A counter flow water to oil heat exchanger: MISO quasi linear parameter varying modeling and identification

This paper presents a dynamic model of a counter flow water to oil heat exchanger when all inputs (inlet temperatures of the fluids and the mass flow rates) are simultaneously varying. Although interesting results about modeling of heat exchanger by linear parameter varying (LPV) can be found in [25], several problems remain to be solved such as the structure estimation or a proper initial MISO model for the optimization algorithms. This paper introduces a new model structure called quasi LPV model which simulates accurately the temperature and flow transients in a counter flow heat exchanger (COFHX). The quasi LPV model is compared to a realistic numerical model of a counter flow heat exchanger adjusted with the test rig heat exchanger of the University of Valenciennes in France. Comparisons indicate that the developed quasi LPV model is capable of predicting the transient performance of the heat exchangers satisfactorily.