Title Modelling and cooling power control of a TES-backed-up vapour compression refrigeration system
Authors Rodriguez, David , BEJARANO PELLICER, GUILLERMO, Vargas, Manuel , Lemos, Joao M. , Ortega, Manuel G.
External publication No
Means Appl Therm Eng
Scope Article
Nature Científica
JCR Quartile 1
SJR Quartile 1
JCR Impact 5.29500
SJR Impact 1.71400
Publication date 05/01/2020
ISI 000498754900093
DOI 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2019.114415
Abstract This work addresses the modelling, power control, and optimization of a thermal energy storage (TES) system combined with a vapour-compression refrigeration facility based on phase change materials (PCM). Given a novel design of a PCM-based TES tank and its interconnection with an existing refrigeration system, the joint dynamic modelling is first studied, exploring the different time scales that coexist at the interconnected system. Diverse operating modes are defined, according to the intended use of the TES tank as a cold-energy buffer to decouple cooling demand and production, whereas the static characteristic and power limits are calculated and show the high coupling between the main cooling powers involved (TES charging/discharging power, and direct power production at the evaporator). In this light, a decoupling control strategy is proposed, where the low-level controllers are simply PI regulators and the refrigerant/secondary mass flows are considered as virtual manipulated variables, applying a feedforward-based cascade strategy. The control performance is evaluated through a thorough simulation that includes all operating modes, where the reference tracking is shown to be fast and reliable enough to address high-level scheduling strategies, where the references on the main cooling powers are intended to be imposed considering economic and efficiency criteria.
Keywords Refrigeration system; Thermal energy storage; Phase change materials; Power control; Decoupling
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