Parametric Identification Method for an Absorption Air Conditioning Parabolic Trough Collector Solar Plant

In this work is established a parametric identification method for an absorption air conditioning solar plant. A scaled thermal plant, consisting of a thermal capacitor and a flow line that acts as a capacitor and thermal energy radiator is used. As the mathematical model of the scaled plant is structurally identical to that of the solar plant the first is used to determine the methodology that can be used later for the identification of the PTC solar plant. Parametric identification is a necessary step that allows to determine the unknown parameters of the mathematical model of any solar/thermal plant. This model then can be used to analyze the plant characteristics and design an appropriate control algorithm. Although the system model is nonlinear it can be expressed in the form of a linear regressor in the parameters. This permits to use the least squares method as the identification method. The method is applied to the thermal plant to identify the useful form that the covariance matrix and excitation signals should have to ensure that when applied to the solar plant its unknown parameters can be properly estimated. Once the solar plant parameters are properly estimated model can be used to analyze and simulate the operation of the absorption air conditioning system.