Performance analysis of a solar cooling system using self tuning fuzzy-PID control with TRNSYS

Considering the vision of covering as much as possible of global energy demand with high renewable energy fraction, our aim was to improve energy efficiency of a solar cooling system by innovative combination of optimized solar cooling, storage techniques and absorption chiller with highly developed techniques for control using known tools: TRNSYS and Matlab with Simulink. In this article we focus on the investigation of the accurate and robust control techniques which are flexible to all operating conditions of the system and in the same time improve energy efficiency and reliability. PID and fuzzy-PID methods are analyzed and compared by evaluating their performances on a solar cooling system, applied to an apartment house simulated with TRNSYS. PID is a traditional technique, considered accurate and simple; its main drawback occurs when applying it to transient system because of the linear characteristic and fixed parameters of controller. Therefore, a self - Tuning procedure using fuzzy logic has been implemented to adapt the PID controller parameters according to state of the system. The control techniques evaluation and the system performance assessment have been done through TRNSYS and Matlab simulation. Here we present the methods of control used from the prospective of control sensitivity, quickness of reaction and complexity point of view. In the same time we will spot the influences on the performance of system when using the two control techniques. Later the model could be included in modules' library of TRNSYS. © 2014 The Authors Published by Elsevier Ltd.