Modeling and predictive control strategies in buildings with mixed-mode cooling.

The paper presents a transient thermal model for a building with mixed-mode cooling and high levels of exposed thermal mass. The model is based on the thermal network representation with advective heat transfer for modeling the heat exchange due to air flow between thermal zones. Within the model, parameters are classified into design and control variables in order to investigate their impact on the effectiveness of mixed-mode cooling. Results show that the air flow rate has the most pronounced impact on mixed-mode cooling performance followed by the thermal mass and glazing area. Furthermore, an “offline” model predictive control strategy (MPC) is presented and preliminary results for a typical day show that the cooling load can be efficiently reduced by following the inputs obtained from the MPC controller.