A STATE-SPACE MODEL FOR PREDICTING AND CONTROLLING THE TEMPERATURE RESPONSES OF INDOOR AIR ZONES

Indoor temperature distributions and air flows lead to the variation o f local thermal comfort from place to place. To have more precise pred ictions and better control of the thermal conditions in the working zo ne where the room occupant sits and works, a both detailed and fast mo del of the dynamic indoor temperature distributions is needed. Unfortu nately, very few papers studied such models due to the complexity of f luid (air) flows. This paper discusses a zonal model which is derived from computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and the output of a CFD code. The model is validated with experimental results. In order to design b etter control systems, the zonal model is transformed into a state spa ce representation form. One example is given on how the state space mo del can be used for temperature predictions and more precise temperatu re controls. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.