Integrated Modeling and Control Strategy for a Novel Rotor Design of a Rotation Heat Pump
A novel design concept for rotation heat pumps (RHP) proposes the use of microchannel diffusion bonded heat exchangers (MCDBHX) as rotating elements. Compared to conventional rotors, this approach aims to simplify manufacturing, increase modularity for different cycle configurations, and enhance scalability across various capacity ranges. Additionally, higher rotational speeds become feasible. The freedom in defining arbitrary flow channel geometries allows these components to be precisely tailored to thermodynamic process requirements, e.g. steam generation. The modelling methodology follows a multi-level approach. Detailed Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations provide insight into local flow phenomena and guide the parameterization of simpler models. On the system level, one-dimensional finite volume models are implemented using Dymola/Modelica with the TIL library to capture the thermodynamic behaviour of the rotary heat pump across various operating conditions. With the help of these physics-based models, surrogate models are further developed to support fast and efficient controller design and optimization tasks. Throughout the modelling process, several technical challenges must be addressed, including the selection and handling of accurate fluid property data, appropriate discretization strategies, simplifications of fluid dynamics, and the formulation of geometry design as an inverse problem. This hierarchical modelling framework - from high-fidelity CFD to 1D simulations and surrogate models - enables a comprehensive understanding of the system and supports both detailed component design and efficient control strategy.