Mathemetical performance analysis of a temperature controlled bulk storage room

Usually, control design takes place after the plant has been designed. However, the performance of the plant connected to the controller might be improved by simultaneous design of the plant and the controller. In this paper, expressions are deduced that describe the dynamics of a controlled plant (a bulk storage room) and its design criteria. These expressions contain all the physical system parameters, and give insight on how the system performance (in terms of energy usage and temperature uniformity) depends on the design parameters (these are the bulk height and the ventilator- and heat exchanger capacity). This insight gives guidelines for optimal storage room design. The physical relations that could not be found in the literature were identified experimentally.