Analysis and Control Design of Thermal Flows in Buildings: Efficient Experimentation with a Room Model in Matlab-Modelica Environment

Abstract

The paper deals with an analyse and control design of thermal flows in buildings. With a complex room model which was developed in Dymola-Modelica environment we made several open loop and closed loop experiments using a very efficient combination of Matlab-Simulink and Dymola-Modelica environments. Namely Dymola-Modelica is superior for 'physical modelling'. On the other hand Matlab-Simulink is superior for the design of control schemes but also for more sophisticated analyse and design experimentations: linearization, optimization, control design. The model itself is not described (see references), so the emphasise is given to the experimenting possibilities using the room model. On the bases of open loop analyse of the model simple control algorithms (proportional and proportional-integral) for indoor temperature were developed and tested for the reference and disturbance elimination modes. The results confirm the usefulness of the model and the whole experimental environment as well. Finally both used environments are briefly discussed and some ideas for the future work are given.