Advanced control for active and responsive envelope components

Objectives of the activity:

• Occupant centric controls for modulation of solar radiation in buildings
• Embedding distributed intelligence in dynamic building envelope systems by means of IoT systems
• Model based vs. Model Free controls for dynamic building envelope systems

Framework of the activity:

Dynamic building envelope components, if properly integrated and operated, can significantly contribute towards the achievement of decarbonization targets while maintaining high levels of environmental comfort in the built environment (thermal, daylight, aural comfort and IAQ) . The improvement of everchanging building performance targets, though, is highly dependent on the control strategies adopted. Rule Based Controllers are by far the most adopted control option in the market. These are based on simple “if-then” rules adopting single or multiple fixed pre-determined set-points, relative to limited measurements of environmental boundary conditions.

Model based control, on the other side, offers the possibility to predict the effect of the control action on the indoor environment, thus enabling a direct prediction of the building performance indicators to be optimized by the controller. Nevertheless, real-world implementation of advanced control strategies such as Model Predictive Control would involve a higher cost compared to RBC ones, as well as a bigger challenge in ensuring the predicted performance.

Within this framework, the research activities on advanced building envelope controls articulate in the following main streams:

• Occupant centric building envelope controls: design and implementation of controls enabling to achieve high level of occupant comfort (mainly thermal and visual) in low energy buildings, by means of measuring and predicting occupant comfort, and by learning from occupant preferences;

• Embedding distributed intelligence in dynamic building envelope systems: design and implementation of low cost IoT system for distributed model based controls for advanced façade systems (i.e.double skin facades and smart glazings);

• Model based vs. Model free for dynamic building envelopes systems: formulation and implementation of model based and model free controls (RBC, RL etc.) for improving occupant comfort and reducing energy use by means of dynamic building envelope technologies.

The above mentioned activities are carried out in the framework of national and international research projects.

Figure: Co-simulation environment for the assessment of advanced control logic effectiveness from different points of view

Relevant publications on this topic: