TRNSYS 18.02 Transient System Simulation Tool

TRNSYS 18.02 Transient System Simulation Tool

Download TRNSYS 18

What is TRNSYS?

TRNSYS (pronounced ‘tran-sis’) is an extremely flexible graphically based software environment used to simulate the behavior of transient systems. While the vast majority of simulations are focused on assessing the performance of thermal and electrical energy systems, TRNSYS can equally well be used to model other dynamic systems such as traffic flow, or biological processes.

TRNSYS is made up of two parts. The first is an engine (called the kernel) that reads and processes the input file, iteratively solves the system, determines convergence, and plots system variables. The kernel also provides utilities that (among other things) determine thermophysical properties, invert matrices, perform linear regressions, and interpolate external data files. The second part of TRNSYS is an extensive library of components, each of which models the performance of one part of the system. The standard library includes approximately 150 models ranging from pumps to multizone buildings, wind turbines to electrolyzers, weather data processors to economics routines, and basic HVAC equipment to cutting edge emerging technologies. Models are constructed in such a way that users can modify existing components or write their own, extending the capabilities of the environment.

After 35 years of commercial availability, TRNSYS continues to be a flexible, component-based software package that accommodates the ever-changing needs of both researchers and practitioners in the energy simulation community.

Interface

The TRNSYS Simulation Studio serves as a robust, intuitive, graphical front end of the simulation, making the user’s job of assembling a detailed system a simple endeavor – similar in nature to hooking up the pipes and wires in a real system. The outputs of one component are graphically connected to the inputs of another. Since its inception of in the mid 1990’s, the Simulation Studio has replaced the need to manually edit the text input file.

Users can watch the value of ANY system variable on an online plot as the simulation progresses (any temperature, flow rate, heat transfer etc.). Output devices also allow the user great flexibility in integrating, printing, and reporting any component output value.

Programming Language

The TRNSYS engine, the standard component library and most of the publicly available non-standard component libraries are written in Fortran and are compiled into a dynamic link library for the Windows operating system. Users wishing to write their own components may write them in Fortran, C, C++, or any other language provided that they have a compiler capable of creating a DLL. Purchase of the TRNSYS Environment includes the source code for the entire kernel and all standard components save the multizone building model. Alternatively, components can be written in the TRNSYS “W” language in the TRNSYS Simulation Studio which does not require a compiler.