METHOD FOR OPERATING A NETWORK OF PIPES

• US 20100300540A1
• Filed: 08/14/2007
• Published: 12/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Wilco AG
• Original Assignee: Wilco AG
• Inventors: Kettner, Thorsten, Strelow, Guenther, Grosse Westhoff, Edgar
• Application Number:
  US12/438,810
• Publication Number:
  US 20100300540A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 137/1
• CPC Class Codes: F24D 19/1012 by regulating the speed of a pump
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 30/70 Efficient control or regulation technologies, e.g. for control of refrigerant flow, motor or heating
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 137/0318 Processes

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for operating a network of pipes, in particular a network of heating pipes, with several decentralised pumps, each pump being assigned to one heat exchanger. The invention is characterised in that the speed required to achieve the desired and/or stipulated mass flow in each heat exchanger is calculated for each decentralised pump by a central processing unit, taking into account the characteristics of the pipe network, and the speed regulating variable is transmitted to at least some of the decentralised pumps.

Claims

1. A method of operating a pipe network having multiple decentralized pumps, each pump being associated with a respective heat exchanger wherein the rotational speed necessary to achieve a desired and/or required mass flow for each heat exchanger is computed for each decentralized pump by a central computing unit, taking into account the characteristics of the pipe network, and the respective computed rotational speed control variable is transmitted to at least a portion of the decentralized pumps.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the computation and/or transmission is carried out according to specified time increments.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein the computation and/or transmission takes place after a change in the mass flow requirement has been made for at least one decentralized pump or the associated heat exchanger.

4. The method according to claim 3 wherein when a mass flow for at least one pump/one heat exchanger is changed, the rotational speeds of the remaining pumps are adjusted to compensate for the mutual influence of the pumps.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein the other pumps for which the computing unit computes no change in the rotational speed, or for which the computed change is less than a predetermined/predeterminable threshold, are excluded from transmission of a new rotational speed control variable.

6. The method according to one claim 1 wherein at least one of all the decentralized pumps temporarily performs the function of a central computing unit and control system for at least a portion of the other decentralized pumps.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein the computation is performed on the basis of stored pipe network characteristics including stored pump characteristic curves for each pump, the line resistances, and the branch resistances of the pipe network.

8. The method according to claim 7claim 7 wherein the pipe network characteristics are determined by performing a pipe network analysis, the results of which are stored and used as the basis for computations.

9. The method of performing a pipe network analysis for a pipe network according to claim 8 wherein a decentralized pump having a known pump characteristic curve is associated with each end branch of a pipe network, wherein for pairs of pumps, in each case at least a pair of selected operating states for the pumps is set, and for each pair of operating states the total volumetric flow in the pipe network or the partial volumetric flows in the end branches are determined, according to which the line resistance of the pipe segments jointly used by both pumps and the branch resistance of the end branch used only by pump are computed using the variables which are determined and specified by the set operating states.

10. The method according to claim 9 wherein the hydraulic characteristics of the entire pipe network are determined from specified variables by iteratively finding jointly used line segments and dividing same into subnetworks.