Minimum Outdoor Air Control and Building Pressurization with Lack of Airflow and Pressure Sensors in Air-Handling Units
Publication: Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 22, Issue 2
Abstract
Ideally, minimum outdoor air and building static pressures are controlled through feedback controllers with the use of airflow and pressure sensors in air-handling units (AHUs). Unfortunately, because these sensors are not always installed in AHUs, it is common to maintain the minimum outdoor airflow by fixing the AHU control dampers at minimum positions and maintain the building static pressure by tracking the return fan speed with the supply fan speed. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the system performance of these alternative controls. The outdoor airflow and building static pressure of an AHU is simulated using a nonlinear network solution. The simulation results show that the fixed damper position method can approximately maintain a constant outdoor airflow ratio with an appropriate damper connection if the building static pressure is perfectly controlled. The return fan speed linear tracking method along with the fixed damper position method shows performance in maintaining the minimum outdoor airflow ratio and positive building static pressure that is better than that with the return fan speed proportional or offset tracking method.
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Published In
Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 22 • Issue 2 • June 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 13, 2015
Accepted: Jul 27, 2015
Published online: Jan 4, 2016
Published in print: Jun 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Jun 4, 2016
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