Simulation of geothermal district heating systems

Abstract

District heating systems are preferable compared to individual heating systems as the heating method is economical, safe and less pollution. Fossil fuels have been used in most of the district heating systems but nowadays geothermal energy is being used in many systems where geothermal energy is available. Simulation methods enable us to follow behavior of the flow as well as indoor temperature in each building and pressure at every point in the system on hour by hour basis and hereby determine system behavior both during cold waves, and also over long periods of time. In order to use these simulation methods on a district heating system, a fictitious town has been made, and is chosen to be located somewhere in Turkey. The buildings are assumed to be built according to usual Turkish construction methods. Weather data for this fictitious town is simulated by using temperature variations of the year 1981 in Reykjavik added to the average climate of Denizli, Turkey. This study is based on the Icelandic method of the design of geothermal district heating systems. However the real weather data from Turkey has been used to evaluate the heat loss of the model building and the heat load of the simulated district heating model network.