Availability-based computer management of a cold thermal storage system

This paper reports on work to develop an availability-based, on-line expert system to manage a thermal energy storage air-conditioning system. The management system is designed to be used by mechanical engineers in the field of air-conditioning control and maintenance. Specifically, the expert system permits the user to easily monitor the second law of thermodynamics operating efficiencies of the major components and the system as a whole in addition to the daily scheduled operating parameters of a cold thermal storage system. Through the use of computer-generated and continually updated screen display pages, the user is permitted interaction with the expert system. The knowledge-based system is developed with a commercially available expert system shell that is resident in a personal computer. In the case studied, 130 various analog and binary inputs/outputs are used. The knowledge base for the thermal energy storage expert system included nine different display pages that are continually updated, 25 rules, three tasks, and three loops