Project duration: 36 Months (01.01.2018 – 31.12.2020)

Project volume: 1,1 Mio. € (Total)

Funder: Europäischer Fond für Regionalentwicklung, INTERREG VA der Großregion

Partner outside the TUK: Université de Lorraine, Université de Liège, HTW Saar

Scientific Assistant: Mathias Kimmling M. Eng.

Short Description

The main goal of the RCC/KN project is to create a cross-border platform that allows to virtually share and pool equipment, material and infrastructure resources between research institutions and laboratories.

Especially in the areas of building systems and building energy technology, practical tests and evaluations of research work are usually associated with technically complex structures and thus high material and implementation costs.

Most of the laboratories and research institutions in the Greater Region that are active in this area have therefore set individual priorities in order to be able to map sub-areas of the entire research area with the available funds.

For example, the Technical University of Kaiserslautern has a research laboratory with the Living Lab smart office space, which includes, among other things, comprehensive sensors, controllable lighting, various shading devices and the possibility of direct interaction with people in the building. However, central technical building equipment such as heating, cooling or photovoltaic systems cannot be integrated into the technical structure here.

In contrast, the HTW Saar, for example, has a photovoltaic and electricity storage system in the laboratory for power electronics, with which building energy requirements and yields can be simulated and optimized, but without direct interaction with other building technology or people in the building.

The mapping of complex, combined building technology systems should therefore be made possible by linking these and all other RCC|KN project partners via a network. The aim is to make systems and components of other facilities available to the partners by means of remote control and the transmission of measurement and process data for virtual integration into a local test setup. Only data is transmitted this way. Test-relevant electrical power or heat flows are emulated locally based on the instantaneous values transmitted by the real, remote system.

In this way, the previous project partners in the RCC|KN project are able to carry out complex practical tests and thus expand their research activities beyond their individual focal points. After the successful completion of the project, the network is to be opened up to other partners from research and industry.