Advanced controls on energy reliability, flexibility and occupant-centric control for smart and energy-efficient buildings

Advanced controls have attracted increasing interests due to the high requirement on smart and energy-efficient (SEE) buildings and decarbonization in the building industry with optimal tradeoff strategies between energy consumption and thermal comfort of built environment. However, a state-of-the-art review is lacking on advanced controls...

A cross-scale ‘material-component-system’ framework for transition towards zero-carbon buildings and districts with low, medium and high-temperature phase change materials

Transition towards a carbon-neutral district energy community calls for carbon elimination and offsetting strategies, and phase change materials (PCMs) with substantial potential latent energy density can contribute significantly to carbon neutrality through both carbon-positive (like PCM-based thermal control in solar PVs) and carbon...

Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient for High-Speed Train Trajectory Optimization

This paper proposes a novel train trajectory optimization approach for high-speed railways. We restrict our attention to single train operation scenarios with different scheduled/rescheduled running times aiming at generating optimal train recommended trajectories in real time, which can ensure punctuality and energy efficiency of train...

Hydrate slurry as cold energy storage and distribution medium: Enhancing the performance of refrigeration systems

The research presented in this thesis focuses on the use of hydrate slurries in the air conditioning and refrigeration areas. Both experimental and mathematical methods have been used. Hydrate slurries have been suggested as promising cold storage materials that can be used in air conditioning systems due to their high latent heat (193 kJ/kg and...