Communication Analysis of Hardware-in-the-Loop Test Method for Heat Pumps and Chillers

Abstract

There are many modelling and simulation methods and techniques, which may be used for prediction or reproduction of heat pumps and chillers behaviour. The hardware-in-the-loop method (HIL) is a technique developed to test a system and its elements working real-time to validate simulated values and to determine the actual performance of heating and cooling capability and performance of the whole system under specific conditions. The HIL can also serve as an intermediate step before testing a system in its actual environment providing opportunity to change boundary conditions or use different control mechanisms. This paper deals with the analysis complexity and possible inaccuracies due to communication difficulties between the test rig and simulation software and due to the test rig hydraulic character. We test and compare several simulation and communication variants such as different time step or different steady-state detection methods in order to achieve the most realistic behaviour of the heat pump and the whole system. The main result of this research is enhancement of communication and simulation accuracy and speedup of the whole process.