Multidomain Modeling and Bio-Inspired Design of Sustainable Community Energy Systems

To achieve a clean energy future, there are exciting opportunities to unlock critical sustainable and resilient energy solutions for the built environment by integrating multiple energy systems at a community level. For heating and cooling needs, this integration occurs through district energy systems (DES), which can capture waste heat, allow multiple buildings to share thermo-fluid energy resources, and provide power-to-X and other renewable energy conversion opportunities. This seminar will present several projects on the comprehensive design of DES and their controls, which are made possible through advancements in multidomain modeling with the Modelica language and novel engineering applications of bio-inspired design at the system (ecosystem) level. Specifically, this talk will focus on (1) new model formulations for steam district heating and their vast numerical benefits, (2) a real-world case study for district cooling featuring physics-based system models and realistic controls, and (3) a new analysis framework for networked energy systems based on dynamic ecological network analysis, which was abstracted from ecology and translated for engineering applications via biomimicry. To conclude, I will share my future research plan as a faculty member of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University at Buffalo.

Dr. Kathryn Hinkelman is a Postdoctoral Scholar at Pennsylvania State University (PSU). She has a PhD in Architectural Engineering from PSU and MS and BS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Denver and the University of California at Berkeley, respectively. For three years, she worked in industry as a building systems engineer, designing both mechanical and electrical systems for multifamily residential and commercial buildings across the nation. Dr. Hinkelman’s interdisciplinary research develops sustainable, resilient, and equitable technologies for energy systems in the built environment to support the well-being of humans and ecosystems. Her primary methods include modeling and simulation, system-level (ecosystem) biomimicry, and control co-design. She is a Phi Beta Kappa member, P.E.O. Scholar, and U.S. DOE IBUILD Research Fellow, and has been a major contributor to large multi-institutional projects funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and Department of Energy. This includes the lead development and open-source release of more than a dozen ready-to-use models in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Modelica Buildings Library and the URBANopt Advanced Analytics platform by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.