Environomic multi-objective optimisation of a district heating network considering centralized and decentralized heat pumps

Concern for the environment has been steadily growing in recent years, and it is becoming more common to include environmental impact and pollution costs in the design problem along with construction, investment and operating costs.     

Inverse problem of estimating time-dependent heat generation in a frictional heated strip and foundation

In this study, an inverse algorithm based on the conjugate gradient method and the discrepancy principle is applied to estimate the unknown time-dependent frictional heat generation for the tribosystem consisting of a semi-infinite foundation and a plane-parallel strip sliding over its surface, from the knowledge of temperature measurements taken within the foundation. It is assumed that no prior information is available on the functional form of the unknown heat generation; hence the procedure is classified as the function estimation in inverse calculation. Results show that an excellent estimation on the time-dependent heat generation can be obtained for the test case considered in this study. The current methodology can be applied to the prediction of heat generation in engineering problems involving sliding-contact elements.     

Simple method for estimation of effectiveness in one tube pass and one shell pass counter-flow heat exchangers

In one tube pass and one shell pass counter-flow heat exchangers, when both streams change temperature by different amounts, the effectiveness is defined as the temperature change for the stream with lower capacity divided by the maximum possible change and the effectiveness depends on the number of transfer units and the thermal capacity ratio. In this paper, an attempt has been made to formulate a simple-to-use method which is easier than existing approaches, less complicated and with fewer computations for accurate and rapid estimation of effectiveness in one tube pass and one shell pass counter-flow heat exchangers as a function of number of transfer units and the thermal capacity ratio. The proposed method permits estimating the exit temperature for a one tube pass and one shell pass counter-flow heat exchanger without a trial-and-error calculation. The average absolute deviations between the reported data and the proposed correlations are found to be less than 2% demonstrating the excellent performance of proposed correlation. The tool developed in this study can be of immense practical value for engineers and scientists to have a quick check on the effectiveness in one tube pass and one shell pass counter-flow heat exchangers at various conditions without opting for any experimental measurements. In particular, practice engineers would find the predictive tool to be user-friendly with transparent calculations involving no complex expressions.     

Barriers and enablers to geothermal district heating system development in the United States

According to the US Energy Information Administration, space and hot water heating represented about 20% of total US energy demand in 2006. Given that most of this demand is met by burning natural gas, propane, and fuel oil, an enormous opportunity exists for directly utilizing indigenous geothermal energy as a cleaner, nearly emissions-free renewable alternative. Although the US is rich in geothermal energy resources, they have been frequently undervalued in America's portfolio of options as a means of offsetting fossil fuel emissions while providing a local, reliable energy source for communities. Currently, there are only 21 operating GDHS in the US with a capacity of about 100 MW thermal. Interviews with current US district heating operators were used to collect data on and analyze the development of these systems. This article presents the current structure of the US regulatory and market environment for GDHS along with a comparative study of district heating in Iceland where geothermal energy is extensively utilized. It goes on to review the barriers and enablers to utilizing geothermal district heating systems (GDHS) in the US for space and hot water heating and provides policy recommendations on how to advance this energy sector in the US.     

Optimisation of a Swedish district heating system with reduced heat demand due to energy efficiency measures in residential buildings

The development towards more energy efficient buildings, as well as the expansion of district heating (DH) networks, is generally considered to reduce environmental impact. But the combined effect of these two progressions is more controversial. A reduced heat demand (HD) due to higher energy efficiency in buildings might hamper co-production of electricity and DH. In Sweden, co-produced electricity is normally considered to displace electricity from less efficient European condensing power plants. In this study, a potential HD reduction due to energy efficiency measures in the existing building stock in the Swedish city Linköping is calculated. The impact of HD reduction on heat and electricity production in the Linköping DH system is investigated by using the energy system optimisation model MODEST. Energy efficiency measures in buildings reduce seasonal HD variations. Model results show that HD reductions primarily decrease heat-only production. The electricity-to-heat output ratio for the system is increased for HD reductions up to 30%. Local and global CO₂ emissions are reduced. If co-produced electricity replaces electricity from coal-fired condensing power plants, a 20% HD reduction is optimal for decreasing global CO₂ emissions in the analysed DH system.     

Application of the method of fundamental solutions and radial basis functions for inverse heat source problem in case of steady-state

The paper deals with the inverse determination of heat sources in steady 2-D heat conduction problem. The problem is described by Poisson equation in which the function of the right hand side is unknown. The identification of the strength of a heat source is given by using the boundary condition and a known value of temperature in chosen points placed inside the domain. For the solution of the inverse problem of identification of the heat source the method of fundamental solution with radial basis functions is proposed. The accurate results have been obtained for five test problems where the analytical solutions were available.     

3-D numerical and experimental models for flat and embedded heat pipes applied in high-end VGA card cooling system

The present study utilizes the three-dimension numerical and experimental methods to investigate the optimum thermal performance of a flat heat pipe-thermal module application in high-end VGA card cooling system, and compares that with a traditional copper metal based plate embedded three 6 mm diameter heat pipe-thermal module under three dissimilar inclination angles of 0°, 90° and 180°. The optimization for the thermal modules researches into various fin material, thickness and gap. Results show that the flat heat pipe-thermal module has the best thermal performance at high power GPU of 180 W and inclination angle of 180°. Simulation results show in good agreement with experimental results within 5%. Therefore, the thermal performance of a flat heat pipe-thermal module can be accurately simulated and analyzed by employed the manner introduced in this paper and is able to cope with the higher heat flux GPU over 62.5 W/cm² in the future.     

Experimental investigation of heat transfer and turbulent flow friction in a tube fitted with perforated conical-rings

Perforated conical-ring (PCR) is one of the turbulence-promoter/turbulator devices for enhancing the heat transfer rate in a heat exchanger system. In the present paper, the influences of the PCR on the turbulent convective heat transfer (Nu), friction factor (f) and thermal performance factor (η) characteristics have been investigated experimentally. The perforated conical-rings (PCRs) used are of three different pitch ratios (PR = p/D = 4, 6 and 12) and three different numbers of perforated holes (N = 4, 6 and 8 holes). The experiment conducted in the range of Reynolds number between 4000 and 20,000, under uniform wall heat flux condition and using air as the testing fluid. The experimental results obtained by using the plain tube and the tube equipped with the typical conical-ring (CR) are also reported for comparison. It is found that the PCR considerably diminishes the development of thermal boundary layer, leading to the heat transfer rate up to about 137% over that in the plain tube. Evidently, the PCRs can enhance heat transfer more efficient than the typical CR on the basis of thermal performance factor of around 0.92 at the same pumping power. Over the range investigated, the maximum thermal performance factor of around 0.92 is found at PR = 4 and N = 8 holes with Reynolds number of 4000.     

Analyzing the pressure-difference phenomenon between the condensing and boiling sections in a heat pipe cooling system

The heat pipe cooling system in this study consists of a flat evaporator, a condenser, and rising and falling tubes with water as working fluid. The working fluid has different water levels inside the two components. This is due to the vapor pressure deficits of the evaporation section and condenser section. This paper utilizes condensing and boiling pressure-difference theory and measures the temperature of the condenser wall to develop a theoretic model for the water level deficit inside the thermal module. Results indicate that the working fluid infiltrates the condenser and indirectly verifies the phenomenon leading to the different water levels inside the cooling system. Moreover, the water level height difference theory presented in this study may reduce the length of the condenser by 3.14 cm.     

Possibilities and consequences of deregulation of the European electricity market for connection of heat sparse areas to district heating systems

The objective of the study is to analyse the conditions for connection of residential buildings in heat sparse areas to district heating systems in order to increase electricity production in municipal combined heat and power plants. The European electricity market has been assumed to be fully deregulated. The relation between connection of heat sparse areas, increased electricity and heat production as well as electricity prices, fuel prices and emissions rights is investigated. The results of the study show that there is potential to expand the district heating market to areas with lower heat concentrations in the cities of Gävle, Sandviken and Borlänge in Sweden, with both economic and environmental benefits. The expansion provides a substantial heat demand of approximately 181 GWh/year, which results in an electricity power production of approximately 43 GWh/year. Since the detached and stand-alone houses in the studied heat sparse areas have been heated either by oil boiler or by direct electricity, connection to district heating also provides a substantial reduction in emissions of CO₂. The largest reductions in CO₂ emissions are found to be 211 ktonnes/year assuming coal-fired condensing power as marginal electricity production. Connection of heat sparse areas to district heating decrease the system costs and provide a profitability by approximately 22 million EURO/year for the studied municipalities if the price of electricity is at a European level, i.e. 110 EURO/MWh. Sensitivity analysis shows, among other things, that a strong relation exists between the price of electricity and the profitability of connecting heat sparse areas to district heating systems.     

Performance analysis of a CO2 heat pump water heating system under a daily change in a standardized demand

Air-to-water heat pumps using CO₂ as a natural refrigerant have been developed and commercialized. They are expected to contribute to energy saving in residential hot water supply. The objective of the research is to analyze the performance of a water heating system composed of a CO₂ heat pump and a hot water storage tank by numerical simulation. In this paper, the system performance is analyzed under a daily change in a standardized hot water demand, and some features of the temperature distribution in the storage tank and the system performance criteria such as coefficient of performance, storage and system efficiencies, and volumes of stored and unused hot water are investigated. It turns out that the daily change in the hot water demand does not significantly affect the daily averages of the COP, and storage and system efficiencies, while it significantly affects not only the daily change in the volume of hot water unused after the tapping mode, but also that in the volume of hot water stored after the charging mode. The influence of the daily change in the hot water demand on the volumes of stored and unused hot water is clarified quantitatively.     

An inverse problem of parameter estimation for heat and mass transfer in capillary porous media

This work deals with the solution of an inverse problem of parameter estimation involving heat and mass transfer in capillary porous media, as described by the dimensionless linear Luikov’s equations. The physical problem under picture involves the drying of a moist porous one-dimensional medium. The main objective of this paper is to simultaneously estimate the dimensionless parameters appearing in the formulation of the physical problem by using transient temperature and moisture content measurements taken inside the medium. The inverse problem is solved by using the Levenberg-Marquardt method of minimization of the least-squares norm with simulated measurements.