Energy and Robustness Evaluation for Dual-Mode Model Predictive Control of HVAC Systems

This paper presents an evaluation of energy efficiency and robustness to disturbances for a discrete-time dual-mode model predictive controller (DMMPC) of a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system. The recently introduced controller only requires finite number of iterations for the underlying model predictive controller optimization to achieve guaranteed stability under the assumption of an error free controllable system. A nonlinear model for the air handling unit of a generic multi-zone HVAC system is used for simulation and evaluation of control performance. Energy consumption is computed from simulation results, while the robustness conclusions are drawn from analyses of the results in the presence of process noise and modeling uncertainties. The energy and robustness performance of the dual-mode controller is compared with a traditional PID control structure, showing the superiority of the newly proposed controller.