Through this thesis we develop some strategies to define the optimal set points for thermal actuators, as well as an adequate control strategy for a heat pump. To this extent, different steps were carried out:- Control-oriented modeling of a reversible heat pump, thermistors, and the environment connecting these elements to the interior of the car’s cabin. Simplified but non-linear physical models were defined and used to build a Model-in-the-Loop platform, which would later be considered for the validation of the control and optimization strategies. - Control of a heat pump. The linearization of the heat pump model around some operating points was used to develop the control of the electric compressor, being the main actuator. The proposed control structure takes into account, in closed loop, input and state constraints. The performance of the structure was analyzed by using main controllers of PI and Hinf type. Lastly, some control algorithms were also proposed to control a second actuator of the system. - Thermal actuators optimization. Despite the high efficiency of the heat pump, the use of thermistors can be advantageous both for reducing the energetic consumption and/or to ensure the thermal power requests in extreme conditions. The optimization problem was carried out in two steps: offline solutions were firstly obtained solving a mixed-integer problem with predictive model, then used to derive some strategies that could be embedded in the vehicle.
