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Hydronic Networks: Concepts and Control
Author: Jiří Dostál
Hydronic networks distribute heat from a source to thermal zones with heat demand. Present hydronic networks
evolve only fractionally and don’t keep up with the ongoing rapid digitization of buildings. Only so much can be
done with traditional mechanical feedback, and electronic software-based control solutions are taking place. The cost
of energy minimization algorithms is probitive, and centralized solutions suffer from maintenance issues.
This thesis rethinks hydronic network control from field components to the building-wide system level. A ‘Hydronics
4.0’ concept is formulated to enable economic, self-commissioning, remote self-diagnosing hydronic heat delivery.
On top of this, the newly developed temperature-feedback hydronic actuators provide decoupling and power delivery
linearization. Energy optimization is formulated in a plug-and-play manner and solved on the edge devices (actuators)
via node-to-node communication, thus providing resistance to single-point failures and enhancing the maintenance
and reconfiguration capabilities.
Advances in components modelling, simulation tools and network solvers, up to network stability, analysis, distributed
building model calibration and the concept of distributed optimal control are presented within the thesis.