Indexed by:Journal Papers

Date of Publication:2021-06-13

Journal:ENERGY SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

Volume:9

Issue:6

Page Number:843-854

ISSN No.:2050-0505

Key Words:end unit; error analysis; flow rate estimation; resistance; variable water flow air‐ conditioning system

Abstract:Water flow rate plays an important role in the modeling prediction, fault detection and diagnosis, and performance optimization of the variable water flow air-conditioning (VWFAC) system. However, flowmeters employed by the system's terminals have not been widely used in engineering applications for the constraints in installation space and high installation and retrofit costs. Therefore, in this study, a terminal flow rate estimation method is proposed for the VWFAC system to reduce the dependency on flowmeters. The water flow rate estimation model is developed based on the flow resistance characteristics inside the air handling unit (AHU) and was trained and verified at the Monitoring and Control Laboratory established in the Dalian University of Technology. The results indicate that the maximum root-mean-square error (RMSE) during the training and validation sessions are 0.038 m(3)/h and 0.028 m(3)/h, respectively, while the corresponding mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) are below 1.4% and 6.5%, which is acceptable for engineering applications. To improve the flow rate estimation accuracy of the model, water temperature, water flow rate, and pressure difference are suggested to cover a wide varied range during the training session as much as possible. Systematic error is an important index in determining the demands for sensor's accuracy class. According to the results of water flow rate, the systematic errors of the estimates are ranged between 0.51% and 0.76%, only about 1/4 to 1/3 of the measurements systematic errors. Based on the error propagation theory, the water flow rate estimates would be reliable if the systematic error of the pressure measurements does not over twice that of the water flow rate measurements. This flow rate estimation method can be further applied to other thermal engineering systems to bring considerable economic benefits for engineering applications.