Dynamic models of thermal systems using an energy-based modeling approach

The aim of this work is to give a new approach to obtain compact dynamic thermal models suitable for a variety of systems where the heat transfer can be caused by conduction, internal convection (not at the boundary), and evaporation/condensation of water. The structural properties of the proposed dynamic model are presented and discussed in this paper. These properties guarantee conservation of energy and mass within the system, thus giving a good confidence in the correctness of the model. This paper shows that the proposed model has a simple structure, can be easily implemented in SIMULINK, and provides simulation times much shorter compared with those usually obtained using CFD programs. The proposed model proves to be suitable for real-time simulations and for control design purposes.