A Robust Evolutionary Algorithm for HVAC Engineering Optimization

摘要

It is common to make use of suitable plant and energy simulation programs, like TRNSYS (SEL 2000) or EnergyPlus (DOE 2008), to build up heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) problems for in-depth study. Optimization is a useful approach to find out the suitable parameters for system design and energy management of HVAC systems. It is ineffective to use traditional optimization methods if the derivative information is not available. Among a variety pf heuristic optimization methods, the evolutionary algorithm is suitable to handle such problems. In order to determine reliable results with a limited number of function calls, a robust evolutionary algorithm (REA) based on the paradigm of evolution strategy instead of the popular genetic algorithm can effectively and efficiently search the optimal solution for HVAC problems. The REA can be applied to other engineering problems of a similar nature, as well.