Conference proceeding
Development of a Hardware-in-the-loop Testbed for Laboratory Performance Verification of Flexible Building Equipment in Typical Commercial Buildings
ASHRAE TRANSACTIONS 2022, VOL 128, PT 2, Vol.128(2), pp.237-245
01 Jan 2022
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
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. The development of strategies that exploit these flexibilities could be facilitated by publicly available high-resolution datasets illustrating how control of HVAC systems in commercial buildings can be used in different climate zones to shape the energy use profile of a building for grid needs. This article presents the development and integration of a Hardware-In-the-Loop Flexible load Testbed (HILFT) that integrates physical HVAC systems with a simulated building model and simulated occupants with the goal of generating datasets to verify load flexibility of typical commercial buildings. Compared to simulation-only experiments, the hardware-in-the-loop approach captures the dynamics of the physical systems while also allowing efficient testing of various boundary conditions. The HILFT integration in this article is achieved through the co-simulation among various software environments including LabVIEW, MATLAB, and EnergyPlus. Although theoretically viable, such integration has encountered many real-world challenges, such as: 1) how to design the overall data infrastructure to ensure effective, robust, and efficient integration; 2) how to avoid closed-loop hunting between simulated and emulated variables; 3) how to quantify system response times and minimize system delays; and 4) how to assess the overall integration quality. Lessons-learned using the examples of an AHU-VAV system, an air-source heat pump system, and a water-source heat pump system are presented.
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Details
- Title
- Development of a Hardware-in-the-loop Testbed for Laboratory Performance Verification of Flexible Building Equipment in Typical Commercial Buildings
- Creators
- Zhelun Chen - Drexel UniversityJin Wen - Drexel UniversitySteven T. Bushby - Natl Inst Stand & Technol, Elect Engn Mech Syst & Controls Grp, Mech Engn Mech Syst & Controls Grp, Gaithersburg, MD USAL. James Lo - Drexel UniversityZheng O'Neill - Texas A&M Univ, Dept Mech Engn, College Stn, TX USAW. Vance Payne - Natl Inst Stand & Technol, Elect Engn Mech Syst & Controls Grp, Mech Engn Mech Syst & Controls Grp, Gaithersburg, MD USAAmanda Pertzborn - Natl Inst Stand & Technol, Elect Engn Mech Syst & Controls Grp, Mech Engn Mech Syst & Controls Grp, Gaithersburg, MD USACaleb Calfa - Texas A&M Univ, Dept Mech Engn, College Stn, TX USAYangyang Fu - Texas A&M Univ, Dept Mech Engn, College Stn, TX USAGabriel Grajewski - Drexel Univ, Dept Civil, Architectural Environm Engn, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USAYicheng Li - Drexel Univ, Dept Civil, Architectural Environm Engn, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USAZhiyao Yang - Texas A&M Univ, Dept Mech Engn, College Stn, TX USAASHRAE
- Publication Details
- ASHRAE TRANSACTIONS 2022, VOL 128, PT 2, Vol.128(2), pp.237-245
- Series
- ASHRAE Transactions
- Publisher
- Amer Soc Heating, Refrigerating And Air-Conditioning Engs
- Number of pages
- 9
- Grant note
- EE-0009153 / United States Department of Energy; United States Department of Energy (DOE)
- Resource Type
- Conference proceeding
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering
- Identifiers
- 991021960796904721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Construction & Building Technology
- Engineering, Mechanical