Development of a Steady-State Model of a District Heating System Based on Heatcurrent Method

With the increasing complexity of heat networks, there is an urgent need to establish efficient models. In this regard, a heat current model for both the heat exchanger and the primary network of the district heating system is developed based on the heat current method. The objectives of optimizing the operation of the heating system are defined as the sum of entransy dissipation and the sum of characteristic temperature difference. A specific project is taken as an example to demonstrate the achievement of optimization goals through flow distribution optimization under a given heat load. A comparison of the two objectives reveals a difference in optimization effect of less than 1%, indicating that minimizing inlet dissipation corresponds to minimizing the equivalent temperature difference. These findings contribute to the advancement of efficient modeling approaches for complex heat networks.