reducing the overall energy consumption for building heating and cooling. The use of energy efcient control systems is particularly important when considering cooling systems. In the last years, splitsystem air conditioners are being increasingly installed for cooling residential buildings, ofces, and shops during the summer period. Such devices, although clearly less expensive than other HVAC

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 39 049 827 6879; fax: 39 049 827 6896. E-mail address: ceck@unipd.it (L. Cecchinato). 1 Member of IEEE. 2 Junior Member of IIR Commission B2. 1359-4311/$ e see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2010.12.007

solutions, often lack in efciency, and the derived pollution effects on the environment are steadily increasing. To counteract this phenomenon, the European Commission deliberated on the energy performance of buildings (EPBD), with the Directive 2002/91/EC which imposes several actions to achieve prudent and rational use of energy resources and to reduce the environmental impact of the energy use in buildings. This can be accomplished by increasing both the energy performance of new and existing buildings and the efciency of cooling systems. In this paper the problem of designing advanced chiller control systems is addressed. The chiller unit is one of the key elements of an HVAC cooling system. Different authors demonstrated the applicability of advanced control methodologies to HVAC system management in order to improve its energy efciency, mainly focusing on large capacity multi-chiller plants [4e8] or on commercial refrigeration plants [9,10]. Such systems are typically characterized by multicompressor conguration with step or continuous capacity control consequently, they are capable of satisfactorily matching the load prole. The most relevant control problems, in this setup, are associated with optimal operation of multiple chillers and/or compressors, which is attained by solving the so-called Optimal Chiller Loading and Optimal Chiller Sequencing Problems [4]. Here, instead, the control of small cooling capacity single and uneven tandem scroll compressors, packaged air-cooled water chiller is considered. Such equipments are very common, therefore, it is particularly relevant to improve their energy performance. Differently from the case of inverter-controlled and multi-compressor units, where the heat ow

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can be continuously regulated by adjusting the compressor speed, the systems under consideration are poorly actuated, since the regulation of the supply water temperature is achieved by simple relay control, on the basis of the inlet water temperature. Furthermore, the switching frequency is severely limited by constraints on the maximum number of compressor start-ups per hour. To improve the systems performance, in Ref. [11] a control scheme is proposed, which is based on a plant thermal load estimation algorithm. Once an estimate of the load is available, an ad hoc approach is used to adapt the controller relay thresholds so that the supply water setpoint tracking performance is optimized. Knowledge of the plant load is also used to improve the energy performance by raising, when possible, the set-point value for the supply water temperature without compromising the users comfort level. The overall resulting control is an adaptive one, since the controller parameters vary as a function of the varying operating conditions as specied by the actual thermal load. In the present paper, the approach of Ref. [11] is further developed. In particular, the chiller dynamic model proposed in Ref. [12] is employed to take into account energy losses associated with compressor start-ups. Furthermore, the control algorithm and the load estimation scheme, that are only schematically described in Ref. [11], are fully detailed. The control algorithm is then extended and applied to refrigeration units adopting two uneven compressors in tandem conguration, that are proven to be very efcient at part load conditions in Ref. [13]. The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 the plant/chiller mathematical model presented in Ref. [11] is briey recalled, in particular the chosen representation for piping and water tanks, as well as the chiller unit, is discussed. The adoption of the chiller dynamic model proposed in Ref. [12] is also discussed. The control algorithm is fully detailed in Section 3. The extension of the algorithm required in the case of chillers equipped with uneven compressors in tandem conguration is also described. In Section 4 the experimental test facility that has been used to validate the model is described, and some results from the validation tests are reported, showing a very satisfactory agreement between test and simulation. The controller has been then implemented on board of commercial chiller units, and its performance has been evaluated by running both physical tests on the experimental test facilities and virtual tests aiming at computing seasonal energy ratings. Test results are reported in Section 5. Concluding remarks are given in Section 6. 2. Mathematical model of the plant In Fig. 1 the block structure of the system is reported. The system consists of three sections: 1) The energy conversion section: a packaged, air-cooled water chiller; 2) The hydraulic section: the chiller directly supplies the load section by means of a hydraulic loop. A constant ow rate pump is used. 3) The load section: the building thermal load and capacity is represented in the simulation scheme by an electrical heater and a water tank of suitable capacity. Such load model has been chosen to match the architecture of the experimental test facility on which the model has to be validated. The heat load is transferred to the hydraulic section by a plate heat exchanger (Plate HX in Fig. 1). We refer the reader to Ref. [11] for a detailed derivation of the equations governing the system dynamics. Here we recall only some basic facts. The thermal behaviour of the plant can be usefully analyzed by a lumped formulation of the conservation equations.

Fig. 1. System block structure.

The elements of the plant are simulated through blocks, and the heat transfer processes are considered as concentrated inside the blocks. Furthermore, the following assumptions are introduced:
-

The water thermal properties are constant; The water is incompressible; The three sections have constant water mass ow; There is no mass accumulation inside blocks; Piping and water tanks are insulated and considered to be adiabatic.

The system dynamics are governed by the mass, momentum, and energy conservation laws. The mass and energy equations are implemented as block equations for each component of the plant. Each block is modelled as a thermodynamic open system. The dynamic behaviour of the plant is thus obtained solving the uid ow problem and the energy problem. No solution of the momentum equation is needed because of the constant water mass ow assumption in the three sections, that grants that pressure losses are constant inside each block. The thermal problem consists in the determination of the temperature values at the outlet of the k-th block. The energy equation at time s for the generic k-th block can be written as follows:

    _ _ mk;i $ cp $Tk;i ep;k;i ec;k;i mk;o $ cp $Tk;o ep;k;o ec;k;o v vs ZVk

0

r$e$dv .

dQk dLk ; ds ds

(1)

Specic equations can be obtained for the tanks and piping, chiller unit, water heater, and heat exchanger blocks. The resulting system of non-linear equations obtained for each block is nally integrated in the Matlab/Simulink simulation environment. The rst term at the right-hand-side of the chiller energy equation, term, as well as the electrical absorbed power, can be determined either a) on the basis of a polynomial interpolation of the data provided by the manufacturer as a function of water inlet temperature, mass ow, and external air temperature, or b) by introducing the dynamical model of Ref. [12]. It is worth noticing that using a quasi steady-state model as in a), energy losses during compressor start-ups or transients are neglected. This assumption holds for the model presented in Ref. [11]. In this paper b) approach was adopted, thus taking into account the dynamic phenomena associated to refrigerant heat and mass transfer. The model proposed in Ref. [12] is based on the moving boundary technique for the heat exchangers. In this last case, the manufacturer supplied data describing heat exchangers geometry, throttling valve

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characteristics and compressor geometry, compression and volumetric efciencies are needed. 3. Chiller control Typically, a chiller without capacity control can be regulated in two different ways, namely by controlling the water temperature at the inlet of the chiller evaporator or the supply water temperature (measured either at the evaporator outlet or at the outlet of the tank connecting the chiller to the user hydraulic circuit, depending on the different system congurations). Both control strategies maintain constant user supply water temperature in full load conditions (that is, when the actual plant load equals the maximum cooling power that can be delivered by the chiller). Supply water temperature control, however, grants better performance in chiller part load conditions since it maintains the mean outlet water temperature fairly constant during on/off operations, especially in the case of single compressor chillers. In both cases, a relay control law is used, where the compressor is switched on and off when the controlled temperature reaches given threshold values. The difference between the upper and lower threshold values is called water temperature differential, DT, and its value clearly affects the width of the oscillations of the supply water temperature as well as the number of start-ups of the compressor. A low value of DT leads to a higher number of compressor start-ups, or, in other words, to a higher control bandwidth and allows to obtain a more constant water temperature. On the other hand, there is an upper bound to the number of compressor start-ups per hour, which is set by the compressor manufacturer. As a consequence, there is a limitation to the achievable control bandwidth. Also, the value of DT cannot be decreased arbitrarily, but there is a lower limit value which depends on the plant water content and temperature probes accuracy [3,14,15]. The value of the water temperature differential is typically xed so as to guarantee that the constraint on the maximum number of compressor start-ups per hour is respected whatever the load conditions, given the actual water content of the plant. For a single compressor unit without capacity control, it is easy to show that the maximum number of compressor start-ups occurs when the plant load is one half of the nominal unit cooling capacity. In other load conditions, such an approach reduces the regulation performance. In fact, when the number of compressor start-ups is smaller than the maximum admissible, the width of the water temperature oscillation is greater than the minimum achievable one. Therefore, an improvement on the regulation performance can be obtained by changing the value of the water temperature differential as a function of the actual thermal load. Knowledge of the thermal load can also be exploited to achieve an improvement of the energy performance of the system. Standard control algorithms employ a xed set-point value for the supply water temperature (typically 7  C in European residential and directional plants). However, at low load conditions, the supply water temperature set-point can be increased, being the required heat exchange on the user side smaller than the design one. This fact can be exploited to increase the chiller energy efciency. In fact, the thermodynamic efciency of the unit increases with the supply water temperature. The chiller energy efciency can also be improved by changing the architecture of traditional vapour compression cycle units. It is known that mounting two scroll compressors of different volumetric capacity in parallel on the same refrigerant circuit (uneven tandem chiller) is an efcient solution for improving the unit capacity control. This fact allows to closely approximate a building load prole and hence to improve both chillers part load efciency and building internal comfort [16].

In this paper, an adaptive control algorithm is presented, that has been recently implemented on board of commercial chiller units, presently on the market. The adaptation algorithm is based on the estimation of the thermal load, that allows to adapt the controller parameters, namely the water temperature differential DT and the set-point value for the supply water temperature. Different authors [7,17] introduce the concept of thermal load estimation as the core for HVAC algorithm design, here a load estimation scheme which is based on a Kalman lter is used. A schematic representation of the control algorithm is given in Fig. 2.

3.1. Load estimation The thermal load estimation algorithm is designed under the key assumption that the chiller control algorithm gains information on the plant by means of measurements of the inlet and supply water temperatures (Tin and Tsupply) only. Therefore, although there are many different thermal loads affecting the plant, it is convenient to consider a mean value approach as follows. The energy equation for the hydraulic circuits are derived under the assumption that the mean value of the water temperature inside the piping and in the water tanks is equal to the inlet water temperature as seen from the chiller, that is,

  dT s _ PL s cp $r$Vplant $ in mC $cp Tsupply s Tin s ; ds

(2)

where PL is the plant thermal load, Vplant is the volume of the water _ content in the whole hydronic circuit, and mC is the water ow rate in the chiller section. Since the thermal load dynamics are slow with respect to the chiller dynamics, associated with the compressor switching frequency, as in standard disturbance estimation schemes it is assumed that PL has constant dynamics, so that the resulting state space model is the following:

8 >_ > P L s 0 <   _ mC 1 $PL s $ Tin s Tsupply s ; >_ > T in s cp $r$V : r$Vplant plant

(3)

On the basis of the state space model (3), a standard Kalman b lter Ref. [18] is designed to obtain the load estimate P L . To reduce the effects of compressors switching, that causes large transients in the estimation error in particular when the plant water content is b small, P L is low-pass ltered. As an example of the performance of the algorithm, in Fig. 3 the results of load estimation is shown for

Fig. 2. Schematic representation of the control algorithm. Given measurements of the supply and inlet water temperatures, an estimate of the thermal load is computed and made available to the controller, that consequently adapts both the value of the water temperature differential DT and the set-point temperature Tset. Solid lines represent actual control inputs and outputs, whereas dashed lines denote dependency of DT and Tset on the load estimates.

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If ton is chosen in such a way that the thermal energy is exactly the one required to balance the thermal load QL in the plant, then QQL 0. The maximum value of the thermal energy that can be transferred to the plant during a time interval of length tcycle is obviously: Qmax Pmax tcycle and therefore:

  Q PLR  L Q

      ton   Pmax $ton  ton :    Pmax $tcycle  tcycle ton toff max

(6)

From equation (6), it is possible to derive the following expressions for ton and toff as a function of the PLR:
Fig. 3. Example of thermal load estimation. Actual load: thick line, estimated load: thin line.

ton
and

PLR $t ; 1 PLR off

(7)

a commercial building located in the north-western part of Italy, during a summer working day. Data have been generated by using the simulation software Energy Plus [19]. The building is subject to occupation from 7 am to 5 pm. Fig. 3 shows that the algorithm can effectively evaluate the building thermal load. The lter has been rst tuned in the simulation environment, and its performance has been then validated during the test campaign on the experimental b facility. Once the value of P L is available (an estimate of) the Part Load Ratio (PLR) can be computed as

toff

1 PLR $ton : PLR

(8)

   P  b   PLR  L ; Pmax 

(4)

The minimization of the cycle time tcycle can be achieved by searching for the minimum values of ton and toff. To this regard, some timing constraints given by the compressor manufacturer to maximize the compressor operating lifetime have to be taken into account. The effect of such constraints on the minimization of ton and toff is illustrated in Fig. 4, with reference to the specications given for the compressor used in the application here described, namely:

where Pmax is the maximum cooling power supplied by the chiller in continuous running conditions. It is worth noticing that knowledge of the PLR is crucial for designing control strategies that aim at achieving regulation or energy performance, therefore the load estimation scheme is at the very core of what is discussed in the following Sections, and has to be considered, as far chiller control is concerned, the most relevant new result presented in this paper. 3.2. Achieving regulation performance As already mentioned, the chiller control system is based on simple relay control, where the basic controller parameter is the width of the temperature differential DT. To achieve the best performance in terms of accuracy of supply water temperature regulation, it is necessary to choose a value for DT that grants to reach the maximum number of start-ups per hour of the compressor as a function of the instantaneous PLR, thus granting the least possible oscillation of the controlled temperature around the given set-point. The maximization of the number of compressor start-ups corresponds to the minimization of the cycle time, which is the time between two successive compressor start-ups. Let ton and toff be respectively the lengths of the time intervals during which the compressor is operating and switched off prior to the next start-up. Then, the cycle time tcycle is:

Nmax 10;

(9)

where Nmax is the maximum number of compressor start-ups per hour,

ton ! 60s ton;min ; toff ! 180s toff;min :

(10) (11)

To derive the curves shown in Fig. 4, observe that from equation (9) it follows that:

tcycle ! 360s tcycle;min :

(12)

At low PLR values, the constraint on the system performance is given by equation (10). When the chiller is operating with ton ton,min, the minimum cycle time is achieved for a PLR of 0.16. The 0.16 can be obtained from equation (8) by values of toff for PLR setting ton ton,min, and lay on the hyperbolic curve denoted with A in Fig. 4. The achievable tcycle is obviously greater than tcycle,min. At high PLR values, similar arguments apply, where the limiting factor is now equation (11). When toff toff,min, the minimum cycle time is obtained for a PLR of 0.5. For PLR 0.5, the values of ton can be

tcycle ton toff ;

(5)

The cycle time tcycle can be related to the PLR as follows. Neglecting transient phenomena associated with time varying environmental factors, such as the air temperature, it can be assumed that the chiller efciency is constant and the thermal energy transferred from the chiller to the building over a cycle is given by:
tcycle Z

Q
0

Ps$ds Pmax $ton :

Fig. 4. Curves for the evaluation of ton,min and toff,min as a function of the PLR.

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obtained from equation (7) by setting toff toff,min, and lay on the hyperbolic curve denoted with B in Fig. 4. In this situation, too, the achievable cycle time is greater than tcycle,min. For values of the PLR in the range [0.16, 0.5], to grant that tcycle tcycle,min, it sufces to choose

ton PLR$tcycle;min ;

toff 1 PLR$tcycle;min ;

(13)

thus yielding curves C1 and C2 in Fig. 4. The corresponding number of start-ups per hour can be easily obtained from equations (7) and (8) and the denition of tcycle in equation (5), and is shown in Fig. 5. Since the actual control parameter is the temperature differential DT, the choice of the cycle time t cycle t on t off that grants the maximization of the compressor start-ups has to be translated into a corresponding value for DT. To this aim, the following relative error function is dened:

Fig. 6. Time behaviour of Tsupply, Tset, Tm and upper and lower relay threshold values Tup and Tlow (as a function of the imbalance parameter R).

ET DT

tcycle DT t cycle t cycle

(14)

and the zero of (14) are found by means of a root nding procedure (e.g., the Newton algorithm). The rationale of this approach is the following. If, for a given DT, ET DT < 0, then the corresponding value of tcycle is too small and the constraints on the compressor timing are violated. Therefore, a larger value of DT has to be chosen to increase tcycle. If, instead, ET DT > 0, the value of DT can be decreased to actually minimize tcycle for the given PLR. The procedure is performed at every cycle, and yields an adaptation law for DT. A standard approach to set the upper and lower temperature thresholds Tup and Tdown is to choose symmetrical values with respect to the set-point Tset, i.e.,

Tup Tset

DT
2

Tdown Tset

DT
2

As can be seen in Fig. 6, with such a choice the mean value of the supply water temperature over a cycle, Tm, is in general different from Tset, due the inertia of the hydronic circuit. A better behaviour can be achieved by setting the threshold values asymmetrically. To this aim, an imbalance parameter, R, is dened, and the relative error between the mean value of the supply water temperature is computed as:

Em R

Tm R Tset ; Tset

(15)

a chilled water temperature reset technique. In fact, it is well known [20] that from a purely thermodynamic point of view, an inverse cycle efciency increases with the evaporation temperature, and therefore with Tset. This fact can be exploited at low values of the PLR, when the required thermal exchange on the user side is small. On the other hand, by raising the value of Tset, the chiller capacity increases as well as the number of on/off cycles, thus leading to a larger cycling energy penalization. However, such losses are largely compensated by the improved thermodynamic efciency of the cycle, especially for scroll compressor units equipped with plate heat exchanger and electronic expansion valve. Chilled water temperature reset has been often discussed in the literature (see e.g. [3,7,21,22]). Typically, Tset is varied as a function of the outside air temperature (under the assumption that the thermal load depends mainly on such temperature), or of the opening percentage of the air handling units valve in CAV/VAV systems. In the approach described in the present paper, Tset is varied according to the PLR estimate, thus allowing for a simpler and more general implementation (e.g., in the case of radiant cooling and fan coils systems). It is well known that by raising the value of Tset at low values of the PLR may impact the user comfort, auxiliary power consumption and eventually compressor efciency. However, it is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss in detail strategies for reducing such possibly detrimental effect. To assess the impact on energy performance of a chilled water temperature reset technique, the following simple adaptation law for Tset is adopted:

As before, the value of R is chosen by numerically nding the zero of equation (15). The effect of this strategy is shown in Fig. 6, where it can be seen that the mean temperature Tm converges to Tset. 3.3. Achieving energy performance The knowledge of the instantaneous value of the PLR can be used to improve the chiller energy performance by adopting

( Tset

1 PLR Tset;min Tset;max Tset;min $ if PLR > PLR* ; 1 PLR* Tset;max if PLR PLR* (16)

where the values of Tset,min, Tset,max, and PLR* can be chosen according to different strategies (e.g. maximization of user comfort or regulation performance). 3.4. Control of uneven tandem chiller In Ref. [13], it has been shown that step capacity systems obtained by splitting the system volumetric capacity between two compressors on the same refrigerant circuit are efcient solutions, in particular when compressors of different size are adopted (uneven tandem chillers). In this Subsection, the control approach previously described is extended to cope with such congurations. When two compressors of different volumetric capacity are mounted in parallel on the same refrigerant circuit, the chiller is controlled as a nite state machine. Three control states can be determined:

Fig. 5. Maximum achievable number of compressor start-up per hour as a function of the PLR.

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1) low capacity compressor is relay controlled, high capacity compressor is always off; 2) low capacity compressor is always off, high capacity compressor is relay controlled; 3) low capacity compressor is relay controlled, high capacity compressor is always on. The knowledge of the instantaneous value of the PLR together with the ratio between the two compressor capacities, CR, can be used to determine the actual control state as following:

4. Simulation model validation 4.1. The test facility In Fig. 7 the experimental test facility used to validate the simulation model is schematically shown. The energy production section consists in a Rhoss TCAEY 130 packaged air-cooled water chiller with R410A refrigerant, cooling capacity of 29.1 kW and Energy Efciency Rating (EER, coefcient of performance dened as the ratio of cooling capacity and total power absorption, fans included) of 2.44 in the following operating conditions: condenser (2 in Fig. 7) input air temperature 35  C; chilled water temperature 7  C; 5 K temperature differential at evaporator (3). The chiller is equipped with a single scroll compressor (1) without capacity control. The evaporator is connected to a 45 L water tank (4) in the hydraulic section which has a piping total volume of 36 L and a constant water ow rate pump of 1.28 kg/s. The heat load is supplied to the water loop through a brazed plate heat exchanger (5) connected to the load section equipped with an electrical heater (7) and a 480 L water tank (6). The maximum heating capacity is 50 kW. Excess heat is dissipated by an auxiliary water loop through a brazed plate heat exchanger (8). Thermocouples (T) and pressure transducers (p) are placed as shown in Fig. 7. Water temperatures are measured with Pt100 thermometers placed inside mixing

8 > state 1: <

1 1 CR CR ; state 2: PLR 1 CR > : CR state 3: PLR > 1 CR PLR

(17)

The controlled compressor is then controlled as described in Section 3.2. For the third control state, the PLR value in equations (6)e(8) and (13) is replaced by the following corrected value, PLR*, where:

PLR* PLR$

1 : 1 CR

Fig. 7. System test facility: tested chiller (1 compressor, 2 condenser, 3 evaporator), (6 water tank, 7 electrical heater, 8 brazed plate heat exchanger).

hydraulic section (4 water tank, 5 brazed plate heat exchanger) and

load section

A. Beghi, L. Cecchinato / Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 1125e1134 Table 1 Different control algorithms used in the tests. Controller Inlet_FB Outlet_FB Outlet_MB Outlet_MAB Outlet_MABFS Controlled variable DT Tin Tsupply Tsupply Tsupply Tsupply xed xed adaptive adaptive adaptive

1131

Symmetric thresholds Set-point yes yes yes no no constant constant constant constant adaptive

Fig. 8. Comparison between experimental and virtual system at 20% part load ratio. Curves denoted with Exp correspond to experimental data, curves denoted with SS correspond to the quasi steady-state model for the chiller while those denoted with DM indicate the dynamic moving boundary model [11].

chambers at the inlet and outlet of each heat exchanger. The R410A temperatures are measured with Pt100 thermometers placed on the pipe wall. A 0.3 K accuracy is estimated for all the temperature _ measurements. The R410A mass ow rate mE is measured by a Coriolis mass ow meter placed upstream of the throttling valve. The claimed accuracy is 0.1% of reading. Water volumetric ow _ _ rates V H and V L are measured by electromagnetic meters (accuracy 0.2% of reading). The R410A pressures are recorded with strain-gauge transducers at compressor suction and discharge. The accuracy is 10 kPa according to the calibration report from the manufacturer.

Compressor and fans electrical absorbed power is recorded with an electronic transducer (with an accuracy 0.5% of the reading value). Tests have been carried out with the condenser positioned in a climatic room maintained at 35  C air temperature. By controlling the heater thermal power, the chiller has been tested in full load conditions and at 25%, 50%, 75% part load conditions. The mean systems efciencies in terms of EER have been obtained by integrating the power absorption and the cooling capacity, computed from the instantaneous values of refrigerant mass ow _ mE , condenser outlet and evaporator outlet enthalpies, which are computed from pressure (p1 and p2) and temperature (T1 and T2) values on the basis of refrigerant properties as represented in the NIST Reference Fluid Thermodynamic and Transport Properties REFPROP, Version 7.0, see Ref. [23]. The computed cooling capacity on the refrigerant side has been compared and validated with the computed capacity on the water side. Further tests have also been performed with an uneven tandem Rhoss TCAEY 245 packaged, aircooled, water chiller with R410A refrigerant, cooling capacity of 45.6 kW and EER 2.54. When using the two compressor chiller, the water tank in the test rig has been replaced with a 148 L one. The chiller is equipped with two scroll compressors in parallel on the same refrigerant circuit. The two compressors are without capacity control and their volumetric capacity ratio is equal to 1.35. 4.2. Validation test campaign A wide validation test campaign for the developed simulation environment has been carried out on the test facility described in Section 4.1. Tests have been performed on the single compressor chiller with inlet water temperature control, for different values of the electrical heat load, condenser supply air temperature, water mass ow, set-point, and temperature differential. The system dynamics and energy performances obtained from experimental tests have been compared to those obtained in the virtual simulation environment. As an example, in Figs. 8 and 9, experimental and simulated absorbed power, chiller and water tank outlet temperatures are compared at 20% and 75% part load ratio. Both the chiller quasi steady-state model of Ref. [11], based on manufacturers data, and the model based on the moving boundary technique for the

Fig. 9. Comparison between experimental and virtual system at 75% part load ratio. Curves denoted with Exp correspond to experimental data, curves denoted with SS correspond to the quasi steady-state model for the chiller while those denoted with DM indicate the dynamic moving boundary model [11].

Fig. 10. Time behaviour of the evaporator inlet and outlet water temperature, heat load prole, and moving average of the outlet water temperature for the Outlet_MAB algorithm (experimental data).

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Fig. 11. Detail of the time behaviour of the evaporator inlet and outlet water temperature, heat load prole, and moving average of the outlet water temperature for the Outlet_MABFS algorithm (experimental data).

heat exchangers are considered. It is worth noticing that with the simpler model the chiller simulated cooling capacity and absorbed power do not account for energy losses during compressor startups and transients. As a consequence, the expected absorbed power is not exactly predicted, especially during the rst period of the compressor working cycle. The simulation results obtained with the moving boundary chiller model are in a better agreement with the experimental tests, especially in transient conditions. It can be observed from Fig. 9 that both the chiller model result adequate for the purpose of controller design, since they reproduce the main system transient and steady-state behaviours that are crucial to assess the performance of the control system. However, to assess the performance of the different control strategies, in the following results of simulations performed with the moving boundary chiller model are shown, so that effects of compressor start-up on the overall system energy performance are accounted for. 5. Performance analysis of the adaptive algorithm The simulation environment of the chiller-plant system has been extensively used to design the adaptive control algorithm described in Section 3. In fact, the simulation environment is able to reproduce all the system transient and steady-state behaviours that are crucial to assess the performance of the control system. In the following, the performance of different control algorithms are illustrated by means of data collected during an extensive experimental campaign, where the controllers were tested varying the unit heat load. The same tests were also carried out in the simulation environment, to further validate it. The time behaviour of

Fig. 12. Average (on off period) supply water temperature for different controllers. Curves denoted with Exp correspond to experimental data, curves denoted with SS correspond to the quasi steady-state model for the chiller while those denoted with DM indicate the dynamic moving boundary model [11].

some key quantities are reported, as well as an indication of the energy performance given in terms of the European Seasonal Energy Efciency Rating (ESEER) as described in Refs. [24,25], that accounts for the average chiller efciency for standard thermal load proles, in standard operation conditions. The main characteristics of the control algorithms are summed up in Table 1. To illustrate the dynamic behaviour of the system, experimental data showing the time evolution of the single compressor chiller evaporator inlet and outlet water temperature, together with the

Table 2 Number of start-ups during 4 h cycling operation, standard deviation of Tsupply from the set-point temperature Tset and difference between average (on off period) supply water temperature and set-point temperature for different controllers. PLR [%] 25 50 Number of start-ups (4 h) Inlet_FB 19 25 Outlet_FB 36 32 Outlet_MB 36 34 Outlet_MAB 36 34 Supply water temperature standard deviation [K] Inlet_FB 3.2 2.2 Outlet_FB 2.4 2.4 Outlet_MB 1.9 2.2 Outlet_MAB 1.8 1.3 Mean supply water temperature deviation [K] Inlet_FB 3.0 1.9 Outlet_FB 1.1 0.2 Outlet_MB 1.0 0.2 Outlet_MAB 0.4 0.0 75 17 11 15 16 1.2 2.2 1.5 1.5 0.7 0.1 1.1 0.1 100 1 1 1 1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Fig. 13. Chiller EER for different controllers. Curves denoted with Exp correspond to experimental data, curves denoted with SS correspond to the quasi steady-state model for the chiller while those denoted with DM indicate the dynamic moving boundary model [11].

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Table 4 Seasonal energy rating for different control algorithms, for the uneven tandem chiller unit. ESEER [-] Outlet_MAB Outlet_MABFS 3.37 3.86

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Fig. 14. Number of compressor start-ups during 4 h cycling operation for Outlet_MAB controller for the uneven tandem chiller. ZP 90 and ZP 120 denote the low and high capacity compressor, respectively (experimental data).

heat load prole, are reported in Fig. 10 for the Outlet MAB algorithm. To better show the achieved regulation performance, a 300 s moving average ltered version of the outlet water temperature signal is also reported. After a few start-up cycles, where a xed value of 6  C for the temperature differential DT is used, it can be seen that the outlet water temperature reaches the prescribed setpoint value of 7  C. In Fig. 11 a detail is reported, showing the experimental cycling behaviour of the system for a PLR value of 50% with the Outlet MABFS control algorithm. The adaptation law assigns a value of 13  C to the water temperature set-point. Again, it can be seen that the control algorithm maintains the temperature close to the set-point value. As outlined in Section 3.2, the adaptive controller minimizes the set-point tracking error jTset Tsupply j by appropriately changing the water differential as a function of the (estimated) PLR. In Table 2, the number of start-ups over a 4 h period, the standard deviation from Tset (7  C), and the difference between the average supply water temperature during an oneoff cycle and Tset are reported for four different control algorithms, in the case of single compressor chiller unit. Comparing the results, it is clear that the adaptive controllers OutletMB and Outlet MAB grant greater precision, by reducing the tracking error standard deviation and increasing the number of compressor start-ups in particular for 25% < PLR < 75%. Better tracking performance is achieved by using the asymmetrical positioning with respect to Tset of the temperature upper and lower threshold values (Outlet MAB), as described in Section 3.B. It is worth noticing that both algorithms employing the adaptation of
Table 3 Seasonal energy rating for different control algorithms, for the single compressor chiller unit. ESEER [-] Inlet_FB Outlet_FB Outlet_MABFS 2.80 2.72 2.97

the relay thresholds grant a substantial improvement in the regulation performance with respect to the standard xed thresholds algorithms (in the order of 0.6e0.7 K at low PLR values in terms of supply water temperature standard deviation and mean supply water temperature deviation). As described in Section 3.3, the energy performance is increased by adjusting the outlet water set-point value on the basis of the load conditions, as described by the estimated PLR. In Figs. 12 and 13, the oating set-point, adaptive (with asymmetric thresholds) control algorithm (Outlet MABFS) is compared with both a supply and inlet water temperature control algorithm in terms of average supply water temperature and EER for the single compressor chiller unit. Both simulated and experimental data are reported. The agreement between simulated and measured data is fully satisfactory, thus conrming that the virtual environment can be successfully used for control design and performance evaluation. It is worth noticing that for PLR < 75%, the EER improvement with respect to supply water temperature control varies from 7.3% to 3.0%. Also, it can be noticed that the inlet water temperature control has better energy performance with respect to the adaptive control law without set-point adaptation since it fails to accurately regulate the supply water temperature, that reaches higher values at low PLR values. As described in Section 3.4, uneven tandem chillers are managed through a nite number of control states. In Fig. 14, the experimental number of compressors start-ups during 4 h cycling operation for Outlet MAB controller are plotted and the three control states detailed in Section 3.4 can be clearly pointed out. Finally, to have an evaluation of the seasonal energy saving of a building in which a chiller equipped with the adaptive controller is installed, the ESEER of both tested systems have been calculated from experimental results. The performance of the Inlet FB, Outlet FB, and OutletdMABS control algorithms are compared in Table 3 for TCAEY 130 unit. The Outlet MABS algorithm grants a remarkable energy rating improvement of 9.1% with respect to the Outlet FB control algorithm. The performance of the Outlet MAB and Outlet MABS control algorithms are compared in Table 4 for TCAEY 245 unit. The Outlet MABS algorithm grants an energy rating improvement of 14.7% with respect to the Outlet MAB control algorithm. 6. Conclusions In this paper the problem of designing advanced control algorithms for small capacity chillers is addressed. A detailed simulation environment has been developed, that is based on the Matlab/ Simulink platform. A relevant property of the model is that all of the dynamic behaviours that are relevant for controller design have been taken into account. To this regard, both a quasi steady-state model and a moving boundary model for the chiller refrigerant dynamics have been considered to evaluate the effect of energy losses during compressor start-ups. The model has been satisfactorily validated in a state-of-the-art experimental facility, by performing an extensive validation campaign. The simulation environment has been used to design an adaptive control algorithm for single and multiple scroll compressor, packaged air-cooled water chillers, which allows to increase both control accuracy and energy performance. The control algorithm has been designed in order to be applied to units with compressors of different size on the same refrigerant circuit. At the

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A. Beghi, L. Cecchinato / Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 1125e1134 [4] Y.C. Chang, J.K. Lin, M.H. Chuang, Optimal chiller loading by genetic algorithm for reducing energy consumption, Energy and Buildings 37 (2005) 147e155. [5] Z. Huguang, L. Cai, Decentralized nonlinear adaptive control of an HVAC system, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics-Part C: Applications and Reviews. 32 (2002) 493e498. [6] R. Shoureshi, Intelligent control systems: are they real, Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control 115 (1993) 15e19. [7] J.E. Braun, S.A. Klein, J.W. Mitchell, W.A. Beckman, Methodologies for optimal control to chilled water systems without storage, ASHRAE Transactions 95 (1989) 652e662. [8] J.E. Braun, S.A. Klein, J.W. Mitchell, W.A. Beckman, Applications of optimal control to chilled water systems without storage, Ashrae Transactions 95 (1989) 663e675. [9] C. Sonntag, A. Devanathan, S. Engell, O. Stursberg, Hybrid Non-linear ModelPredictive Control of a Supermarket Refrigeration System, in: Proc. 16th IEEE Multi-Conference on Systems and Control (MSC/CCA), Singapore, 2007, pp. 1432e1437. [10] D. Sarabia, F. Capraro, L.F.S. Larsen, C. De Prada, Hybrid Control of a Supermarket Refrigeration System, in: Proc. American Control Conference, New York, USA, 2007, pp. 4178e4185. [11] M. Albieri, A. Beghi, C. Bodo, L. Cecchinato, Advanced control systems for single compressor chiller units, International Journal of Refrigeration 32 (2009) 1068e1076. [12] B. Li, A.G. Alleyne, A dynamic model of a vapour compression cycle with shutdown and start-up operations, International Journal of Refrigeration 33 (2010) 538e552. [13] L. Cecchinato, Part load efciency of packaged air-cooled water chillers with inverter driven scroll compressors, Energy Conversion and Management 51 (2010) 1500e1509. [14] H.W. Stanford III, HVAC Water Chillers and Cooling Towers Fundamentals, Application, and Operation. Routledge, USA, 2003. [15] Pacic Gas and Electric Company, CoolToolsTM Chilled Water Plant Design and Specication Guide. Charles Eley, USA, 2000, Chapters 4e6. [16] J. Adnot, P. Waide, in: , Energy Efciency and Certication of Central Air Conditioners (EECCAC), Final Report, vol. 3, Armines, Paris, France, 2003, pp. 39e44. [17] B. Arguello-Serrano, M. Velez-Reyes, Nonlinear control of a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system with thermal load estimation, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology 7 (1999) 56e63. [18] B.D.O. Anderson, J.B. Moore, Optimal Filtering (2005) Dover Publications, ISBN 0486439380. [19] Energy Plus Energy Simulation Software.http://www.eere.energy.gov/ buildings/energyplus (2003). [20] R.J. Dossat, The Principles of Refrigeration. Pearson, 1996. [21] M. Ardehali, T. Smith, Evaluation of HVAC system operational strategies for commercial buildings, Energy Conversion and Management 38 (1997) 225e236. [22] K.F. Fong, V.I. Hanby, T.T. Chow, HVAC system optimization for energy management by evolutionary programming, 2006 energy management by evolutionary programming, Energy and Buildings 38 (2006) 220e231. [23] E.W. Lemmon, M.O. McLinden, M.L. Huber, NIST Reference Fluid Thermodynamic and Transport Properties (2002) Refprop 7.0. NIST Std. Database. [24] Eurovent, Liquid Chilling Packages Certication Programme (2009).http:// www.eurovent-certication.com/. [25] CEN TC113/WG7, prEN 14825, Air Conditioners, Liquid Chilling Pack-ages and Heat Pumps, with Electrically Driven Compressors, for Space Heating and Cooling Testing and Rating at Part Load Conditions (2009) Brussels.

core of the proposed control algorithms there is a new load estimation scheme, that is based on a Kalman lter. Knowledge of an estimate of the thermal load is used to derive information on the PLR value, that is then exploited for designing the different control strategies. In particular, to increase the system energy performance, chilled water temperature reset is performed as a function of the estimated PLR. The control algorithm performance assessment made in the simulation environment has been fully conrmed by experimental data. In particular, the experimental campaign conrmed that at low PLR values the proposed control algorithm grants a 0.6e0.7 K improvement in the regulation performance in terms of supply water temperature standard deviation and mean supply water temperature deviation. For PLR < 75%, the proposed algorithm grants 7.3e3.0% EER improvement with respect to supply water temperature control while it grants a remarkable ESEER improvement of 9.1%. A limitation of the present algorithm is that it implements a water set-point reset strategy that is based on the total building load estimate. This may affect user comfort in the case where load conditions vary strongly in the different building zones. A possible way to overcome such limitation is to modify the algorithm by taking into account some zone comfort/discomfort measurements taken by exploiting signals form local control loops. This topic is presently under investigation, in particular in the case where radiant cooling systems are adopted. It is worth noticing that the availability of a validated simulation environment allows to obtain an evaluation of the system performance by means of virtual tests that would be very difcult, if not impossible, to be performed on experimental test facilities or commercial plants, such as those aimed at computing the seasonal energy ratings. Acknowledgements The authors gratefully acknowledge Mr. Michele Albieri of Rhoss S.p.A. for his support during the research activity described in this paper. References
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