Research Areas and Capabilities
- HVAC Technology
- Energy savings by chiller plant optimization
- Human Occupancy based sensor system development for use in green buildings
- Multi-objective optimization algorithms for system level integration and control in HVAC systems
HVAC Technology
Increased emphasis on energy efficient solutions leads to the development of better and optimal ways of using energy. The Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system is one of the major power/energy consuming units in buildings in the United States and worldwide. Depending on the type of facility, a chiller plant can consume electricity ranging from 10% to 50% of the total energy consumption. Hence, even a small amount of savings in energy would result in large savings in cost. Also, most of the chiller plants are not optimized.
Research Scientists at FIU-ARC are developing technologies to maximize energy savings from chiller plants by generating optimal peak performance characteristics in real-time. In addition, technologies resulting from human occupancy models and response surface based models for integration with the HVAC optimization technology are also being investigated.
Integrated building energy savings technology
Sustainable remediation
FIU has worked with the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management in developing a primer for green and sustainable remediation. In addition, FIU collaborated with the Savannah River National Laboratory on applying the principles of green and sustainable remediation to the groundwater remediation system at Savannah River site’s A & M Areas. See the fact sheet below for more information on this research effort.
Publications
Aravelli, A., Rao, S. S., "Energy Optimization in Chiller Plants: A Novel Formulation and Solution using a Hybrid Optimization Technique", Engineering Optimization Journal, Vol. 45, No. 10, pp. 1187-1203, 2013.
Aravelli, A., Rao, S. S., Adluru, H. K., "Design Optimization of Micro-channel Heat Exchanger embedded in LTCC", Proceedings of 2012 of the 45th International Symposium on Microelectronics, IMAPS, San Diego, Sep. 2012 (Best paper in Session).
Aravelli, A., Rao, S. S., Adluru, H. K., "Multi-Objective Design Optimization of Micro-Channel Cooling System using High Performance Thermal Vias in LTCC Substrates", Journal of Micro-Electronics and Electronic Packaging, Vol. 10, pp. 40-47, 2013.
Aravelli, A., McDaniel, D., Abrahao, A., Awwad, A. and C. Davila, “Thermal Measurement and Modeling of Nuclear Waste in the Double Shell Tanks at Hanford Nuclear Waste Site Using Miniature Sensors,” International Microelectronics Assembly and Packaging Society 2016, Pasadena, CA, October, 2016.
Patents
In-situ optimization of chilled water plants
US 20140229146 A1
Inventors: Igor F. Gonzalez, Hari Kishore Adluru, Aparna Aravelli
