Multivariable Nonlinear Model Predictive Controller Design for Air-Handling Unit with Single Zone in Variable Air Volume

摘要

Air-Handling or Air-handler Units (AHUs) as a section of a Heating, Ventilating, and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) system are used for refrigerating and filtering the environment. AHU provides comfortable conditions by adjusting the control actuators of the air and water in a field-level of industrial automation. This device has strong interacting nonlinearities characteristics with complicated coupling between states and variable parameters. Thus, designing a controller has been always a challenging issue. In this work, a multivariable Nonlinear Model Predictive Controller (NMPC) centered on fmincon algorithm for AHU with a single zone in a Variable Air Volume (VAV) is pro-posed. The NMPC structure is focused on iterative optimization (online) of a cost function with a finite horizon of operating performance and using the future behavior of air-handler to generate the control effort without considering the past error. Simulation results indicate good efficiency of the NMPC approach in estimation and tracking the desired set-point compared to Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR).