Project Title:
Tools for Evaluating Fault Detection and Diagnostic Methods for HVAC Secondary Systems of a Net Zero Building
Principal Investigator:
Jin Wen
Co-Investigators:
Shokouh Poorarian and Xiwang Li
Collaborators:
Iowa Energy Center Energy Resource Station
Funding Agency:
National Institute of Standards Technology
Funding Period:
2010 – 2013
Abstract:
Secondary systems, such as fan coil units, fan power units, and dual duct systems, although widely used in commercial, industrial, and multifamily residential buildings, have received very little attention in terms of improving their system performance. This project proposes to develop tools that provide simulation environments to develop and evaluate advanced control, operation, and fault diagnosis technologies for these less studied secondary systems. More specifically, this project aims at
- Developing dynamic simulation models in the HVACSIM+ environment for common fan coil unit, fan power unit, and dual duct system configurations. The developed simulation models shall be able to produce both fault-free and faulty operational data under a wide variety of faults and severity levels for advanced control, operation, and fault diagnosis technology development and evaluation purposes;
- Developing a model structure, which includes the grouping of blocks and superblocks, treatment of state variables, initial and boundary conditions, and selection of equation solver, that can simulate a dual duct system efficiently with satisfactory stability;
- Identifying, collect, and analyze existing experimental data that can be used to validate the developed simulation models;
- Designing and conduct a comprehensive and systematic validation procedure using collected experimental data to validate the developed simulation models under both fault-free and faulty operational conditions; and
- Developing an efficient user interface and database to collect and store building and system parameters.