<p dir="ltr">This thesis investigates approaches to classify and anticipate the energy consumption of commercial office buildings using external and performance benchmarking to reduce the energy consumption. External benchmarking in the context of building energy consumption considers the influence of climate zones that significantly impact a building's energy needs. Performance benchmarking recognizes that different types of commercial buildings have distinct energy consumption patterns. Benchmarks are established separately for each building type to provide relevant comparisons.</p><p dir="ltr">The first part of this thesis is about providing a benchmarking baseline for buildings to show their consumption levels. This involves simulating the buildings based on standards and developing a model based on real-time results. Software tools like Open Studio and Energy Plus were utilized to simulate buildings representative of different-sized structures to organize the benchmark energy consumption baseline. These simulations accounted for two opposing climate zones—one cool and humid and one hot and dry. To ensure the authenticity of the simulation, details, which are the building envelope, operational hours, and HVAC systems, were matched with ASHRAE standards.</p><p dir="ltr">Secondly, the neural network machine learning model is needed to predict the consumption of the buildings based on the trend data came out of simulation part, by training a comprehensive set of environmental characteristics, including ambient temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, wind speed, and the specific HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) load data for both heating and cooling of the building. The model's exceptional accuracy rating of 99.54% attained across all, which comes from the accuracy of training, validation, and test about 99.6%, 99.12%, and 99.42%, respectively, and shows the accuracy of the predicted energy consumption of the building. The validation check test confirms that the achieved accuracy represents the optimal performance of the model. A parametric study is done to show the dependency of energy consumption on the input, including the weather data and size of the building, which comes from the output data of machine learning, revealing the reliability of the trained model. Establishing a Graphic User Interface (GUI) enhances accessibility and interaction for users. In this thesis, we have successfully developed a tool that predicts the energy consumption of office buildings with an impressive accuracy of 99.54%. Our investigation shows that temperature, humidity, solar radiation, wind speed, and the building's size have varying impacts on energy use. Wind speed is the least influential component for low-rise buildings but can have a more substantial effect on high-rise structures.</p>

<p dir="ltr">The energy consumption in the building sector is responsible for over 36% of the total energy consumption across the globe. Of all the energy-consumer devices within a building, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems account for over 50% of the total energy consumed. This makes HVAC systems a source of preventable and unexplored energy waste that can be tackled by incorporating intelligent operations. Since its inception, model predictive control (MPC) has been one of the prospective solutions for HVAC management systems to reduce both costs and energy usage. Additionally, MPC is becoming increasingly practical as the processing capacity of building automation systems increases and a large quantity of monitored building data becomes available. MPC also provides the potential to improve the energy efficiency of HVAC systems via its capacity to consider limitations, to predict disruptions, and to factor in multiple competing goals such as interior thermal comfort and building energy consumption. In this regard, the opening chapter delves into the evolving landscape of the HVAC industry. It explores how rapid advancements in technology, growing concerns about climate change, and the ever-present need for energy efficiency are driving innovation. The chapter highlights the shift from static to dynamic HVAC systems, where buildings become sensor-rich networks enabling advanced control strategies like Model Predictive Control (MPC) and Fault Detection and Diagnosis (FDD). we first provide a comprehensive review of the literature concerning the application of MPC in HVAC systems. Detailed discussions of modeling approaches and optimization algorithms are included. Numerous design aspects such as prediction horizon, time step, and cost function, that impact MPC performance are discussed in detail. The technical characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages of various types of modeling software are discussed. Next, a thorough, real-world case study for the design and implementation of a generalized data-collection and control architecture for HVAC systems in an educational building is proposed. The proposed MPC method adds a supervisory control layer on top of the current BMS by delivering temperature setpoints to the legacy controller. This means that the technique may be used to a variety of current HVAC systems in different commercial buildings. In addition, the utilization of remote web services to host the cloud-based architecture significantly minimizes the amount of technical expertise generally necessary to create such systems. In addition, we provide significant lessons learned from the installation process and we list indicative prices, therefore minimizing uncertainty for other researchers and promoting the use of comparable solutions. Chapter two focuses on Fault Detection and Diagnosis (FDD), a critical component of maintaining optimal HVAC performance and minimizing energy waste. HVAC systems are susceptible to malfunctions over time, leading to increased energy consumption and higher maintenance costs. FDD techniques play a vital role in identifying and diagnosing these faults early on, allowing for timely repairs and preventing further deterioration. This chapter introduces a novel bi-level machine learning framework for diagnosing faults in air handling units. This framework addresses key challenges associated with FDD. A bi-level machine learning framework is developed for diagnosing faults in air handling units (AHUs) and rooftop units (RTUs) based on principal component analysis (PCA), time series anomaly detection, and random forest (RF). By proposing this framework, we address three persistent challenges in this field: (I) minimizing false positives; (II) accounting for data imbalance; and (III) normal condition monitoring of equipment. It is shown that PCA can reduce the dataset dimension with one principal component accounting for 95% of data variance. Also, the random forest could classify the faults with 89% precision for single-zone AHU, 85% precision for RTU, and 79% for multi-zone AHU. Chapter three tackles the practical implementation of Model Predictive Control (MPC) in a real-world commercial building setting. It details the development, implementation, and cost analysis of a universally applicable cloud-based MPC framework for HVAC control systems. This chapter offers valuable insights into the feasibility and effectiveness of MPC in achieving energy efficiency goals while maintaining occupant comfort. The chapter delves into the hardware and software components used for data acquisition and MPC implementation. It emphasizes the use of cloud-based microservices to ensure seamless integration with existing building management systems, promoting wider adoption of this advanced control strategy. Three innovative control strategies are presented and evaluated in this chapter. The chapter presents compelling evidence for the effectiveness of these strategies, showcasing significant energy savings of up to 19.21%. Chapter four focuses on Occupancy-based Demand Controlled Ventilation (DCV) as a means to optimize indoor air quality (IAQ) while minimizing energy consumption. This chapter highlights the growing importance of IAQ in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on occupant health and well-being. Current ventilation standards often rely on static occupancy assumptions, which can lead to over-ventilation during unoccupied pe riods and wasted energy. This chapter proposes a dynamic occupant behavior model using machine learning algorithms to predict CO2 concentrations within buildings. The chapter investigates the performance of various machine learning algorithms, ultimately identify ing a Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) as the most effective in predicting CO2 levels under dynamic occupancy conditions. This model allows for real-time modulation of ventilation rates, ensuring adequate IAQ while minimizing energy consumption. The concluding chapter presents experimental findings on the effectiveness of adaptive Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) control strategies in optimizing HVAC energy consump tion. Variable Frequency Drives allow for adjusting the speed of electric motors, including those powering HVAC fans. This chapter explores the potential of using real-time occu pancy predictions to optimize VFD operation. The proposed control strategy demonstrates impressive energy savings, achieving a 51.4% reduction in HVAC fan energy consumption while adhering to ASHRAE IAQ standards. This chapter paves the way for occupant-centric ventilation strategies that prioritize both human health and energy efficiency. These results underscore the potential of predictive control systems to transform building operations to ward greater sustainability and efficiency. The chapter acknowledges the need for further validation through extended monitoring and analysis. In summary, this thesis contributes significantly to the advancement of smart building technologies by proposing practical frameworks for implementing advanced control strategies in HVAC systems. The findings presented here offer valuable insights for building designers, engineers, facility managers, and policymakers interested in creating sustainable, energy efficient, and occupant-centric buildings. The developed frameworks have the potential to be applied across a wide range of building types and climatic conditions, promoting broader adoption of smart building technologies and contributing to a more sustainable built environment.</p>

<p dir="ltr">This research aims to address these critical challenges in uncertainty quantification. The objective is to employ data-driven approaches for UQ with physics models.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Approaches to system testing and evaluation (T&E) are becoming increasingly relevant as artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) technology expands across the industry’s current landscape. As the AI/ML landscape continues to develop, greater amounts of data are required to build the next generation of technology. Multiple communities have worked to create frameworks to interact with such scales of data, yet a gap persists in the ability to utilize data generated throughout the development process to support the for use in a T&E program. The objective of this thesis is to address this gap through a multi-fidelity approach to the test and evaluation of AI-enabled systems. This approach is constructed using a space of models to visualize similarities and differences between each individual model. Once requirements and potential tests that models can be employed to fulfill are organized, a method to sequentially select models for testing is utilized. Models are selected to maximize utility, dependent on model performance and cost to the T&E team. Experimentation was conducted through the case of an autonomous vehicle (AV) perception system, where models were constructed using a simulation of the Purdue University campus for AVs to drive around. Results show that the proposed approach, when paired with Bayesian Optimization for sequential test selection through an expected improvement acquisition function, can effectively select models in a manner that works to minimize uncertainty and cost for the test team. Through computational experiments, the proposed approach can be used to develop test combinations that minimize costs and maximize utility while maximizing the information a T&E team has on how well a system can meet a set of testing requirements in operational conditions.</p>