Hardware-in-the-loop integration of PVT models using Internet of Things-enabled communication

Abstract

This paper proposes a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) simulation architecture incorporating Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled communication using Message Queueing Telemetry Transport (MQTT), a lightweight protocol, making distributed messaging possible. The communication procedure between TRNSYS, BCVTB and Matlab as the simulation part and LabVIEW as communication node to the hardware of the real system, is described. Three different HiL test approaches have been compared and the selection of representative days using k-means clustering is depicted, incorporating space heating demand and weather conditions. Results from applying the HiL framework on a parallel solar heat-pump system with emulated covered PVT collectors, show acceptable differences in the collector output temperature and the thermal power output between simulation and hardware. These are found to be caused by time delay in the communication and dynamic limits of the volume flow control in the PVT collector circuit.