Vapor Compression Cycle Control for Automotive Air Conditioning Systems with a Linear Parameter Varying Approach

Abstract: This paper investigates an output tracking problem for the vapor compression cycle in automotive Air Conditioning (A/C) systems using Linear Parameter Varying (LPV) techniques. Stemming from a recently developed first-principle A/C model, Jacobian linearization is first exploited to develop an LPV-based model that is nonlinearly dependent on time-varying system parameters such as evaporator pressure and superheat temperature. To facilitate the control implementation, a Tensor Product (TP) model transformation is applied to transform the LPV-based model to a TP-type convex polytopic model. LPV controllers are then designed to guarantee system stability, robustness and H-infinity performance. Simulations are presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the developed framework.