Methodology for Fifth Generation District Heating and Cooling Network Simulation

Abstract

5th generation district heating and cooling networks (5GDHC) will play a rolein the reduction of CO2 emissions and the resilience to global warming. Our analysis of the literature points out that no simulation study proposes a comprehensive enough description of such networks. The simulation solution presented in this article considers the intertwined influences between the thermal-hydraulic balance in the network, the behavior of the decentralized heat pumps and chillers at substations, and the thermal coupling with the ground. For a given simulation scenario, the 3 developed models are iteratively solved until convergence is reached. After showing how the latter is handled,we exhibit an original result about the influence of the differential pressure between the hot and cold pipes.