Modeling of Complex Hydronic Systems for Energy Efficient Operation

Energy requirements for heating and cooling of residential, commercial and industrial spaces constitute a major fraction of end use energy consumed. Centralized systems such as hydronic networks are becoming increasingly popular to meet those requirements. Energy efficient operation of such systems requires intelligent energy management strategies, which necessitates an understanding of the complex dynamical interactions among its components from a mathematical and physical perspective. In this work, concepts from linear graph theory are applied to model complex hydronic networks. Further, time-scale decomposition techniques have been employed to obtain a more succinct representation of the overall system dynamics. Lastly, the usefulness of the proposed model for energy efficient operation of the system through advanced control techniques has been discussed.