Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Examiner Notes
Examiner cites particular columns, paragraphs, figures and line numbers in the
references as applied to the claims below for the convenience of the applicant. Although
the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the
specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It
is respectfully requested that, in preparing responses, the applicant fully consider the
references in their entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as
the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the examiner. The entire
reference is considered to provide disclosure relating to the claimed invention. The claims &
only the claims form the metes & bounds of the invention. Office personnel are to give
the claims their broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the supporting disclosure.
Unclaimed limitations appearing in the specification are not read into the claim. Prior art was
referenced using terminology familiar to one of ordinary skill in the art. Such an approach is
broad in concept and can be either explicit or implicit in meaning. Examiner's Notes are
provided with the cited references to assist the applicant to better understand how the
examiner interprets the applied prior art. Such comments are entirely consistent with the
intent & spirit of compact prosecution.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception without significantly more.
Claim 1.
STEP 1: Yes. The claim is directed to a “method” which is a process.
STEP 2A PRONE ONE:
The claim recites multiple mathematical abstract ideas.
step 1-1-1 of establishing a mass conservation equation and a momentum conservation equation describing a one-dimensional flow process of water in the thermal pipeline:
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where P, v and P denote a density, a flow rate and a pressure of the water, respectively, 2, D and 0 denote a friction coefficient, an inner diameter and an inclination angle of the thermal pipeline, respectively, g denotes an acceleration of gravity, and t and X denote time and space, respectively;
This shows a mathematical relationship of mass conservation and momentum conservation equation.
step 1-1-2 of establishing, based on a fact that the water is an incompressible fluid, a differential equation of the density of the water about the time and the space:
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This is a mathematical relationship of partial differential equation of incompressible fluid.
step 1-1-3 of ignoring the convection term ∂ρv^(2)/∂x in the momentum conservation equation in the step 1-1-1, that is ∂ρv^(2)/∂x≈0, and performing an incremental linearization approximation on the square term of the flow rate in the resistance term λρv^(2)/2D, that is, letting ν2≈2νbaseν−νbase 2, where νbase denotes a base value of the flow rate of the water in the thermal pipeline, taking a flow rate in a design condition;
This is a mathematical calculation that includes substitution and linearization.
step 1-1-4 of substituting the steps 1-1-2 and 1-1-3 into the step 1-1-1 to get following equations:
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where G denotes a mass flow of the water, G=ρνA denotes a cross-sectional area of the thermal pipeline, and Gbase denotes a base value of the mass flow corresponding to the base value of the flow rate, that is Gbase=ρνbaseA;
This a mathematical calculation of substitution to yield new equations.
step 1-1-5 of establishing, based on the step 1-1-4, equations of a flow difference and a pressure drop at both ends of a micro-element dx of the thermal pipeline:
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where dG denotes the flow difference at both ends of the micro-element of the thermal pipeline, and dp denotes the pressure drop at both ends of the micro-element of the thermal pipeline;
This shows a mathematical relationship that denotes flow difference and pressure drop of a pipeline.
step 1-1-6 of obtaining, based on the equations of the flow difference and the pressure drop at both ends of the micro-element of the thermal pipeline in the step 1-1-5, calculation equations of a hydraulic resistance Rh, a hydraulic inductance Lh and a hydraulic pressure source Eh in the thermal pipeline as follows:
R h =λG base/ (ρA 2 D),L h=1/A, andE h =ρg sinθ−λG base 2/ (2ρA 2 D),
wherein the micro-element dx of the thermal pipeline denotes a hydraulic circuit comprising 3 elements, and the entire thermal pipeline denotes a distributed parameter hydraulic circuit;
This shows obtaining these mathematical relationships via calculation.
step 1-1-7 of establishing, based on element parameters of the distributed parameter hydraulic circuit of the thermal pipeline in the step 1-1-6, element parameters of a lumped parameter hydraulic circuit of the thermal pipeline:R=Rhl,L=Lhl, andE=Ehl,
where R denotes a hydraulic resistance in the lumped parameter hydraulic circuit of the thermal pipeline, L denotes a hydraulic inductance in the lumped parameter hydraulic circuit of the thermal pipeline, E denotes a hydraulic pressure source in the lumped parameter hydraulic circuit of the thermal pipeline, and l denotes a length of the thermal pipeline;
This shows mathematical calculations of multiplication.
step 1-1-8 of performing Fourier transform on an excitation of the lumped parameter hydraulic circuit of the thermal pipeline, decomposing the excitation of the lumped parameter hydraulic circuit of the thermal pipeline into a plurality of sinusoidal steady state excitations at different frequencies, and establishing algebraic equations of a lumped parameter frequency domain hydraulic circuit corresponding to each frequency component co in the sinusoidal steady state excitation:
p 1 =p 0−(R+jωL) G 0 −E, andG1=G0,
where p0 and G0 denote a pressure and a flow at a head end of the thermal pipeline, respectively, and p, and G, denote a pressure and a flow at a terminal end of the thermal pipeline;
This shows mathematical calculation to obtain mathematical formulas.
step 1-2-1 of establishing an equation between a pressure difference p on both sides of the flow control valve and a mass flow G of the flow control valve:p=kνG2,
where k, denotes an opening coefficient of the flow control valve, and G denotes the mass flow of the water;
This shows a mathematical relationship.
step 1-2-2 of performing an incremental linearization approximation on the square term G2 of the mass flow in the step 1-2-1, that is G2=2GbaseG−Gbase 2, and converting the equation between the pressure difference p on both sides of the flow control valve and the mass flow G of the flow control valve in the step 1-2-1 into the following equation:p=2k ν G base ·G−k ν G base 2,
This shows a linearization mathematical calculation.
step 1-2-3 of defining, based on the step 1-2-2, calculation equations of a hydraulic resistance Rν and a hydraulic pressure source Eν of the flow control valve as follows:R ν=2k ν G base, andE ν =−k ν G base 2;
This shows defining a mathematical formula.
step 1-3-1 of establishing an equation between a pressure difference p on both sides of the compressor and a mass flow G of the water of the compressor at a given rotation speed:p=−(k p1 G 2 +k p2ωp G+k p3ωp 2),
where kp1, kp2 and kp3 denote inherent coefficients of the compressor, which are obtained from a factory nameplate of the compressor or obtained through an external characteristic testing and fitting, and ωp denotes a rotation frequency of the compressor;
This shows a mathematical formula definition.
step 1-3-2 of performing an incremental linearization approximation on the square term G2 of the mass flow in the step 1-3-1, that is G2=2GbaseG−Gbase 2, and converting the step 1-3-1 into following equation:p=−(2k p1 G base +k p2ωp) · G−(k p3ωp 2 −k p1 G base 2);
step 1-3-3 of defining, based on the step 1-3-2, calculation equations of a hydraulic resistance Rp and a hydraulic pressure source Ep of the compressor as follows:
R p=−(2k p1 G base +k p2ωp), andE p =k p1 G base 2 −k p3ωp 2;
This shows a linearization mathematical calculation.
step 2-1 of establishing, based on the models of the thermal pipeline, the flow control valve and the compressor established in the step 1, a hydraulic branch characteristic equation of the heat supply network:G b =y b(p b −E b),
where Gb denotes a base value of a mass flow corresponding to a base value of a flow rate in a hydraulic branch, pb denotes a hydraulic pressure difference at both ends of the hydraulic branch, yb denotes a branch admittance formed by a hydraulic resistance and a hydraulic inductance in the hydraulic branch, and Eb denotes a sum of hydraulic pressure sources in the hydraulic branch;
This shows a mathematical relationship.
step 2-2 of writing hydraulic branch equations of all the hydraulic branches in the heat supply network into a matrix form as follows:G b =y b(p b −E b),
where Gb, pb and Eb denote a column vector composed of the mass flow of the water in all the hydraulic branches in the heat supply network, a column vector composed of the hydraulic pressure difference at both ends of each branch in all the hydraulic branches in the heat supply network, and a column vector composed of the hydraulic pressure sources in all the hydraulic branches in the heat supply network, respectively, and yb denotes a diagonal matrix composed of the admittances of all the branches of the heat supply network;
This shows manipulation by mathematical calculation.
step 3-1 of defining a node-branch correlation matrix Ah in the heat supply network, which is a matrix of n rows and m columns, where n denotes a number of nodes in the heat supply network, and m denotes a number of branches in the heat supply network, (Ah)i,j denotes an element in an ith row and a jth column in denotes that the branch j is not connected to the node i, (Ah)i,j=1 denotes that the branch j flows out from the node i , and (Ah)i,j=−1 denotes that the branch flows into the node i;
This shows a definition of a mathematical relationship.
step 3-2 of establishing, based on Kirchhoff-like current law, a mass conservation equation of nodes of the heat supply network:AhGb=Gn,
where Gn denotes a column vector formed by water injection of each node, and when the heat supply network is a closed network, then Gn=0;
This shows a mathematical formula.
step 3-3 of establishing, based on Kirchhoff-like voltage law, a loop pressure drop equation of the heat supply network:Ah Tpn=pb,
where pn denotes a column vector composed of a hydraulic pressure value of each node;
This shows a mathematical equation definition.
step 4-1 of substituting the hydraulic topology constraints established in the steps 3-2 and 3-3 into the branch characteristic equation established in the step 2-2 and obtaining an unreduced form of a hydraulic network equation of the heat supply network as follows:A h y b A b T p n =G n +A h y b E b;
This shows mathematical calculation to yield a simplified matrix.
step 4-2 of defining a generalized node admittance matrix Yh and a generalized node injection vector G′n as follows:Yh=AhybAh T, andG′ n =G n +A h y b E b;
This shows defining a mathematical formula.
step 4-3 of substituting the Yh and G′n defined in the step 4-2 into the unreduced form of the hydraulic network equation of the heat supply network in the step 4-1, and obtaining the hydraulic network equation in the heat supply network of following form:Yhpn=G′n,
wherein the above hydraulic network equation describes a hydraulic dynamic of the heat supply network;
This shows a mathematical calculation to obtain a new equation.
step 5 of deleting a hydraulic inductance element in the hydraulic circuit model of the heat supply network, recalculating, based on the step 4, the generalized node admittance matrix Yh, and only taking a zero-frequency component in a frequency domain to degenerate the dynamic hydraulic circuit model into a steady hydraulic circuit model, wherein the steady hydraulic circuit model is the heat supply network hydraulic circuit model for the comprehensive energy system control.
This shows a mathematical calculation of deleting and recalculating.
STEP 2A PRONG TWO: The claim does not integrate the exception into a practical application.
STEP 2B:
2106.05(b) Particular Machine – The claim does not recite the use of, or the method steps to, any particular machine or apparatus.
2106.05(a) No improvement to computer functionally or other technology – The claim does not purport to improve the function of a computer or to improve some other technology.
STEP 2B: The claim does not recite an inventive concept or significantly more than an exception.
CONCLUSION: Claim 1 is directed to multiple mathematical concepts, not integrated into a practical application and lacks an inventive concept. Therefore, it is ineligible under 35 USC 101.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 1 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection under 35 U.S.C. 101 set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Reference KE et al. “Transient analysis of isothermal gas flow in pipeline network” (2000) teaches using Navier stokes equations for steady state analysis of fluid flow in pipeline networks.
Reference CHEN et al. “HYDRAULIC MODELING OF LARGE DISTRICT ENERGY SYSTEMS FOR PLANNING PURPOSES” (2007) teaches modeling of district heating systems using pipe networks with pipe flow and mass equations.
Reference HAO et al. “A thermal-electrical analogy transient model of district heating pipelines for integrated analysis of thermal and power systems” (2018) teaches developing a thermal-electric model for district heating using an electrical analogy for hydraulic circuits.
Reference HAUNG et al. CN-110765622 (2020) teaches creating pipe network differential equations.
For claim 1, none of the prior art on record, either alone or in combination, teaches the limitations“step 1-1-5 of establishing, based on the step 1-1-4, equations of a flow difference and a pressure drop at both ends of a micro-element dx of the thermal pipeline:
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where dG denotes the flow difference at both ends of the micro-element of the thermal pipeline, and dp denotes the pressure drop at both ends of the micro-element of the thermal pipeline;”,
“… R h =λG base/ (ρA 2 D), L h=1/A, and E h =ρg sinθ−λG base 2/ (2ρA 2 D),
wherein the micro-element dx of the thermal pipeline denotes a hydraulic circuit comprising 3 elements, and the entire thermal pipeline denotes a distributed parameter hydraulic circuit;”,
“step 1-1-7 of establishing, based on element parameters of the distributed parameter hydraulic circuit of the thermal pipeline in the step 1-1-6, element parameters of a lumped parameter hydraulic circuit of the thermal pipeline:R=Rhl, L=Lhl, and E=Ehl,”,
“step 1-1-8 of performing Fourier transform on an excitation of the lumped parameter hydraulic circuit of the thermal pipeline, decomposing the excitation of the lumped parameter hydraulic circuit of the thermal pipeline into a plurality of sinusoidal steady state excitations at different frequencies, and establishing algebraic equations of a lumped parameter frequency domain hydraulic circuit corresponding to each frequency component co in the sinusoidal steady state excitation:
p 1 =p 0−(R+jωL) G 0 −E, andG1=G0,
where p0 and G0 denote a pressure and a flow at a head end of the thermal pipeline, respectively, and p, and G, denote a pressure and a flow at a terminal end of the thermal pipeline;”,
“step 1-2-1 of establishing an equation between a pressure difference p on both sides of the flow control valve and a mass flow G of the flow control valve:p=kνG2,
where k, denotes an opening coefficient of the flow control valve, and G denotes the mass flow of the water;”,
“step 1-2-3 of defining, based on the step 1-2-2, calculation equations of a hydraulic resistance Rν and a hydraulic pressure source Eν of the flow control valve as follows:R ν=2k ν G base, andE ν =−k ν G base 2;”,
“step 1-3-1 of establishing an equation between a pressure difference p on both sides of the compressor and a mass flow G of the water of the compressor at a given rotation speed:p=−(k p1 G 2 +k p2ωp G+k p3ωp 2),
where kp1, kp2 and kp3 denote inherent coefficients of the compressor, which are obtained from a factory nameplate of the compressor or obtained through an external characteristic testing and fitting, and ωp denotes a rotation frequency of the compressor;”,
“step 1-3-2 of performing an incremental linearization approximation on the square term G2 of the mass flow in the step 1-3-1, that is G2=2GbaseG−Gbase 2, and converting the step 1-3-1 into following equation:
p=−(2k p1 G base +k p2ωp) · G−(k p3ωp 2 −k p1 G base 2);
step 1-3-3 of defining, based on the step 1-3-2, calculation equations of a hydraulic resistance Rp and a hydraulic pressure source Ep of the compressor as follows:
R p=−(2k p1 G base +k p2ωp), andE p =k p1 G base 2 −k p3ωp 2;”,
“step 2-1 of establishing, based on the models of the thermal pipeline, the flow control valve and the compressor established in the step 1, a hydraulic branch characteristic equation of the heat supply network:G b =y b(p b −E b),
where Gb denotes a base value of a mass flow corresponding to a base value of a flow rate in a hydraulic branch, pb denotes a hydraulic pressure difference at both ends of the hydraulic branch, yb denotes a branch admittance formed by a hydraulic resistance and a hydraulic inductance in the hydraulic branch, and Eb denotes a sum of hydraulic pressure sources in the hydraulic branch;”,
“step 2-2 of writing hydraulic branch equations of all the hydraulic branches in the heat supply network into a matrix form as follows:G b =y b(p b −E b),
where Gb, pb and Eb denote a column vector composed of the mass flow of the water in all the hydraulic branches in the heat supply network, a column vector composed of the hydraulic pressure difference at both ends of each branch in all the hydraulic branches in the heat supply network, and a column vector composed of the hydraulic pressure sources in all the hydraulic branches in the heat supply network, respectively, and yb denotes a diagonal matrix composed of the admittances of all the branches of the heat supply network;”,
“step 3-1 of defining a node-branch correlation matrix Ah in the heat supply network, which is a matrix of n rows and m columns, where n denotes a number of nodes in the heat supply network, and m denotes a number of branches in the heat supply network, (Ah)i,j denotes an element in an ith row and a jth column in denotes that the branch j is not connected to the node i, (Ah)i,j=1 denotes that the branch j flows out from the node i , and (Ah)i,j=−1 denotes that the branch flows into the node i;”,
“step 3-2 of establishing, based on Kirchhoff-like current law, a mass conservation equation of nodes of the heat supply network:AhGb=Gn,
where Gn denotes a column vector formed by water injection of each node, and when the heat supply network is a closed network, then Gn=0;”,
“step 3-3 of establishing, based on Kirchhoff-like voltage law, a loop pressure drop equation of the heat supply network:Ah Tpn=pb,
where pn denotes a column vector composed of a hydraulic pressure value of each node;”,
“step 4-1 of substituting the hydraulic topology constraints established in the steps 3-2 and 3-3 into the branch characteristic equation established in the step 2-2 and obtaining an unreduced form of a hydraulic network equation of the heat supply network as follows:A h y b A b T p n =G n +A h y b E b;”,
“step 4-2 of defining a generalized node admittance matrix Yh and a generalized node injection vector G′n as follows:Yh=AhybAh T, andG′ n =G n +A h y b E b;”,
“step 4-3 of substituting the Yh and G′n defined in the step 4-2 into the unreduced form of the hydraulic network equation of the heat supply network in the step 4-1, and obtaining the hydraulic network equation in the heat supply network of following form:Yhpn=G′n,
wherein the above hydraulic network equation describes a hydraulic dynamic of the heat supply network;”,
“step 5 of deleting a hydraulic inductance element in the hydraulic circuit model of the heat supply network, recalculating, based on the step 4, the generalized node admittance matrix Yh, and only taking a zero-frequency component in a frequency domain to degenerate the dynamic hydraulic circuit model into a steady hydraulic circuit model, wherein the steady hydraulic circuit model is the heat supply network hydraulic circuit model for the comprehensive energy system control.”, in combination with the remaining limitations of the claim.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. KE et al. “Transient analysis of isothermal gas flow in pipeline network” (2000), CHEN et al. “HYDRAULIC MODELING OF LARGE DISTRICT ENERGY SYSTEMS FOR PLANNING PURPOSES” (2007), Reference HAO et al. “A thermal-electrical analogy transient model of district heating pipelines for integrated analysis of thermal and power systems” (2018), and HAUNG et al. CN-110765622 (2020).
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/N.E.M./Examiner, Art Unit 2189
/REHANA PERVEEN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2189