Model designing for simulation of distribution systems for district heating

Climate change and the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is an ongoing problem affecting the earth globally. To break this trend and revert the changes a continuous upgrade of the current energy system is needed, one way of doing this is by using models to simulate new systems. One of the areas that needs optimization is heat distribution systems and district heating. In this master thesis a model for simulation of district heating is built and tested for several case studies. This thesis is part of a larger research project which aims at integrating multiple models regarding mobility and energy systems to simulate a smaller society. The distribution system model was created using matrices to describe the connections within the system and then used to calculate mass flow, pressure drop, temperatures and heat losses. Results show that placement of new users in the grid heavily impact the mass flow and pressure drop throughout the system. Moreover, the result also shows that a reduction of the temperature requirement at one user has the possibility to drastically lower the temperature through the system and lower the heat losses significantly. Before further use of this model verification with commercialized software is strongly suggested