HILFT

Overview of the HILFT Testbed

Project Title: Hardware-in-the-loop Laboratory Performance Verification of Flexible Building Equipment in a Typical Commercial Building

Sponsor: U.S. DOE DE-EE0009153

Project Date: May 1, 2020 – July 31, 2024

Partner:

  • Drexel Univeristy personnel
    • Jin Wen (PI)
    • James Lo (Co-PI)
    • Zhelun Chen (Research Scientist)
    • Yicheng Li (Research Assistant)
    • Gabriel Grajewski (Research Assistant)
  • Texas A&M University personnel
    • Zheng O’Neill (Co-PI)
    • Zhiyao Yang (Research Engineer) 
    • Caleb Calfa (Research Assistant)
    • Yangyang Fu (Research Associate)
  • National Institute of Standards and Technology personnel
    • Steven T. Bushby (Co-PI)
    • W. Vance Payne (Co-PI)
    • Amanda Pertzborn (Co-PI)
  • Industry Advisory Board member
    • Joe Zhou, Slip Stream (Coordinator)
    • Rich Hackner, GDS Associates (Member)
    • Trevor Bailey, UTC (Member)
    • Mark S Martinez, Southern California Edison (Member)
    • Jay Madden, Southern California Edison (Member)
    • Bing Liu, NEEA (Member)
    • Mark Siira, COMRENT (Member)
    • Justin Hill, Southern Company (Member)
    • Jian Zhang, PNNL (Member)
    • Glenn Remington, Consumers Energy (Member)

Abstract:

The goals of reducing energy costs, shifting electricity peaks, increasing the use of renewable energy, and enhancing the stability of the electric grid can be met in part by fully exploiting the energy flexibility potential of buildings and building equipment. This project will develop publicly available and high-fidelity datasets that measure the holistic load flexibility performance of a suite of commonly used commercial building heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) and thermal storage equipment, under varying climate conditions, occupant behaviors, control strategies, and grid interactions. The project team will integrate real equipment testing, weather and zone environment emulation, and zone and occupant simulations through hardware-in-the-loop test methods. Research findings will be applicable to four climate zones, providing greater commercialization impact. The project will create high-resolution equipment performance data and occupant acceptance to quantify load flexibility of commonly used commercial building heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) and thermal storage equipment.

Publication List:

  • Accepted and In-Preparation Manuscripts of Journal Article: 
    • Calfa, C., Yang, Z., Li, Y., Chen, Z., O’Neill, Z., Wen, J., 2023. Performance Assessment of a Real Water Source Heat Pump within a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) Testing Environment. Science and Technology for the Built Environment, pp.1-16.
    • Chen, Z., Wen, J., Li, Y., Lo, L. J., Grajewski, G., Payne, W. V., Pertzborn, A., et al., 2024. Advanced Co-simulation Framework for Assessing the Interplay between Occupant Behaviors and Demand Flexibility in Commercial Buildings. Science and Technology for the Built Environment. In Revision.
    • Li, Y., Chen, Z., Wen, J., Fu, Y., Pertzborn, A., O’Neill, Z., 2024. A framework for calibrating and validating an air loop dynamic model in an HVAC system in Modelica. Journal of Building Performance Simulation. In Preparation.
    • Chen, Z., Wen, J., Pertzborn, A., et al., 2024. Uncertainty Analysis of Real-Time Hardware-in-the-loop Testing with a Real HVAC System and a Simulated Building Model. In Revision.
    • Calfa, C., et al., 2024. Performance Assessment of a Model Predictive Controller in a Hardware-in-the-Loop Experimental Test Environment. In Preparation.
    • Grajewski, G., et al., 2024. Training Artificial Neural Networks to Predict Indicators of Occupant Comfort Using Simulated Data. In Preparation.
  • Other publications, conference papers and presentations:
    • Li, Y., Chen, Z., Wen, J., Fu, Y., Pertzborn, A., O’Neill, Z., 2023. A framework for calibrating and validating an air loop dynamic model in an HVAC system in Modelica. In Building Simulation 2023.
    • Chen, Z., Li, Y., Wen, J., Pertzborn, A., Payne, W. V., Lo, L. J., Grejawski, G., et al., 2023. A Simulation framework for analyzing the impact of stochastic occupant behaviors on demand flexibility in typical commercial buildings. In 2023 ASHRAE Annual Conference.
    • Chen, Z., Wen, J., Bushby, S. T., Lo, L. J., O’Neill, Z., Payne, W. V., Pertzborn, A., et al., 2022. Development of a hardware-in-the-loop testbed for laboratory performance verification of flexible building equipment in typical commercial buildings. In 2022 ASHRAE Annual Conference.
    • Calfa, C., Yang, Z., Fu, Y., Chen, Z., O’Neill, Z., Wen, J., 2022. Development of a water source heat pump hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing facility for smart building applications. In 2022 ASHRAE Annual Conference.
    • Chen, Z., Wen, J., Bushby, S. T., Lo, L. J., O’Neill, Z., Payne, W. V., Pertzborn, A., et al., 2022. An analysis of the hybrid internal mass modeling approach in EnergyPlus. In eSim 2022 Conference.
    • Zhang, Y., Lo, L. J., Grajewski, G., 2022. CFD-trained ANN Model for Approximating Near-occupant Condition in Real-time Simulations. In ASHRAE Topical Conference Proceedings, pp. 186-193.
    • Chen, Z., Wen, J., Bushby, S. T., et al., 2021. A hardware-in-the-loop approach for laboratory performance verification of flexible building equipment in a typical commercial building. In 2021 ASHRAE Annual Conference.

Data Link: https://data.nist.gov/od/id/mds2-3058

GitHub: https://github.com/DrexelBSEG/HILFT

IAB Report:

2024_IAB_Meeting_final