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Modeling, Energy Optimization and Control of Vapor Compression Refrigeration Systems for Automotive Applications

Zhang, Quansheng
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1406121484

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Mechanical Engineering.
In recent years, the increasing fuel consumption in the transportation sector has forced the automotive industry to improve their fleet-average fuel economy without sacrificing the vehicle performance. The primary path towards achieving fuel economy improvements consists of improving the energy conversion efficiency of powertrain components and mitigating various forms of losses. Ancillary loads, such as the Air Conditioning (A/C) system, fans and blowers or the alternator, are considered as a significant source of energy dissipation on the vehicle, but represent also an opportunity to improve vehicle fuel economy through the implementation of advanced design and control solutions. To this extent, this dissertation focuses on the fundamental and applied research that leads to the development of control algorithms for the energy optimization of the Air Conditioning system for a light-duty vehicle. Two types of mathematical models for characterizing the dynamics of vapor compression refrigeration systems were developed and validated. A high-fidelity, controloriented model was initially developed through an original formulation of the Moving Boundary Method using the Reynolds Transport Theorem with moving control surface, providing a generic template for characterizing mass and energy transfer in presence of a phase changing fluid. Then, an energy-based model was derived from first principles to capture the relevant refrigerant pressure dynamics in the heat exchangers and the compressor power consumption affecting the fuel economy with limited complexity. In addition, this dissertation addresses two different control problems in the field of A/C systems. First, a low-level controller was designed for tracking performance and disturbance rejection, then a high-level supervisory controller was developed for system-level energy optimization and performance tracking. A local H-infinity controller was designed to track prescribed trajectories of two output variables, namely the pressure difference dp between the condenser and the evaporator, and the superheat temperature SH at the evaporator. The problem of system-level A/C optimization was then introduced by defining appropriate objective functions to characterize the fuel energy consumption, cooling performance and components durability. This led to the formulation of a constrained multi-objective optimal control problem, which was approached numerically to analyze the behavior of the system and identify the potential to reduce the energy consumption while maintaining acceptable cooling performance. The results of this study were used as a starting point for the design of a forwardlooking energy-based strategy. The Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle for continuoustime optimal control problems, the Hybrid Minimum Principle (HMP) theory and the Embedding Method for switching hybrid systems were considered in this study to design an optimal control policy for the A/C compressor clutch. The results obtained by applying these method were evaluated in simulation, using the energy-based A/C model.
Marcello Canova (Advisor)
Giorgio Rizzoni (Committee Member)
Xiaodong Sun (Committee Member)
Vadim Utkin (Committee Member)
Automotive Engineering

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Citations

  • Zhang, Q. (2014). Modeling, Energy Optimization and Control of Vapor Compression Refrigeration Systems for Automotive Applications [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1406121484

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Zhang, Quansheng. Modeling, Energy Optimization and Control of Vapor Compression Refrigeration Systems for Automotive Applications. 2014. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1406121484.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Zhang, Quansheng. "Modeling, Energy Optimization and Control of Vapor Compression Refrigeration Systems for Automotive Applications." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1406121484

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1406121484
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© 2014, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Modeling, Energy Optimization and Control of Vapor Compression Refrigeration Systems for Automotive Applications by Quansheng Zhang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.