Free Modelica Libraries

Competing for the Modelica Free Library Award

Title: A Platform for the Agent-based Control of HVAC Systems
Authors: Roozbeh Sangi, Felix Bünning, Johannes Fütterer and Dirk Müller
Abstract:The amount of energy used for heating and cooling in the building sector is about one third of the total energy consumed in the world. The finiteness of natural energy resources on the one hand, and the ever-increasing demand for energy in the world on the other hand, necessitate the development of systematic approaches for improving the efficiency of building energy systems as well as minimizing the usage of primary energy resources and the damaging impacts on the environment. Attempts to tackle these problems have led to modern complex energy concepts for buildings, which have consequently initiated a need for new control strategies for them. Multi-agent control, which is known with other names like agent-based control, offers a promising solution to these challenges. To the knowledge of the authors, there are 96 platforms in different programming languages available, which are mostly java-based and mainly used in logistic applications, but there is no platform in the modeling language Modelica, which is widely used for simulation of dynamic systems, especially buildings performance simulation. This lack motivated the authors to develop a platform for agent-based control of HAVC systems. The platform eliminates the dependency of models developed in Modelica on an extra interface, which is usually required to couple the models to the platforms written in any programming languages other than Modelica. This paper presents the structure of the platform and explains how the agents' communications work. The flexibility of the optimization objective is ensured through the definition of readily interchangeable cost functions. The applicability and functionality of the platform are proved by applying the platform in the control of building energy systems examples.
Links: Full paper, Additional material

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Title: EMOTH The EMobility Library of OTH Regensburg
Authors: Alexander Grimm and Anton Haumer
Abstract:The importance of E-Mobility is rapidly increasing, not only for private vehicle traffic but also for public transport. In and around Regensburg, Germany there are a lot of automotive companies. Therefore E-Mobility is an important topic in the curriculum of several courses of study at the East-Bavarian Technical University of Applied Sciences Regensburg (OTH). One Master of Applied Research student at OTH has chosen the topic to develop an open-source simulation tool for electric vehicles – the EMOTH Library – based on Modelica and to refine several aspects of the library during the one and a half year of the master course. After one semester, the basic version of the library is available and will be presented in this paper.
Links: Full paper, Additional material

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Title: Sound Source Extension Library for Modelica
Authors: Johann Emhofer, Raimund Zitzenbacher and Christoph Reichl
Abstract:Transient thermodynamic models in Modelica are widely used for energetic simulations of machines and systems which are located nearby people. Nevertheless, so far no libraries exist which consider the noise of such machines in the simulations. The Sound Source Extension library (SSElib) proposed in this work, should close this gap. With the aid of the SSElib, acoustic characteristics can be added to existing Modelica models (e.g. to a compressor model). The acoustic characteristic added to the existing model is frequency dependent in the one-octave band and could be further depend on an input parameter like the rotational speed of a compressor. With the inclusion of sound sources into energetic models, the sound behavior of machines can be considered and control strategies can be optimized to lower the noise of machines.
Links: Full paper, Additional material