Estimating airflow rates in air-handling units from actuator control signals [An article from: Building and Environment]

This digital document is a journal article from Building and Environment, published by Elsevier in 2006. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
The design and accuracy of simple airflow estimators that are based on actuator control signals are investigated. A computer simulation of the air-circuits of a variable-air-volume air-conditioning system is developed and validated experimentally. The simulation is used to examine the relationship between the supply airflow, the extract airflow and the inlet airflow, and the control signals for the fans and the mixing-box dampers in the air-handling unit (AHU). Based on the simulation results, linear estimators are proposed for the estimation of airflow rates in AHUs. The accuracy of the linear estimators, which are calibrated using measured data collected from the air-conditioning system during testing and balancing, is examined using data collected from a full-scale air-conditioning system. The results show that the estimation errors are less than 8% of full-scale.