Model predictive zonal temperature control of a vehicle cabin

Abstract

Climate conditioning has become a standard feature in street vehicles sold today. Besides the importance to driver attention and oxygen supply, the thermal comfort of passengers provided by a climate conditioning system has been a focus of industry. This comfort depends on a variety of factors, only some of which can be influenced by standard cabin actuation. The most important factor, that can be directly influenced, is the cabin temperature. To reduce energy consumption of the system and boost individual comfort, zonal temperature control is desirable. To achieve variable temperature reference tracking separately for all passengers, a three-zone model predictive climate control system is presented in this work. A cabin temperature model previously presented by the authors is extended by a modeling approach for the underlying pipe system. The model is deduced, parameterized based on experimental measurement data and considered in a model predictive controller. Experimental analysis of the developed controller is carried out, validating the usability of models in three zone climate control. For driver and passenger zone, changing reference temperature in one zone causes a maximum overshoot in the adjacent zone of 0. $4^{\mathrm{o}}\mathrm{C}$ for low mass flows. Front zones’ actuation has furthermore been shown to be able to control rear zone temperature.