Flow Resistance Coefficient Identification of Chilled Water System Based on Multi-Objective Optimization and Experiment Validation

Hydraulic resistance coefficient (HRC) is a fundamental parameter that characterizes the hydraulic state of a water pipeline and significantly determines the efficiency of the water-transport process. To estimate HRC and diagnose hydraulic process fault in building air conditioning system, a novel method called multi-objective optimization (MBO) strategy was developed in the research effort. MBO is concerned with mathematical optimization problems involving more than one objective function to be optimized simultaneously. In this paper, first, the basic principle of the approach is presented. Then several experiments are conducted to identify the HRC in a real air conditioning system. And the water flow rate of each air handling terminal unit is estimated by the flow rate of primary pipe and identified HRC. The experiment results show that the model can accurately estimate HRCs. The HRCs of each pipe and terminal unit were obtained by the flow rate and the pressure difference of primary pipe without requiring geometric specifications, which is very convenient in real engineering application.