Structural design of the mCCHP-RES system

Abstract

In order to be shown in detail, the design process algorithm was divided into two stages, namely structural design and functional design. In this chapter is presented the first stage and in Chap. Functional Design of the mCCHP-RES System the second. Then, in Chap. Experimental Case Study it is shown a concrete example. Here, the structural design is divided into seven steps and of each step has been devoted a paragraph. Regarding the contents of steps, they are as follows The first three steps (described in Sects. 1, 2 and 3) are preparatory and consist of establishment of both the conceptual framework (i.e., delimitation of the space where will be searched solutions for the problems arising during the design process) and the manufacturer business plan (on which is based the choice of design approach that can be open-ended or closed-ended), followed by the initial data collection (namely the data on which is based the design calculations, such as the residence building features, the customer needs and requirements, the functional needs of residence, and the residence energetic environment). The fourth step (described in Sect. 4) consists in building the general structural model of the mCCHP system, based on the data and information gathered in the previous steps, and then in identifying a set of potential structural models by customizing the general model. The last three steps (described in Sects. 5, 6 and 7) consist in both the consumption estimation (for each month of the year and each of the consumers incorporated in the system), and the load estimation (for each month of the year and each energy supplier incorporated in the system), followed by the structural model selection, based on the evaluation and improving the performance of each potential structural model identified in the fourth step. The output of this first stage is the set of acceptable structural models, these representing the input in the second stage, called functional design and presented in Chap. Functional Design of the mCCHPRES System.