Energy Conversion and Management 180 (2019) 598–608

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Optimal design and size of a desiccant cooling system with onsite energy T
generation and thermal storage using a multilayer perceptron neural
network and a genetic algorithm
⁎
Haoshan Rena, Zhenjun Maa, , Wenye Lina, Shugang Wangb, Weihua Lic
a
Sustainable Buildings Research Centre, University of Wollongong, 2522, Australia
b
Faculty of Infrastructure Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, 116024, China
c
School of Mechanical, Materials, Mechatronic and Biomedical Engineering, University of Wollongong, 2522, Australia

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: A design optimization strategy for rotary desiccant cooling (RDC) systems integrated with a photovoltaic thermal
Rotary desiccant cooling collector-solar air heater (PVT-SAH) and a phase change material based thermal energy storage (TES) (named
Thermal energy storage RDC-PVT-SAH-TES) is presented in this paper. The optimization method was developed using a multilayer
Optimal design perceptron neural network (MPNN) and a genetic algorithm to maximize the specific net electricity generation
Photovoltaic thermal collector
(SNEG) of RDC-PVT-SAH-TES systems while maintaining the required cooling demand with the assistance of an
electric heater. A dimension reduction method was used to determine the main design parameters of the RDC-
PVT-SAH-TES system. An RDC-PVT-SAH-TES system was simulated using TRNSYS and the simulation data were
utilized for training and validation of the MPNN model and for dimension reduction analysis. A comparison of
the design solution identified by this optimization method with a baseline design showed that the SNEG and the
solar thermal contribution of this RDC-PVT-SAH-TES system can be increased from 3.77 kWh/m2 to 10.32 kWh/
m2 and from 91.5% to 99.4%, respectively. The optimization method developed could be potentially adapted to
facilitate optimal design and size of other engineering systems with onsite energy generation and thermal sto-
rage.

1. Introduction
Rotary desiccant cooling (RDC) is a promising candidate that can be
used to replace conventional air conditioning systems developed based
on the vapour compression cycle due to its independent temperature
and humidity control and advantage of no chlorofluorocarbons [1].
Low-grade thermal energy is commonly used to drive RDC systems [2],
which opens up opportunities to develop solar driven RDC systems to
take air conditioning off the grid with the assistance of thermal energy
storage (TES) systems.
RDC systems driven by solar energy have been extensively studied.
Mei et al. [3], for instance, investigated a solar driven RDC system, in
which the desiccant wheel (DW) was regenerated using a combination
of solar air collectors, a PV façade, and PV sheds. It was shown that an
average system thermal coefficient of performance (COP) of 0.518 can
be achieved. Beccali et al. [4] presented a similar RDC system, in which
the DW was regenerated using a photovoltaic thermal (PVT) collector
and a solar air heater (SAH). A case study indicated that approximately
90% of the cooling demand can be provided by this RDC system while
the rest was supplied by an auxiliary chiller. To solve the discrepancy
between the thermal energy required for the DW regeneration and the
thermal energy collected from solar thermal collectors and increase
solar contributions to the RDC system in the nighttime, the use of phase
change materials (PCMs) based TES systems in RDC systems have been
studied. The performance of an RDC system using a PVT-SAH and a TES
(named RDC-PVT-SAH-TES) was recently investigated [5]. It was
shown that 96.5% of the thermal energy required to regenerate the DW
can be covered by the solar thermal energy when the regeneration
temperature of 65 °C was used. Kabeel and Abdelgaied [6] compared
the performance of three RDC systems with electric heaters, with solar
air collectors and electric heaters, and with solar air collectors, electric
heaters and a PCM TES tank, respectively. It was found that the annual
operating costs of the second and third systems were reduced by 21%
and 76% respectively, in comparison to that of the first one. The results
from the aforementioned studies demonstrated that integrating solar
energy systems and TES into RDC systems can result in an improved

⁎
Corresponding author. Tel.: 61 02 42214143.
E-mail address: zhenjun@uow.edu.au (Z. Ma).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2018.11.020
Received 27 September 2018; Received in revised form 5 November 2018; Accepted 9 November 2018
0196-8904/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
H. Ren et al. Energy Conversion and Management 180 (2019) 598–608

Nomenclature Greek symbols

A area (m2) α absorptivity

A1, A2 coefficients ε emissivity
B1, B2 coefficients δ thickness (m)
Cp specific heat (J/kg K) λ1, λ2 coefficients
h enthalpy (J/kg) η efficiency
hc forced convection coefficient (W/m2 K) θ ratio
h0 PCM enthalpy when the phase change occurs (J/kg) ρ density (kg/m3)
hm mass transfer coefficient (kg/m2 s) τ coefficient
hpcm enthalpy of the PCM (J/kg) ψ wettability
Hfin height of the fin in the PVT-SAH (m)
Isolar total horizontal solar radiation (W/m2) Subscripts
It global solar radiation on the PVT-SAH (W/m2)
k thermal conductivity (W/m K) a air
L length (m) abp absorber plate
ṁ mass flow rate (kg/s) ave average
N number bop bottom plate
Ndw coefficient eh electric heater
P power (W) eva evaporation
q heat flux (W/m2) fin longitudinal fins
Q heat capacity (J/kg) in inlet
T temperature (°C) ins insulation
T0 PCM temperature when the phase change occurs (°C) lat latent
Tpc PCM phase change temperature (°C) out outlet
t time (s) pac primary air channel
V volumetric flow rate (m3/s) pro process
v velocity (m/s) ps PVT-SAH
Wd PVT-SAH width (m) pv PV plate
W humidity ratio (kg/kg) ref reference
ΔTpc temperature window of the PCM (oC) reg regeneration
ΔTpcm PCM phase change temperature range (°C) s surface
Δx control volume length (m) sat saturated
ΔP pressure drop (Pa) sac secondary air channel

energy performance as a fraction of thermal energy required for the DW
regeneration can be provided via solar energy.
To maximize the performance of RDC systems, appropriate opti-
mization has been used to optimally size the major components. Fong
et al. [7], for instance, developed an optimization approach for a solar
assisted RDC system, in which the system operating parameters were
optimized using an evolutionary algorithm. The results showed that an
annual average solar contribution of 17% can be achieved by using the
optimal design identified. Hatami et al. [8] investigated the impact of
several variables on the performance of a solar driven RDC system. The
result indicated that the required solar collector area decreased when
increasing both humidity ratio and temperature of the outdoor air.
However, it seems that design optimization of RDC systems with in-
tegrated onsite energy generation and thermal storage has not been
studied. Appropriate design optimization of such systems is critical to
maximize the utilization of solar energy and minimize the energy
consumption of auxiliary heating devices.
Data-driven models have been used in a number of studies [9,10] to

Fig. 1. Illustration of the RDC-PVT-SAH-TES system.

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analyze and solve problems in engineering systems since such models
were able to learn and predict the performance of complex systems
based on the training data. The development of optimization problems
for air-conditioning systems and heat exchangers using data-driven
models and metaheuristic algorithms has been reported in several stu-
dies [11–14]. For instance, a design optimization strategy for an eva-
porative cooler was developed by Jafarian et al. [11], in which a neural
network was used as the performance model of the cooler and a genetic
algorithm (GA) was utilized as the optimization tool. It was shown that
the COP and the ratio of the effective surface area to the capacity of the
cooler improved by 36.3% and 30.9% respectively, when using the
optimal solution obtained, as compared to an initial design. Xia et al.
[13] used a data-driven model (i.e. a neural network) and a GA to
optimize the design of a PVT assisted ground source heat pump system.
Shi et al. [14] developed a strategy to optimally size a heat exchanger
by using a radial basis neural network and a GA. It was shown that the
non-uniformity of the inlet fluid flow was decreased by 68.2% as
compared to a baseline case.
A design optimization method using a multilayer perceptron neural
network (MPNN) and a GA for RDC-PVT-SAH-TES systems is developed
in this study. To facilitate the design optimization, the main design
parameters of the RDC-PVT-SAH-TES system were identified from a
number of candidate design parameters via a dimension reduction
process. A virtual system of an RDC-PVT - SAH-TES simulated using
TRNSYS [15] was employed to generate simulation data which were
used for training and validation of the MPNN model and for im-
plementing the dimension reduction. The performance of this design
optimization strategy was then evaluated by comparing it with a
baseline design.
Fig. 2. Operation modes of the RDC-PVT-SAH-TES system.
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Energy Conversion and Management 180 (2019) 598–608
2. Description of an RDC-PVT-SAH-TES system and mathematical
modelling
2.1. Description of the RDC-PVT-SAH-TES system
The RDC-PVT-SAH-TES system concerned in this study is illustrated
in Fig. 1. It included a PVT-SAH, a PCM TES unit, and an RDC system
with integrated a DW, an electric heater (EH), an indirect evaporative
cooler (IEC) and a heat recovery unit (HRU). Three fans were utilized
for air circulation, and the dampers were used to switch the system
operation among different operation modes. The PVT-SAH was used to
collect thermal energy and generate electricity. The thermal energy
collected is used for the DW regeneration and/or for PCM charging. The
thermal energy charged into the PCM can be used to regenerate the DW
when required. In the RDC system, the process air was first dehumi-
dified by the DW and then cooled by the HRU and IEC.
There are three different operation modes of this system, including
the DW regeneration using PVT-SAH/electric heater and PCM charging
(Mode I), PCM charging only (Mode II) and the DW regeneration using
PCM discharging/electric heater (Mode III). The details of these three
operation modes are illustrated in Fig. 2.
If there is a relatively strong solar radiation (i.e. Isolar ≥ 300 W/m2),
the PVT-SAH fan will be switched on and the thermal energy collected
by the PVT-SAH will be utilized to regenerate the DW and to charge the
PCM (Mode I) or to charge the PCM only (Mode II) dependent on
whether there is a demand for space cooling. Otherwise, the PVT-SAH
fan will be switched off and the DW will be regenerated through PCM
discharging and/or electric heater when space cooling is required
(Mode III).
Under the Mode I, the cooling demand, indoor air settings and
supply air settings are used to determine the required regeneration
temperature and regeneration air flow rate. The regeneration air flow
H. Ren et al. Energy Conversion and Management 180 (2019) 598–608

rate was set the same as the process air flow rate. The PVT-SAH air flow ∂Ta, i ∂Ta, i
Cp, a ρa Δx (Wd Hfin ) + Cp, a mȧ Δx = hc, abp − a A (Tabp, i − Ta, i )
rate is then modulated in a range between the regeneration air flow rate ∂t ∂x
and the PVT-SAH rated air flow rate to meet the required regeneration + hc, bop − a A (Tbop, i − Ta, i )
temperature. If the PVT-SAH air flow rate equals to the regeneration air
+ 2hc, fin − a Afin (Tfin, i − Ta, i ) (1)
flow rate and the PVT-SAH outlet air temperature is below the re-
generation temperature, the PVT-SAH outlet air is then further heated
by the electric heater before it is utilized to regenerate the DW. 2.2.2. PCM TES unit
Otherwise, if the PVT-SAH air flow rate equals to its rated air flow rate The TES unit used is a thermally insulated box filled with a number
and its outlet air temperature is larger than the regeneration tempera- of PCM layers. Each PCM layer consisted of several PCM panels, as
ture, part of return air from the building will bypass the DW to avoid shown in Fig. 4. A mathematical model presented in [5] was used to
over-dehumidification. If the PVT-SAH air flow rate is higher than the simulate this TES unit. The governing equation of the PCM panels is
regeneration air flow rate, the TES unit is charged by the excess air flow given by Eq. (2) and that of the air flow is given by Eq. (3). The PCM
if the TES unit is not fully charged and the PVT-SAH outlet air tem- enthalpy-temperature relationship was determined using a para-
perature is above the average surface temperature of the PCM panels. meterized enthalpy-temperature curve function presented in Eq. (4)
Otherwise, the excess air flow will exhaust to the ambient. [17], in which ΔTpc is the temperature window determined according to
Under the Mode II, the PVT-SAH rated air flow rate is used to im- the PCM phase change temperature range. The hysteresis phenomenon
prove the efficiency of the PVT-SAH for electricity generation and the and the supercooling of the PCM were not considered in this model.
outlet air is used for the PCM charging if it is not fully charged and the
air temperature from the PVT-SAH is above the average surface tem- ∂hpcm ∂2Tpcm
ρpcm = kpcm
perature of the PCM panels. Otherwise, the excess air flow will exhaust ∂t ∂y 2 (2)
to the ambient.
∂T ∂T qup + qdown
Under the Mode III, the required regeneration temperature and re- ρa Cp, a ⎛ a + va a ⎞ =
generation air flow rate are first determined using the same method as ⎝ ∂t ∂x ⎠ δa (3)
that used in Mode I. The regeneration air is heated by the TES unit if it Qlat
is not fully discharged. In this case, the bypass of the regeneration air to h (T ) = h 0 + Cp, pcm (T − T0 ) + Tpc − T
the TES unit is implemented to satisfy the required regeneration tem- 1 + exp ( )
ΔTpc (4)
perature. The electric heater is used if the outlet air temperature of the
TES unit cannot meet the required regeneration temperature or the
PCM TES unit is fully discharged. 2.2.3. Rotary desiccant cooling (RDC) system
The RDC system is composed of a DW, an IEC, and an HRU. The
HRU was simulated using TRNSYS Type 760. The DW was simulated
2.2. Mathematical modelling using an explicit analytical solution presented by Kang et al. [18]. The
outlet air conditions of the process air from the DW were predicted
This RDC-PVT-SAH-TES system was simulated using TRNSYS. The using Eqs. (5) and (6) [18], in which the coefficients of A1, A2, B1, B2, τ,
simulation data were used to facilitate the implementation of the di- Ndw, λ1, and λ2 can be determined according to the design and oper-
mension reduction, and for model training and assessment of the per- ating parameters of the DW [18].
formance of the developed optimization strategy. The major component A1 exp (−λ1 τ ) + A2 exp (−λ2 τ )
Tpro, a, out = Tpro, a, in + (Tideal − Tpro, a, in)
models used are presented below. 1/ Ndw + 0.5 (5)

B1exp (−λ1 τ ) − B2exp (−λ2 τ )

Wpro, a, out = Wpro, a, in + (Wpro, a, in − Wideal )
2.2.1. PVT-SAH 1/ Ndw + 0.5
A mathematical model, as illustrated in Fig. 3, which was developed (6)
in [16], was utilized to simulate the PVT-SAH system. A number of fins
The IEC consisted of two types of air channels (i.e. primary and
were deployed in the air channels to enhance the heat transfer per-
secondary) which were arranged alternately. The IEC was simulated
formance. The energy balance of the air flowing through the PVT-SAH
using a mathematical model presented in [19]. The energy balances of
is expressed by Eq. (1) [16], and more details of this model can be
the air in the two different types of air channels are expressed in Eqs.
found in [16].
(7)–(9) [19]. The mass balances of the air and evaporation water film in
the secondary air channel can be determined using Eqs. (10) and (11)

(a) Front view (b) Side view

Fig. 3. Illustration of the PVT-SAH.

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Fig. 4. Schematic of the PCM TES unit.

Fig. 5. Outline of the optimization strategy.

[19], respectively. Condensation of air in the primary air channel was

not considered.
hc, pac (Tpac, a − Twall ) dA = Cp, a ṁ pac, a dTpac, a (7)

hc, sac (Twall − Tsac, a) dA = Cp, a ṁ sac, a dTsac, a (8)

ṁ sac, a dhsac, a − Cp, a ṁ pac, a dTpac, a = d (Cp, a Teva, water ṁ eva, water ) (9)

hm, sac (Wsat , wall − Wsac, a) d (ψA) = ṁ sac, a dWsac, a (10)

dṁ eva, water = ṁ sac, a dWsac, a (11)

2.2.4. Fan and electric heater

Fig. 6. Solar Decathlon house used in the simulation [30].
The power consumption of the fan and electric heater was calcu-
lated using Eqs. (12) and (13), respectively. The power consumption of
the IEC water pump was not considered as it was relatively small [20].
The pressure drop across the TES unit was calculated as an equivalent
hydronic resistance network with two manifolds (i.e. air inlet and
outlet) and air channels, and those across the PVT-SAH, the DW, the
HRU, and the IEC were calculated using the same method. The friction
factors of the TES unit and the PVT-SAH, the DW and the HRU, and the
IEC were determined based on [21], [22], and [20], respectively.
V ΔP
Pfan =
ηfan (12)

Peh = ṁ reg, a Cp, a (Treg, a − Tbefore, eh, a) (13)

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Fig. 7. Weather data of Brisbane used in the simulation.

Table 1 simulation system and operation modes presented in Section 2. In Step

List of candidate design parameters considered and their constraints used. I, the main design parameters to be optimized in the following steps
Component Candidate design parameter Variation range
were firstly identified via a dimension reduction method. In Step II, the
training data for the MPNN model are generated by sampling combi-
PVT-SAH PV covering factor, θpv 0.5–1.0 nations of the main design parameters using the Latin hypercube
Air channel depth, δps,chan (mm) 10.0–40.0 method in order to formulate the simulation plan to represent the
Air gap depth, δgap (mm) 5.0–40.0
parameter space. The simulation is then executed, and the objective
Number of fins, Nfin 10–50
Absorber plate thickness, δabp (mm) 0.5–2.0 function is evaluated to formulate the training data. In Step III, the
Fin thickness, δfin (mm) 0.5–2.0 optimal structure of the MPNN is determined through a GA to improve
Back-insulation thickness, δps,ins (mm) 100–200 its prediction performance. In the last step, the optimization problem is
Absorber plate thermal emissivity, εabp 0.05–0.98
formulated based on the MPNN model developed and a GA was em-
Desiccant wheel Thickness, δdw (m) 0.2–0.4
PCM TES unit Length, Lpcm (m) 3.0–7.0 ployed to solve the optimization problem to maximize the specific net
PCM layers, Npcm 10–20 electricity generation (SNEG) of the RDC-PVT-SAH-TES system over the
Air channel depth, δpcm,chan (mm) 3–20 whole simulation period. The constraints of the main design parameters
Phase change temperature, Tpc (°C) 55–75 used to formulate the optimization problem were the same as those
Phase change temperature range, ΔTpcm (°C) 5–15
used in the dimension reduction analysis. The SNEGs of the RDC-PVT-
Latent heat capacity, Qlat (kJ/kg) 160, 250
Insulation thickness, δpcm,ins (mm) 10–100 SAH-TES system with different designs were predicted using the MPNN
model. During the optimization process, each individual in the popu-
lation of the GA stands for a solution of the optimization problem.
Table 2
Other constant parameters of the RDC system, PVT-SAH and TES unit. 3.1. Development of the objective function
Parameter Value Parameter Value
SNEG of the RDC-PVT-SAH-TES system, which was adapted from a
PVT-SAH IEC previous study [23], was used as the objective function to be optimized.
Length (m) 10.0 Length (m) 1.0
Width (m) 4.0 Width (m) 0.4
The SNEG is the ratio of the difference between the electricity gen-
Slope (degree) 18.4 Extraction ratio 0.3 eration and the electricity consumption (i.e. electric heater and fan
Rated air flow rate (kg/h) 900 Heat recovery unit power consumption) of the RDC-PVT-SAH-TES system to the total area
Rated electrical efficiency 0.12 Effectiveness 0.75 of the PV cells installed, as expressed in Eq. (14). The PV electricity
Desiccant wheel PCM TES unit
generation is calculated using Eq. (15), in which the electrical gen-
Diameter (m) 0.4 Thickness of the 0.02
PCM panel (m) eration efficiency (ηpv) of the PV cells is calculated using Eq. (16) [24].
Rotation speed (r/h) 10–24 Specific heat 2000.0 The fan power consumption and electric heater power consumption are
capacity (J/kg K) calculated using Eqs. (12) and (13), respectively. In this study, it was
Desiccant Silica gel Thermal 0.2 assumed that the cooling load of the building was always satisfied with
conductivity (W/m
K)
the assistance of the electric heater.
Area ratio of the regeneration 1:1 Width of the unit Varied based t
side to process side (m) on its length ∫t12 (Ppv, i − Pfan, i − Peh, i) dt
SNEG =
Flow rate ratio of the 1:1 Fan Apv (14)
regeneration air to Overall efficiency 0.65
process air
Ppv = It αpv Apv ηpv (15)

ηpv = ηpv, ref [1 − 0.0045(Tpv − 25)] (16)

3. Development of the design optimization strategy

The design optimization strategy developed is outlined in Fig. 5.

3.2. Dimension reduction
This strategy consisted of four main steps, including dimension reduc-
tion (Step I), training data generation (Step II), development of the
In this study, the Morris method was used as the sensitivity analysis
MPNN model (Step III), and optimization using the MPNN and a GA
technique for the dimension reduction [25]. The advantage of the
(Step IV). The data used in the first two steps were generated using the
Morris method is that it can effectively identify the influential

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a) Desiccant wheel - Process air outlet temperature

Fig. 9. Results from the sensitivity analysis using the Morris method.

Table 3
The values used for the less influential parameters determined from the di-
mension reduction [5,32,36–38].
Component Candidate design parameter Value

PVT-SAH Air gap depth, δgap (mm) 17

Number of fins, Nfin 45
Absorber plate thickness, δabp (mm) 0.5
Fin thickness, δfin (mm) 0.5
Back-insulation thickness, δps,ins (mm) 100
Thermal emissivity of absorber plate, εabp 0.05

PCM TES unit Length, Lpcm (m) 3.0

Phase change temperature range, ΔTpcm (°C) 10
Latent heat capacity, Qlat (kJ/kg) 250
Insulation thickness, δpcm,ins (mm) 100

b) Desiccant wheel - Process air outlet humidity

Fig. 10. Results of the validation of the MPNN model.

c) IEC - Outlet air temperature

Fig. 8. Model validation results.
parameters for complex systems with non-linear behaviours and can
provide a robust ranking of the candidate parameters with a relatively
manageable computational cost [26]. In the dimension reduction pro-
cess, the input matrix was formulated based on the candidate design
parameters and their corresponding constraints, and Latin hypercube
was used as the sampling method. The parameter space was partitioned
into multi-dimensional regions and the samples were randomly taken
from the regions, which can obtain a good coverage of the parameter
space and avoid samples clumping in a few regions [27]. For a sample
with m sampling points from n parameters, the constraint of each
parameter is first divided into m intervals. One value is randomly se-
lected from each interval for each parameter and the m values for the
first parameter are then randomly paired without replacement with the
m values for the second parameter to produce m pairs of parameters.
These pairs are then randomly combined without replacement with the

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Table 4
Results and parameters of baseline design and near optimal design identified by the proposed method.
Design case Baseline design Near optimal design

Main design parameters PV covering factor 0.60 0.78

PVT-SAH air channel depth (mm) 25.0 14.5
Desiccant wheel thickness (m) 0.200 0.330
Number of PCM layers 20 20
TES air channel depth (mm) 10.0 4.6
PCM phase change temperature (oC) 65.0 67.2

Results Specific net electricity generation (kWh/m2) 3.77 10.32

Net electricity generation (kWh) 90.5 322.0
Solar thermal contribution (%) 91.5 99.4
PV electricity generation (kWh) 301.0 393.8
Electric heater power consumption (kWh) 174.8 11.1
Fan power consumption (kWh) 35.7 60.7

Fig. 11. Required regeneration temperature and thermal energy charged into the PCM under the two different design cases.

a) Baseline design case

a) Baseline design case

b) Near optimal design case

b) Near optimal design case
Fig. 12. Accumulated electricity consumption and generation over the simu-
lation period.
m values for the third parameter to produce m triples of parameters.
This procedure is continued until all the parameters combined into one
set which is the sampling result [27].
The simulation runs were then performed using the input matrix
Fig. 13. Daily breakdown of thermal energy used for the DW regeneration.
and the simulation system developed to obtain the performance data,
based on which the sensitivity indicators of the elementary effects can
then be determined. The influence of the design parameters on the
SNEG and the interactions among the parameters were then quantita-
tively evaluated using the mean value and the standard deviation, re-
spectively [28], through which the main design parameters were then
identified.

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3.3. Development of the MPNN model
The MPNN model was used to predict the objective function using
the main design parameters identified from the dimension reduction as
the model inputs. Although the training of the MPNN model generally
requires a large set of the input data, the computational load of the
model is generally manageable. MPNN is a feed-forward artificial
neural network and a structure tuning process using a GA [29] was used
to determine the optimal structure that minimizes the root mean square
error (RMSE) of the MPNN model (i.e. Step III in Fig. 5). The number of
the hidden layers in the MPNN model and the constraints of the num-
bers of neurons in each layer were determined based on the complexity
of the problem studied, and trial and error tests. During the structure
tuning process, a number of MPNN models with different structures
were trained in each generation of the GA and the optimal structure of
the model was identified through iterations.
4. Performance assessment of the optimization method
4.1. Setup of the test
The RDC-PVT-SAH-TES system was assumed to provide space
cooling for a Solar Decathlon house (Fig. 6) which was air-conditioned
on a 24-hour base with a conditioned area of 68 m2 [30]. One summer
month (i.e. February) under the Brisbane (Australia) weather condition
which has a relatively high temperature and high humidity ratio
(Fig. 7) was selected for performance assessment of this system. The
weather data used were the International Weather for Energy Calcula-
tion data. DesignBuilder [31] was used to develop the house model and
simulate the house cooling demand.
The candidate design parameters and their constraints used in the
dimension reduction are presented in Table 1. It is worthwhile to note
that some design parameters such as the diameter of the DW and the
size of the IEC were not considered as the candidate parameters. This is
to ensure that the DW and IEC have sufficient capacities when the low
limits of other relevant candidate design parameters were used so that
the cooling demand of the building can be always satisfied and different
design options can be fairly compared. The geometrical parameters of
the PVT-SAH such as the PV covering factor, air channel depth, air gap
depth, and the number of fins were varied in the ranges determined
based on the results in [32–34]. The back-insulation thickness of the
PVT-SAH varied from 100 mm to 200 mm [32]. Glass wool was used as
the insulation material. The lower bound of the DW thickness was de-
termined based on the trial tests in order to provide enough dehumi-
dification capacity under the weather condition used and the higher
bound was determined based on a previous study [35]. The PCM TES
unit was designed with each PCM layer having an area of 3.5 m2. The
width of the unit can be determined based on the fixed area and the
length of the unit which was varied from 3 m to 7 m. The total amount
of the PCM used was considered as a discrete variable and was re-
presented by the number of the PCM layers in the TES unit which varied
from 10 to 20. The variation range of the PCM layers was estimated
according to the average thermal COP of 0.518 reported in [3] and the
cooling load of the Solar Decathlon house. The variation ranges of the
air channel depth and insulation thickness of the TES unit were defined
according to the results in [36,37]. Paraffin wax was considered as the
PCM due to its stable thermal performance, and the range of the PCM
phase change temperature varied between 55 °C and 75 °C [5]. The
melting range and the latent heat capacity of the PCM were also con-
sidered as the candidate design parameters and their variation ranges
were determined based on the review of the paraffin wax based PCMs
provided by Rubitherm [38] and PCM products [39]. Two PCM latent
heat capacities of 160 and 250 kJ/kg were used in this study as many
commercial PCM products available from Rubitherm [38] and PCM
products [39] have latent heat capacities close to both values. When
other types of PCMs are considered, the PCM melting range and latent
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Energy Conversion and Management 180 (2019) 598–608
heat capacity as well as its variation range should be determined based
on the thermo-physical properties of the materials used.
The values of the other parameters that were maintained constant
are summarized in Table 2. The parameters of the PVT-SAH, the HRU,
and the DW were determined according to the results and findings in
[16,32,35,40]. The length, width, and slope of the PVT-SAH were de-
termined based on the dimensions and slope of the north rooftop of the
house. The rotation speed of the DW decreased with the increasing DW
thickness in order to achieve adequate dehumidification performance
[35]. The parameters of the IEC were determined via the trial tests to
satisfy the house cooling demand under all conditions simulated. The
extraction ratio of the IEC was set to 0.3 as suggested in [41].
4.2. Results from the dimension reduction
The models of the DW and the IEC were first validated using the
experimental data presented in [35] and [42], respectively, before the
implementation of dimension reduction. The process air outlet condi-
tions were predicted using the DW model based on the inlet conditions
and the values of the DW parameters used by Yamaguchi and Saito
[35]. The validation results are presented in Fig. 8, which showed that
the simulated temperature and humidity ratio generally agreed well
with the experimental data (Fig. 8a and b). The relative deviations
between the two sets of the data were less than ± 5% and ± 7% for the
air temperature and humidity ratio, respectively. The outlet air tem-
perature of the IEC was predicted using the IEC model based on the
inlet conditions and the parameters of the IEC provided in [42]. As
shown in Fig. 8c, the simulation data also agreed with the measured
data with relative deviations less than ± 5%.
A total of 16 candidate design parameters were used for the di-
mension reduction, as summarized in Table 1. Two discretized values
and ten discretized values were used for the PCM latent heat capacity
(i.e. 160 and 250 kJ/kg) and the other parameters, respectively. The
results from the dimension reduction using the Morris method are
presented in Fig. 9. There were six parameters, including the number of
PCM layers (Npcm), the air channel depth of the TES unit (δpcm,chan), the
air channel depth of the PVT-SAH (δps,chan), the DW thickness (δdw), the
PCM phase change temperature (Tpc), and the PV covering factor (θpv)
that were considered as the influential parameters due to their rela-
tively high mean values and standard deviations. Therefore, there six
parameters were considered as the main design parameters to be op-
timized. The remaining parameters were considered to be constant, and
their values used were determined based on the existing studies and
product information (see Table 3).
4.3. Results from the optimization of the RDC-PVT-SAH-TES system
4.3.1. Results of the MPNN model validation
The virtual system and operation modes presented in Section 2 and
the main design parameters identified were used to generate the
training data of the MPNN model. A total of 320 simulation runs were
performed to generate the training data, and another 30 simulation
runs were generated for the MPNN model validation. As mentioned
before, these simulation runs were determined using the Latin hy-
percube sampling method based on the key design parameters con-
sidered and their constraints defined. For the training of the MPNN
model, two hidden layers were used and the numbers of neurons in
each layer were determined using a GA-based structure tuning process,
as illustrated in Fig. 5. The result of the structure tuning showed that
the optimized numbers of neurons in the first and the second layers
were 14 and 15, respectively. The MPNN model prediction result
agreed well with the training data with R2 and RMSE of 0.9993 and
0.0290 respectively. The model validation results using the validation
dataset are presented in Fig. 10 in which the data points indicated the
simulated (by the virtual system) or predicted (by the MPNN model)
SNEG of the RDC-PVT-SAH-TES systems with different designs over the
H. Ren et al.
whole simulated month. It can be observed that the MPNN model can
provide an acceptable prediction over the simulated month and the
average and maximum relative prediction errors of the model were
2.97% and 5.79%, respectively.
4.3.2. Results from the design optimization
The results from the design optimization are summarized in Table 4.
The solar thermal contribution (STC) in the table referred to the per-
centage of the thermal energy jointly provided by the PCM TES unit and
PVT-SAH for the DW regeneration to the thermal energy required for
the DW regeneration [5] over the whole period concerned. The popu-
lation size of 250 and maximum generations of 500 were used during
the optimization, which was determined through trial and error tests.
The optimal solution was identified around 200 generations.
The main design parameters and the simulation results of an alter-
native design (named as baseline design) were also presented in Table 4
for comparison purposes. In the baseline design, the PV covering factor
was determined as 0.60 as suggested in [5]. The PVT-SAH air channel
depth was 25.0 mm based on the results reported in [16,32]. The DW
thickness, the number of the PCM layers used, and the PCM phase
change temperature, were determined based on the findings reported in
[5]. The air channel depth of the TES unit of 10.0 mm was used to
improve its convection heat transfer, as suggested by Dolado et al. [36].
The values of the other less influential parameters used in the two cases
were the same.
The results from Table 4 indicated that the design solution (named
as near optimal design) identified using the proposed method was quite
different from the baseline design. The STC of the RDC-PVT-SAH-TES
system using the near optimal design was 99.4%, indicating that nearly
all thermal energy required to regenerate the DW can be covered by the
PVT-SAH and the TES unit. The SNEG and net electricity generation of
the system using the near optimal design substantially increased be-
cause of the increase of the PV electricity generation and the decrease of
the electric heater power consumption, when comparing to those of the
system using the baseline design. However, the fan power consumption
using the near optimal design was increased due to the decrease of the
air channel depths of the PVT-SAH and the TES unit, and the increase of
the DW thickness, when compared to those in the baseline design. It is
noted that the cost-benefit analysis was not considered in this study.
The required regeneration temperature and thermal energy charged
into the PCM on a daily basis by using the baseline design and the near
optimal design are presented in Fig. 11. The regeneration temperature
using the near optimal design slightly decreased as the DW thickness
was increased, when comparing to the use of the baseline design. The
solar thermal energy provided by the system could therefore be po-
tentially more useful for the DW regeneration. It is noted that the
thermal energy charged into the PCM in the near optimal design case
was increased as compared to that in the baseline design during most of
the days due to the improved heat transfer efficiency of the TES unit.
This also explained the decrease of the electric heater power con-
sumption in the near optimal case. In some days, the thermal energy
charged into the PCM using the near optimal design was less than that
using the baseline design. This was mainly caused by the increased PCM
average surface temperature and decreased PCM charging due to rela-
tively low solar radiation during those days.
The accumulated electricity generation and consumption of the
RDC-PVT-SAH-TES system using the baseline design and the near op-
timal design are summarized in Fig. 12. It was shown that the PV
electricity generation in the near optimal design case was increased
when comparing to the baseline design, as the area of the PV plate used
was increased. During the simulated month, the power consumption of
the electric heater using the baseline design dramatically increased
from day 15 to day 21 while that using the near optimal design was
almost zero from day 1 to day 15 and slightly increased from day 15 to
day 21. The fan power consumption using the two different designs
increased stably during the simulated month, but the fan power
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Energy Conversion and Management 180 (2019) 598–608
consumption using the near optimal design was larger than that using
the baseline design because of the aforementioned reasons.
The daily breakdown of thermal energy used to regenerate the DW
in the RDC-PVT-SAH-TES system using the baseline design and the near
optimal design is presented in Fig. 13. It is noted that the ‘PVT-SAH’ in
Fig. 13 indicated that the thermal energy collected by the PVT-SAH was
directly used for DW regeneration. It can be observed that the majority
of the thermal energy required for DW regeneration under the two
design cases can be covered by the PVT-SAH and the TES unit. The total
thermal energy used to regenerate the DW was reduced (i.e. peaks in
the figure) in the near optimal design case in comparison to that in the
baseline design case. It can also be observed that the need for the
electric heater was nearly avoided when using the near optimal design.
When the baseline design was used, the electric heater was mainly used
from day 15 to day 25 as these days were experienced with high tem-
perature and humidity ratio together with a relatively low solar ra-
diation from day 12 to day 14 which reduced thermal energy charged
into the TES unit. Comparing to the baseline design case, a large frac-
tion of energy used to regenerate the DW was contributed by the TES
unit in the near optimal design case and the demand for the electric
heater was therefore reduced from day 15 to day 25.
5. Conclusions
A design optimization strategy for rotary desiccant cooling systems
with onsite energy generation and thermal storage was presented in this
paper. In this strategy, a dimension reduction based on the Morris
method was used to identify the main design parameters. The optimi-
zation problem was then formulated using a multi-layer perceptron
neural network (MPNN) and a genetic algorithm (GA) to maximize the
specific net electricity generation (SNEG) of the integrated RDC-PVT-
SAH-TES system.
It was shown that six parameters, including the total amount of the
PCM used (e.g. represented by the number of the PCM layers), the air
channel depth of the TES unit, the air channel depth of the PVT-SAH,
the DW thickness, the PCM phase change temperature and the PV
covering factor, were identified as the main design parameters to be
optimized. Compared to a baseline design, the SNEG and the solar
thermal contribution of an RDC-PVT-SAH-TES system using the design
solution identified by the proposed method increased from 3.77 kWh/
m2 to 10.32 kWh/m2 and from 91.5% to 99.4%, respectively. Nearly all
of the thermal energy required for the DW regeneration can be covered
by the PVT-SAH and the TES unit under the near optimal design case.
Meanwhile, the system can provide a net electricity generation of
322.0 kWh over the simulated month.
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