Modelling and Simulation of District Heating Networks

In the present paper a detailed mathematical model is derived for district heating networks. After semidiscretization of the convective heat equation and introducing coupling conditions at the nodes of the network one gets a high-dimensional system of differential-algebraic equations (DAEs). Neglecting temporal changes of the water velocity in the pipes, the numerical solutions do not change significantly and the DAEs have index one. Numerical experiments illustrate that the model describes the real situation very well.