Thermal room simulation
Therakles – Dynamic simulation of heat flows in individual zones
The Therakles simulation software calculates thermal transport processes in individual thermal zones in buildings. The simulation takes into detailed account the effect of the outdoor climate, the usage characteristics, the particular features of the ventilation, cooling and heating as well as the influence of neighbouring zones. The software can be used intuitively and calculates the results very quickly and accurately thanks to the optimised calculation kernel.
Established simulation programs often require considerable effort in order to model the rooms and buildings being simulated. In particular, a considerable amount of time is required from entering the data to achieving the results when making dynamic calculations. With Therakles, a simple software has been created that, although it can only calculate one thermal zone, does this very precisely, variably and quickly. The time taken for the modelling and simulation takes only a fraction of that required by established simulation tools.
Research focus
The Therakles simulation software calculates thermal transport processes in individual thermal zones in buildings. The simulation takes into detailed account the effect of the outdoor climate, the usage characteristics, the particular features of the ventilation, cooling and heating as well as the influence of neighbouring zones. The software can be intuitively used and calculates the results very quickly.
Milestones and successes
The thermal model contained in Therakles makes it possible to make very detailed calculations, such as on, for example, the impact of different storage-capable and phase change materials (PCMs) on the indoor environment. The properties play an important role, such as when measuring the solar shading in summer and when making detailed calculations of the strongly fluctuating indoor environmental conditions, for example for meeting rooms.
The strengths of the software can also be seen in the variability of the usage profiles and the underlying climate conditions. Strategies for controlling the solar shading, the air change and the heating can be easily defined using individual daily, weekly, seasonal and yearly profiles. In addition, it is possible to load your own climate data by producing simple text files.
To evaluate annual time series, Therakles offers not only a text file and graphic output for all calculated hourly values but also a graphic summary of the energy-related characteristic values as a monthly and yearly diagram. Furthermore, based on the specified usage period, Therakles also produces a yearly evaluation of the thermal comfort to EN 15251.
Application
The development is essentially completed. The software is being continually maintained and optimised.
Therakles can be downloaded for free from the TU Dresden.
26.11.2021
