Three-dimensional numerical model of heat losses from district heating network pre-insulated pipes buried in the ground

The dimensions of the pipelines used were 6 m wide, 8 m high and 1 m in depth, while they were simulated under conditions of zero heat flow in the ground, in the perpendicular to the sides direction of the calculated area and considering the effects of ground's thermal conductivity. The mesh was developed using advanced functions, which resulted its high quality with the average orthogonal quality of 0.99 (close to 1.00) and Skewness of 0.05 (between 0.00 and 0.25). To achieve better accuracy of the simulation model, the initial conditions were determined based on the numerical results of a three-dimensional analysis of heat losses, in steady state conditions in a single moment. The validation process confirmed the high quality of the model, as the differences between the ground temperatures were approximately 0.1 °C.