Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

Hongtao Qiao

Scott Bortoff

Christopher Laughman

Daniel J Burns

Saleh Nabi

Piyush Grover

Christopher R Laughman

Scott A Bortoff

Daniel Burns

A system for controlling or optimizing the performance of a vapor compression system by modifying the actuator commands via an output interface, that realizes thermofluid property functions and their derivatives as spline functions which are represented in a coordinate system that is aligned with a fluid saturation curve. The system includes an interface configured to receive measurement data from sensors, a memory configured to store thermofluid property data and computer-executable programs including a B-spline method, and a processor for performing the computer-implemented method. The processor is configured to take as input two thermofluid property variables, and compute a coordinate transformation in which one axis of the coordinates is aligned with the liquid and vapor saturation curves. In the saturation-curve aligned coordinates, a spline function represents the thermofluid property function, with coefficients and knots stored in memory. The spline function is constructed in a manner such that derivatives of the thermofluid property function may be discontinuous across the saturation curve.

System and method for calculation of thermofluid properties using saturation curve-aligned coordinates

A simulation system for designing a heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system is provided. The system comprises an input interface configured to accept thermal data indicative of a target distribution of thermal state and environmental data, and a memory configured to store a building envelope model (BEM), an airflow dynamics model (ADM), and an HVAC model. The simulation system further comprises a processor configured to process the environmental data with the BEM to estimate thermal state of the air at the walls of the environment, and determine one or more design variables, by minimizing a multi-objective cost function. The simulation system further comprises an output interface configured to output the one or more design variables.

System and method for designing heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems

A control system for controlling an operation of a heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system is provided. The control system comprises an input interface configured to accept data indicative of a target distribution of thermal state in an environment, and a memory configured to store an airflow dynamics model (ADM) and an HVAC model. The control system further comprises a processor configured to inverse the ADM to estimate values of boundary conditions for inlet locations defining target thermal state at the inlet locations that result in the target distribution of thermal state in the environment; determine, using the HVAC model, target control parameters of actuators of the HVAC system resulting in the target thermal state at the inlet locations; and submit control commands to the HVAC system to operate the actuators of the HVAC system according to the control parameters.

Controlling HVAC system by inversing airflow dynamics

Systems and methods for a vapor compression system including primary actuators, secondary actuators, primary sensors that provide a primary set of system outputs, and secondary sensors that provide a secondary set of system outputs. A primary controller receives the primary set of system outputs, and produces a primary set of control inputs for the primary actuators, to regulate one or more zone temperatures to set-points and to regulate one or more critical process variables to set-points. A secondary controller receives the secondary set of system outputs, and produces a secondary set of control inputs, to minimize an overall system power consumption. The secondary inputs may include set-points to the primary controller. The primary outputs may include estimates of critical process variables that are used as inputs to the secondary controller.

System and method for power optimizing control of multi-zone heat pumps

A vapor compression system includes a heat transfer system including an arrangement of components moving a refrigerant through a vapor compression cycle to condition a controlled environment and a refrigerant management system including at least one expansion device regulating an amount of the refrigerant in the vapor compression cycle. The vapor compression system also includes a controller including a processor jointly controlling the expansion device and at least one component of the heat transfer system according to a metric of performance of the vapor compression system.

System and method for controlling refrigerant in vapor compression system

A controller controls a first air-conditioning system and a second air-conditioning system having separate refrigerant circuits, but arranged for conditioning a common space. The controller includes a multi-variable regulator to determine control signals for controlling operations of first components of the first and the second refrigerant circuits to reduce jointly and concurrently an environmental error between setpoint and measured values of environment in the common space. The controller also includes at least two single-variable regulators to receive operational errors between setpoint and measured values of an operation of a second component of the first and the second refrigerant circuits. The controller separately determines control signals for controlling the operation of different refrigerant circuits that reduce the operational errors. The controller also includes a lookup table that stores values for other inputs of the systems that improve its performance, and which selects specific input values for both systems according to the outputs of the multi-variable and/or single variable regulators. The controller includes an electrical circuit for controlling the first and the second air-conditioning systems according to the determined control signals.

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Cambridge, MA, United States of America

Hongtao Qiao