Development of Dynamic Models for Building Systems

The building sector is one of the most important energy consumers and CO2 producers. Recent statistics collected in the EU have shown that the building sector accounts for approximately 40% of the energy consumed and 40% of the total CO2 produced. These trends are reflected in both North America and Asia. International organizations such as ISO have developed new measures of building system energy performance. The development of innovative technologies to address energy consumption in the building sector -commercial, industrial and institutional - has become an area of increasing interest in industry and academia. One particular area of development that holds considerable promise is the analysis and control of building system dynamics. Extensive system models have been developed to incorporate every aspect of building systems dynamics, from the simplest single room simulation to complete commercial building simulations. These important modeling initiatives have paved the way for new and exciting opportunities in the study of building system dynamics. The availability of comprehensive models and low-cost wireless sensor technology have made conceivable the design of advanced control systems for building energy management. While these models are suitable for design purposes, they are expensive to prepare and too complex to be used for real time optimization, control and monitoring [1]. Consequently a number of important and difficult challenges remain before the design and implementation of such control systems is possible. The long-term objective of this research is to provide building owners and designers with new analysis and control techniques and tools that can assist them in the design of sustainable building energy management systems for commercial, institutional and residential buildings. Newly developed mathematical methods in area of control theory provide new perspectives and solution methods for addressing these problems.