Distributed Adaptive Control of Multi-Zone HVAC Systems

TLDR: A distributed control scheme for a multi-zone building which can control zone temperature by considering exchange of information between zones and a distributed adaptive control scheme which can react to and compensate for possible changes in system parameters.

Abstract: Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) systems consume up to 20% of total energy consumption, hence the need for efficient HVAC control mechanisms. Since buildings consist of multiple interconnected zones, the thermal interaction between them should be taken into account while designing a control mechanism. In this paper, we propose a distributed control scheme for a multi-zone building which can control zone temperature by considering exchange of information between zones. Each local controller regulates zone temperature and compensates for the thermal effect of neighboring zones. In addition, most common control approaches require either accurate knowledge of system parameters or historical data of system operation. However, in the presence of dynamic parametric uncertainties or disturbances these control schemes may not perform efficiently and as desired. For this reason we extend the proposed scheme to a distributed adaptive control scheme which can react to and compensate for possible changes in system parameters. In this case, system parameters are considered unknown and the controller gains are estimated on-line by an adaptive law. The applicability of the proposed schemes is demonstrated by an example.