Adaptive control for universal integrated thermal hydronic system

太阳能是最丰富和最具成本效益的清洁可再生能源之一，既可以用于发电，也可以直接用于供暖和制冷。它一直是包括加拿大在内的世界各地研究和开发努力的主题。尽管在过去的几年里，太阳能技术的效率有了很大的进步，但它们都有同样的缺点——太阳能只能在白天使用，而且还受天气条件的影响。本课题的研究就是为了克服这些局限。****该项目的主要目标是开发一种集成能源模块（IEM）的最佳控制方法。IEM主要由三个部分组成：能量发生器、能量存储和能量助推器。本项目的控制方法和选择的方法可以应用于各种系统，但本研究更侧重于热流体循环应用。为了本研究的目的，IEM由以下组件组成：太阳能集热器（STC）作为能量发生器，热能储存；还有一个空气-水热泵作为热能助推器。我们称这个系统为集成热流体模块（ITHM）。我们研究了迭代和其他最优控制方法。成功的最优控制将使系统的物理实施更小、更紧凑，这意味着它将需要更少的材料和劳动力来生产，但也将开辟更广泛的应用范围，否则是不可能的。据我们所知，无论是在加拿大还是在国际上，都没有开发出这样的最优控制系统；现有的控制系统复杂、昂贵，而且大部分是为大型商业应用而制造的。因此，该项目将产生新的知识，大大有利于加拿大和其他地方的研究和工程界

Sun energy is one of the most abundant and cost-effective clean renewable sources of energy which can be used either for electrical power generation or directly for heating and cooling. It has been a subject of research and development efforts around the world, including in Canada. Despite significant advances in efficiency of solar technologies in the past years however, all of them suffer from the same disadvantage - sun energy is only available during the day and is also affected by weather conditions. The subject research is intended to overcome these limitations. ****The primary objective of the project is to develop a methodology for optimal control of an integrated energy module (IEM). An IEM consists of three main components: energy generator, energy storage, and energy booster. The control approach and chosen methodology for this project could be applied to a variety of systems, but this research is focused more narrowly on thermal hydronic applications. For the purpose of this research an IEM consists of the following components: a solar thermal collector (STC) as an energy generator, thermal energy storage; and an air-to-water heat pump as a thermal energy booster. We call this system an Integrated Thermal Hydronic Module (ITHM). We investigate iterative and other methods for optimal control. Successful optimal control will result in significantly smaller and more compact physical implementation of the system which means it would require less materials and labor to produce but also will open up a much wider range of applications that could not have been possible otherwise. To the best of our knowledge, such an optimal control system has not been developed neither in Canada nor internationally; existing control systems are complex, expensive and for the most part are made for large commercial applications. Therefore, the project will generate new knowledge significantly benefiting both research and engineering community in Canada and elsewhere.**