Model Predictive Control of Air Handling Unit for a Single Zone Setup

Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems are one of the main consumers of electrical energy. Being an essential component in HVAC systems, optimal operation of the air handling units (AHUs) can result in significant energy savings. In this paper, we study the modeling and optimal control of AHUs which can be operated in different modes (active cooling, economizer and active heating) to regulate the zone temperature within the desirable range. A simple control oriented model based on mass and energy balances is presented and validated against the operational data. A nonlinear optimization program is formulated which accounts for different operational modes to enable optimal operation of the AHU. The proposed framework can be effectively applied to different AHU setups. An illustrative example is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.