Study of an optimal heating command law for structures with non-negligible thermal inertia in varying outdoor conditions

Study of an optimal heating command law for structures with non-negligible thermal inertia in varying outdoor conditions

Nicolas Le Touz, Thibaud Toullier and Jean Dumoulin

In this numerical study, an optimal energetic control model applied to local heating sources to prevent black-ice occurrence at transport infrastructure surface is addressed. The heat transfer Finite Element Model developed and boundary conditions hypothesis considered are firstly presented. Several heat powering strategies, in time and space, are then introduced. Secondly, control laws are presented with the objective of preventing ice formation while avoiding excessive energy consumption by taking also into account weather forecast information. In particular, the adjoint state method is adapted for the case of an operation without some continuous properties (discontinuous time heat sources). In such case, a projection from the space of continuous time functions to a piecewise constant one is proposed. To perform optimal control, the adjoint state method is addressed and discussed for the different powering solutions. To preserve some specific technical components and maintain their lifetime, operational constraints are considered and different formulations for the control law are proposed..... Pdf

(1) Nicolas Le Touz, Thibaud Toullier, Jean Dumoulin:

Université Gustave Eiffel, Inria, COSYS-SII, I4S Team, F-44344 Bouguenais, France;

(2) Nicolas Le Touz: CEA DAM F-46000 Gramat, France.