RETRACTED: Temperature control of a cabin in an automobile using thermal modeling and fuzzy controller

Abstract

abstract This paper covers thermal modeling of a cabin in an automobile to find and control the air temperature bythe means of fuzzy controller. Therefore, in first step, the thermal and ventilation loads were estimatedthen the equations of dry air mass and energy conservation as well as internal components of a cabinwere derived and solved simultaneously. The performance of the proposed thermal modeling of a cabinwas compared with the experimental hot room test. In the next step, to maintain thethermal comfort of acabin and controlling the two effective parameters (blower outgoing air velocity and the circulated airpercentage), a fuzzy controller was applied. Results showed that when using a fuzzy controller, the tem-perature control of a cabin took shorter time period and as a result, the time spent for ventilating andcooling the cabin as well as the fuel consumption are reduced. 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. IntroductionControlling thermal comfort of passengers in a cabin is impor-tant. The temperature and thermal comfort control of a cabin foran automobile would be possible by using proper controller. Mat-sui et al. [1] used modern control theory for thermal analyses of anautomobile cabin and determined the governing equations of themodel by means of statistical methods. Lim et al. [2] employed amicrocontroller which continually recorded the temperature of acabin and sent the controlling commands to the compressor in or-der to maintain the cabins thermal comfort for passengers. Daviset al. [3] used a fuzzy controllingsystem due to nonlinearand com-plex nature of governing equations in thermal modeling of a cabin.Wei and Dage [4] designed the control system of a cabin for anautomobile based on intelligent methods. Durovic and KovaZeviC[5] used artificial neural network under several weather conditionsto control the temperature of a cabin. Aeatrice et al. [6] analyzedthe dynamic mode of a refrigeration cycle to analyze the thermalcomfort of a cabin and to control the air conditioning system instate space. In his work, the moisture produced by passengerswas measured by a sensor, while the governing equations werejust applicable to 100% circulated return air passing over the evap-orator. Qi and Deng [7] introduced a fuzzy controller for modelingthe thermal comfort inside the cabin of a car in which only theinlet air volume rate was considered for air temperature control.Farzaneh and Tootoonchi [8] used a fuzzy controller with temper-ature feedback to supervise the thermal comfort of a cabin.In the first part of this paper the thermal and ventilation loadswere estimated, and then the mass and energy balance equationsfor dry air as well as the balance equations for internalcomponentsof a cabin were derived and solved simultaneously. The proposedcabin thermal model was validated by hot room test experimentaldata. Then a fuzzy controller was applied to the model to controlthe cabin’s temperature. The velocity of air passing through theblower and the position of the circulating air vent were controlledby this type of cabins air condition controller. The modeling wouldhelp designers to adapt the air conditioning system of an automo-bile with the design of an internal temperature controlling system.The followingare the contributionof this paperinto the subject:1. Effect of pollution level in an outside weather.2. Control the air circulation ratio with a fuzzy controller.2. Thermal modeling and governing equations for a cabinThe cabin thermal modeling was performed by using theLumped Capacitance Method in which the temperature distribu-tion was assumed to be spatially uniform. The variation of temper-ature and relative humidity of the air inside the cabin wasestimated using dynamic equations of operating conditions whichwere influenced by: solar radiation load received by outer surfacesand windows of an automobile, convection and conduction heattransfer loads of a cabin, effect of sensible and latent heat as well