Solving an air conditioning system problem in an embodiment design context using constraint satisfaction techniques

Abstract

In this paper, the embodiment design of an air conditioning system (ACS) in an aircraft is investigated using interval constraint satisfaction techniques. The detailed ACS model is quite complex to solve, since it contains many coupled variables and many constraints corresponding to complex physics phenomena. Some new heuristics and notions based on embodiment design knowledge, are briefly introduced to undertake some embodiment design concepts and to obtain a more relevant and more efficient solving process than classical algorithms. The benefits of using constraint programming in embodiment design are discussed and some difficulties for designers using CP tools are shortly detailed. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.