Study of a district heating system with the ring network technology and plate heat exchangers in a consumer substation

State estimation of district heating network based on customer measurements

“…Mathematical modelling ring topology with mass flow control is discussed in Refs. [21,22]. Cycles make the flow system more complicated to solve, as water can take multiple paths between nodes, and the volume flows in the supply and return pipes are not necessarily identical.…”

“…After rearranging the model (22), the coefficient matrix of the linear system can be written as a partitioned matrix [20] which is shown in Fig. 6.…”

Heat exchanger measurements in a mass flow controlled consumer substation connected to a ring network

“…Here it should be noted that the displayed ܳ ௧ௗ numbers are the mean value of the results obtained for both sides of the heat exchanger, so that the mass flow measurement related error is corrected. ܳ ௫௧ௗ values were calculated using a simulation model designed for an apartment building at the studied outdoor temperatures [10,15]. As can be observed, the maximum expected heat load coincides with the nominal heat duty of the PHE I (see Table 2).…”

“…Besides, improved network control was achieved due to the ring topology. The new arrangement also led to a 10.7% reduction in heat losses Finally, the operation of a plate heat exchanger (PHE) was simulated in a consumer substation corresponding to the new low-temperature model, finding high heat exchange efficiency as a result [15]. The PHE operation was studied by monitoring variations in flow rates, pressure losses and overall heat transfer coefficients for varying simulated outdoor temperature conditions.…”

“…Those heat loads were calculated by adapting and scaling results from a model originally developed for the transient simulation of a similar DH system [15].…”