Modelling analysis on fin-tube heating coil of air handling unit

Abstract

One of the fundamental components in engineering practice is the heat exchanger. The fin-tube heating coil of an air handling unit (AHU) is one important component in an HVAC system. In order to study the fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) strategy for an HVAC system, a general model of a fin-tube heat exchanger which is accurate and adaptable is necessary. On the basis of the physical conservation law, a dynamic discretization parameter model is built by Simulink^Ò. The heat exchanger is split into small elements to increase the accuracy of the model. The dynamic behaviour of the fin-tube heat exchanger is studied under the condition of step changes on the opening of the control valve. Research has been performed on an AHU and the simulation results show good accordance with the measurements. Correction on heat transfer coefficient has been introduced to increase the accuracy. Matlab^Ò S-function is used to decrease the computational time of the simulation.

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