JPH08159542A - Air supply volume controller for air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To realize the energy conservation by controlling an air supply volume by considering the thermal stability of an air layer in a room. CONSTITUTION: An air layer temperature detecting means 11 detects the temperature distribution of a gravity direction in a room 2, and an air layer stability deciding means 13 decides the thermal stability of the air layer in the room 2 based on the distribution. That is, when the upper port of the room 2 is at a higher temperature, the thermal stability of the air layer is decided to be high, while in the reverse case, the thermal stability is decided to be low. An air supply volume deciding means 14 decides the air volume of an air conditioner 3 by considering the thermal stability of the layer as one factor for deciding the air volume. That is, when the thermal stability is low, the fact that turbulent flow thermal diffusing efficiency is better as compared with the case that the stability is low is used to set the air volume to relatively smaller as compared with the case that the stability is high.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an air flow control device for an air conditioner for heating or cooling a room, and more particularly to a flow control system for controlling the air flow in consideration of the thermal stability of an indoor air layer. Related to the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In controlling the temperature of a room by an air conditioner, it is required that the temperature be finely adjusted according to the temperature distribution at each time point and that the equipment provided be energy-saving. In this regard, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-183628 discloses a technique for fuzzy control of the cooling amount in the vehicle interior based on the measurement result of the heat capacity in the vehicle interior. In addition, JP-A-3-137
Japanese Patent Publication No. 51 discloses a technique of calculating a target air-blowing temperature, air volume, humidity, and the like in order to keep the sensed temperature in a room constant, and automatically controlling the air conditioner based on the calculation result.

[0003]

By the way, in the air conditioning by blowing air, the temperature change in the room is mainly controlled by the heat diffusion based on the turbulent mixing of air masses having different temperatures. Here, temperature stratification is one of the main factors defining the efficiency of heat transfer by turbulent mixing.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 1A, when the temperature inside the room is higher, that is, when the hot gas is present on the cold gas, the density is high. A low density gas is stratified on the gas, and the stratified state is thermally stable. In this case, since the turbulent mixing in the vertical direction is suppressed, the efficiency of heat transfer is low.
Generally, such temperature stratification tends to occur, but depending on external conditions and the like, as shown in FIG. That is, a low-temperature gas exists on a high-temperature gas. In this case, since a gas with a high density is stratified on a gas with a low density, the stratification state is thermally unstable, and heat transfer is promoted by vertical turbulent mixing. Therefore, even if the difference between the temperatures T1 and T2 between the two points Z1 and Z2 in the vertical direction is the same,
Depending on the difference in thermal stratification, the efficiency of temperature control by blowing air will change.

In the prior art, the air flow rate of the air conditioner was controlled according to various situations, but there is no consideration of the difference in turbulent heat diffusion efficiency due to the difference in temperature stratification. For this reason, the amount of air blow tends to increase, and there has been a problem that power consumption for air blow increases unnecessarily.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an air flow control device which controls the air flow in consideration of the thermal stability of an indoor air layer.

[0007]

The air flow rate control device for an air conditioner according to the present invention is an air flow rate control device for an air conditioner that heats or cools a room, in which air layer temperature is used to detect a temperature distribution in the direction of gravity in the room. The detection means, the air layer stability determination means for determining the thermal stability of the air layer in the room based on the temperature distribution detected by the air layer temperature detection means, and the air layer stability determination means An air flow rate determining means for determining the air flow rate of the air conditioner considering the thermal stability of the air layer in the room as one factor for determining the air flow rate, and the air flow rate determined by the air flow rate determining means. Thus, there is provided an air flow rate control means for adjusting the air flow rate of the air conditioner.

[0008]

According to the air flow control device for an air conditioner of the present invention,
Gas layer temperature detecting means detects the temperature distribution in the direction of gravity in the room, and gas layer stability determining means determines the thermal stability of the gas layer in the room based on the detected temperature distribution. That is, it is determined that the thermal stability of the air layer is high when the temperature distribution in the room is higher and the thermal stability of the air layer is lower when the temperature distribution is higher in the room. . Then, the air flow rate determining means determines the air flow rate of the air conditioner considering the thermal stability of the determined air layer as one factor for determining the air flow rate.
In other words, by utilizing the fact that the turbulent heat diffusion efficiency is higher when the thermal stability is low than when the thermal stability is high, the blowing amount is made relatively smaller than when the thermal stability is high.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Referring to FIG. 2, an air flow control device 1 for an air conditioner according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises:
Blower temperature standardizing means 12 and air layer stability determining means 13
And an air blowing amount determining means 14, an air blowing amount controlling means 15, and an air blowing temperature input means 16. Further, the blower amount determining means 14 includes a blower temperature categorizer 141, a thermal stability categorizer 142, a relation table storage 143,
And an air volume determining unit 144. Note that reference numeral 2 denotes a room to be air-conditioned, and 3 denotes an air conditioner. In this embodiment, the air outlet of the air conditioner 3 is located above the room 2 and blows air downward. Hereinafter, detailed functions of each unit will be described through the entire operation.

The air layer temperature detecting means 11 detects the temperature distribution in the chamber 2 in the direction of gravity and transmits it to the blast temperature normalizing means 12 and the air layer stability determining means 13. As a method of detecting the temperature distribution in the gravitational direction in the chamber 2, for example, as shown in FIG.
A method of attaching T and reading these outputs periodically can be adopted.

On the other hand, the blast temperature input means 16
The blast temperature of is input and transmitted to the blast temperature normalizing means 12. The blast temperature can be detected by, for example, a temperature sensor (not shown) provided at the outlet of the air conditioner 3, and the blast temperature input means 16 inputs the detection value of the temperature sensor.

The blast temperature normalizing means 12 uses the blast temperature input from the blast temperature input means 16 and the temperature distribution in the direction of gravity of the chamber 2 input from the air layer temperature detecting means 11
For example, a standardized blast temperature (dimensionless blast temperature) is calculated by the following equation (1). T ′ = (T−T0) / (T2−T0) (1) where T ′; standardized air temperature T; air temperature input from air temperature input means 16 T2; maximum temperature of room 2 T0: average temperature of the highest temperature T2 and the lowest temperature (T1) of the chamber 2, ie, T0 = (T2 + T1) / 2

The absolute value of the standardized blast temperature T'generally increases as the difference between the blast temperature T and the average temperature T0 of the chamber 2 increases. Further, the sign of the blast temperature T ′ becomes positive when the blast temperature T is higher than the average temperature T0 (ie, during heating), and becomes negative when the blast temperature T is lower than the average temperature T0 (ie, during cooling). Become. Incidentally, when T = T2, T ′ = 1, and when T = T1, T ′ = − 1.

The blast temperature T 'obtained by the blast temperature normalizing means 12 is used for the blast temperature categorizing section 1 of the blast amount determining means 14.
41 is input.

On the other hand, based on the temperature distribution in the gravitational direction of the chamber 2 input from the gas layer temperature detecting means 11, the gas layer stability judging means 13 calculates the heat of the gas layer in the chamber 2 by the following equation (2). Calculate the target stability. S = (1 / T0) × (ΔT / ΔZ) (2) where S 2 is the thermal stability of the air layer in the chamber 2 T 0 is the average temperature of the chamber 2. Temperature gradient in the direction of gravity (ΔT
/ ΔZ) and the average temperature T0 (dimension-less). Generally, the higher the thermal stability of the gas layer, the larger the positive value, and the lower the thermal stability, the more the negative value. Is large. It is assumed that the temperature monotonously increases or decreases with the height in the gas layer in which the thermal stability is considered.

The thermal stability S obtained by the air layer stability determining means 13 is input to the thermal stability categorizing section 142 of the air flow rate determining means 14.

The air volume determining means 14 determines the air volume of the air conditioner by fuzzy inference. First, the blast temperature categorizing unit 141 categorizes the blast temperature T ′ and determines a corresponding proposition in fuzzy inference. FIG. 3 shows the relationship between the blast temperature T ′ and the corresponding proposition,
In this example, five propositions NL, NS, Z, PS, and PL are set. The blast temperature categorizing unit 141 determines any one of the propositions of the blast temperature T ′ input from the blast temperature normalizing unit 12 according to the relationship illustrated in FIG. 3, and transmits the proposition to the air volume determining unit 144. . As a result, when the air blowing temperature is sufficiently higher than the air layer temperature of the chamber 2, the proposition PL
Is slightly higher, the proposition PS is sufficiently low, the proposition NL is low, the proposition NS is slightly lower, the proposition Z otherwise.
Is determined and transmitted to the air volume determining unit 144.

On the other hand, the thermal stability categorizing unit 142 is
The thermal stability S of the air layer is categorized to determine the corresponding proposition in fuzzy reasoning. FIG. 4 shows the relationship between the thermal stability S of the air layer and the corresponding propositions. In this example, five propositions NL, NS, Z, PS and PL are set. The thermal stability categorization unit 142 determines any one of the propositions about the thermal stability S of the gas layer input from the gas layer stability determining unit 13 along the relationship shown in FIG. It is transmitted to the air volume determining unit 144. That is, the proposition PL is determined when it is thermally sufficiently stable, the proposition PS is determined when it is slightly stable, and the proposition NL is determined when it is extremely unstable, and the proposition NS is determined when it is slightly unstable. Is determined, otherwise, the proposition Z is determined and transmitted to the air volume determining unit 144.

The relation table storage unit 143 stores a relation table 1431 indicating the relation between the ambiguous functions (a to e) of the air flow rate and the propositions of the proposition collection W corresponding thereto as shown in FIG. The relation table 1432 indicating the relationship between the proposition of the blast temperature T ′ and the proposition of the thermal stability S and the proposition of the proposition collection W is stored, and the air volume determining unit 144 stores these relation tables 1431 and 1432. , The amount of air that satisfies both the proposition of the blast temperature T ′ input from the blast temperature categorization unit 141 and the proposition of the thermal stability S input from the thermal stability categorization unit 142 is described below. Is determined as follows.

First, referring to the relation table 1432 shown in FIG. 6, the proposition of the blast temperature T'input from the blast temperature categorizing unit 141 and the thermal stability input from the thermal stability categorizing unit 142. The proposition of the proposition collection W corresponding to the combination with the proposition of degree S is obtained. For example, when the proposition of the blowing temperature T 'is PL and the proposition of the thermal stability S is also PL, the proposition D5 is obtained.

Next, with reference to the relation table 1431 shown in FIG. 5, the air volume is obtained as an ambiguous function corresponding to the proposition of the proposition collection W obtained above. For example, in the case of the proposition D5, the largest value e is obtained.

The air volume obtained as described above is transmitted to the air volume control means 15, and the air volume control means 15
The air volume of the air conditioner 3 is adjusted so that the air volume determined by the air volume determining means 14 is obtained. In addition, since the size of the air outlet of the air conditioner 3 is generally fixed, if the air flow changes,
The speed of the blown air changes.

The above operation is performed by the gas layer temperature detecting means 1.
1 is performed in each cycle of detecting the temperature.

Now, referring to the relation table 1431 of FIG. 5, the relation between the proposition of the propositional book W and the air flow rate is that the air flow rate of the proposition D1 is the smallest and the air flow is gradually sent to D2, D3, D4 and D5. The air volume increases, and the air volume of Proposition D5 becomes the largest. On the other hand, referring to the relation table 1432 in FIG. 6, when the proposition of the thermal stability S is PL (sufficiently stable), the types of the propositions are D3, D4, and D5, and therefore, the maximum blowing amount is e. This maximum air volume becomes smaller as the proposition of the thermal stability S becomes PS, Z, NS, NL,
When the proposition of the thermal stability S is NL (very unstable), the maximum blowing amount is b. This is because when the thermal stability is low, the turbulent heat diffusion efficiency is better than when the thermal stability is high, so the air flow rate can be made relatively smaller than when the thermal stability is high. is there. Thereby, energy saving can be achieved.

For example, when the blast temperature T is equal to the maximum temperature T2 of the chamber 2,
If the air layer is thermally sufficiently stable and its temperature gradient in the direction of gravity is large, the propositions of the blowing temperature T ′ and the thermal stability S are both PL. And the proposition of the propositional collection W of the combination is D5, which is the maximum blowing amount e. This is equivalent to the case where heating is performed by blowing out a stream of air that is higher than the entire gas layer with respect to a thermally very stable stratified layer, and in order to promote mixing by turbulent heat diffusion in the stream, it is very difficult. This is due to the necessity of forced mixing with a large air flow. However, even when the blowing temperature T is sufficiently higher than the maximum temperature T2 of the chamber 2 (T ′ >> 1), when the air layer is extremely thermally unstable (S <<
0) Since the efficiency of turbulent heat diffusion of the gas layer is good, it is not necessary to set the maximum air flow e. For this reason, in the above embodiment, the blowing amount b is smaller than the blowing amount e.

Further, when the blast temperature T is sufficiently lower than the maximum temperature T2 of the chamber 2 (T '<< 1), the air layer is sufficiently thermally stable, and its temperature gradient in the direction of gravity is large, The proposition of the blast temperature T'is NL, the proposition of the thermal stability S is PL, the proposition of the related propositional set W is D4, and the blast amount is d. This is equivalent to the case where cooling is performed by blowing out a stream of air having a temperature lower than that of the entire gas layer with respect to a thermally very stable stratified layer, and in order to promote mixing by turbulent heat diffusion in the stream, it is relatively difficult. This is due to the necessity of forced mixing with a large air flow. However, even when the blast temperature T is sufficiently lower than the maximum temperature T2 of the chamber 2 (T '>> 1), if the air layer is extremely thermally unstable (S << 0),
Since the efficiency of the turbulent heat diffusion of the gas layer is good, it is not necessary to make the air volume d the same. For this reason, in the above embodiment, the blowing amount b is smaller than the blowing amount d.

In FIG. 6, the arrangement of the propositions in the proposition collection W appearing in the row of each proposition of the thermal stability S is represented by the blast temperature T '.
Are not symmetrical about the proposition Z. That is, for example, regarding the proposition PL (sufficiently stable) of the thermal stability S, the proposition PL of the blast temperature T ′ (the blast temperature is sufficiently higher than the temperature of the chamber 2) is D5, whereas the blast The proposition NL of the temperature T ′ (the blowing temperature is sufficiently lower than the temperature of the chamber 2) is D4 instead of D5. This is because the air conditioner 3 of the present embodiment blows air downward from the upper part of the room 2. That is, with the same thermal stability, when blowing a cold wind downward from the upper part of the chamber 2 and diffusing it, a smaller amount of air is blown than when blowing a warm wind downward from the upper part of the chamber 2 and diffusing it. It takes into account that it is necessary.

Although the above embodiment is applied to an air conditioner in which the blowing position is in the upper part of the room and the air is blown downward, the present invention is applied to an air conditioner in which the blow position is in the lower part of the room and air is blown upward. It is also applicable to In this case, a relation table as shown in FIG. 7 is used instead of the relation table 1432 shown in FIG.

[0030]

As described above, the air flow rate control device for an air conditioner of the present invention determines the thermal stability of the air layer in the room, and determines the air flow rate of the air conditioner based on that as a factor. Therefore, a fine control of the air flow rate can be realized in consideration of the difference in turbulent heat diffusion efficiency due to the difference in temperature stratification. Therefore, by utilizing the fact that the turbulent heat diffusion efficiency is better when the thermal stability is low than when it is high, the air flow rate is made relatively small compared to when the thermal stability is high,
The effect of suppressing energy consumption of the device can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a relationship between a thermal stratification state in a gas layer and a thermal diffusion efficiency due to turbulent mixing.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an operation of a blast temperature categorizing unit.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an operation of a thermal stability categorization unit.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the contents of a relationship table showing the relationship between the ambiguous function of the blown air volume and the proposition of the corresponding proposition collection W.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the contents of a relationship table showing the relationship between the proposition of the blast temperature T ′ and the proposition of the thermal stability S and the proposition of the proposition collection W.

FIG. 7 is a relationship between the proposition of the blowing temperature T ′, the proposition of the thermal stability S, and the proposition of the proposition collection W when applied to an air conditioner in which the blowing position is in the lower part of the room and blows upward. FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of the contents of a relation table showing “1”.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Blow rate control device 11 ... Air layer temperature detection means 12 ... Blow temperature normalization means 13 ... Air layer stability determination means 14 ... Blow rate determination means 141 ... Blow temperature categorization part 142 ... Thermal stability categorization part 143 ... Relation table storage section 144 ... Air volume determination section 2 ... Room 3 ... Air conditioner

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An air flow rate control device for an air conditioner that heats or cools a room, wherein air layer temperature detecting means for detecting a temperature distribution in the direction of gravity in the room, and temperature distribution detected by the air layer temperature detecting means. Based on the above, the air layer stability determination means for determining the thermal stability of the air layer in the room, and the thermal stability of the air layer in the room determined by the air layer stability determination means determine the air flow rate. The air flow rate determining means for determining the air flow rate of the air conditioner in consideration of the air flow rate of the air conditioner, and the air flow rate control means for adjusting the air flow rate of the air conditioner so that the air flow rate determined by the air flow rate determining means. An air flow control device for an air conditioner, which comprises: 2. The air flow rate determining means determines the air flow rate of the air conditioner by fuzzy inference, considering the relationship between the air temperature of the air conditioner and the temperature of the room as another factor for determining the air flow rate. The air flow rate control device for an air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The air flow rate control device for an air conditioner according to claim 2, which is applied to an air conditioner in which a blowing position of the air blow is at an upper part of the room and the air is blown downward. 4. The air flow rate control device for an air conditioner according to claim 2, wherein the air flow rate is applied to an air conditioner in which the air blow position is located in the lower part of the room and the air is blown upward.