[esp-r] release of ESP-r version 11.4

Ian Beausoleil-Morrison ibeausol at mae.carleton.ca
Fri Nov 9 13:31:12 GMT 2007 

Dear ESP-r users and developers,

Version 11.4 of the ESP-r system is now available.  A summary of the changes
and new features included in this release is given at the bottom of this
e-mail.

The source code may be accessed via the ESP-r Central Subversion repository.
To do this, you must first install a Subversion client on your system.  Free
clients are available at http://subversion.tigris.org/project_packages.html.

Once you have installed the Subversion client you can download the source
code for version 11.4 of ESP-r anonymously using the following command:
	svn checkout https://esp-r.net/espr/esp-r/trunk
	OR
	svn checkout http://esp-r.net/espr/esp-r/trunk

If you previously downloaded version 11.1, 11.2, or 11.3 with the above
command, then you do not have to do a full download of version 11.4.
Rather, you can update the source code by executing the following command
from your "trunk" directory:
	svn update

(ESP-r developers who wish to make source code contributions to ESP-r should
contact Alex Ferguson at afersugo at nrcan.gc.ca who can configure an account
for you on ESP-r Central.  Further information on ESP-r Central for
developers is available on the ESRU web site.)

ESP-r source code is available exclusively through ESP-r Central.  However,
ESRU will continue to produce and post pre-compiled versions for specific
operating environments on its web site.  These binary versions will
generally be made available within a few days of a source code release and
will be announced to this e-mail list.  Release notes will also continue to
be posted on the ESRU web site.

Regards,
- Ian

Ian Beausoleil-Morrison
ESP-r Archivist on behalf of the ESP-r development team
Carleton University
Ottawa, Canada



Release Notes
11.4 (November 2007)
====================

Generic Code Update
-------------------
- A new system has been implemented to track and report version numbers.
  The information contained within ESP-r Central's subversion repository
  is automatically extracted and reported when an ESP-r binary is
  executed: information such as the branch and revision
  number is reported.
- The Install script has been further improved: all user prompts are
  grouped at the beginning; a new debugging prompt has been added;
  command-line arguments for X11, GTK, and X-less installs have been
  added.
- GTK file browsing support has been added for a number of
  file export facilities.
- Updated GTK code to support more font types so users
  can switch to Courier for reports in the text feedback
  area.


Simulator
---------
- A new feature has been added to enable the use of TRNSYS TYPE's
  within ESP-r plant networks.  This has been accomplished by adding a
  generic TRNSYS "wrapper" component to ESP-r's database of plant
  components and creating an accompanying static template and
  coefficient generator.  This wrapper executes TRNSYS TYPE source
  code and places the outputs from the TRNSYS TYPE into the appropriate
  locations in ESP-r's plant matrix of equations.  Use of this new
  facility requires that the fortran source code for the TRNSYS TYPE
  be compiled into ESP-r.  However, the "wrapper" has been designed
  such that no alterations to the TRNSYS TYPE code are required (as
  long as its syntax is compatible with the compiler, e.g. g77).
  To make use of a TRNSYS TYPE within an ESP-r plant network, a text input
  file must be created to map the relationship between the TRNSYS TYPE's
  inputs and outputs and the plant network.  At this point in time,
  no interface is provided to create this text file: it must be created
  in an external text editor.  This feature should be considered beta
  at the current time.
- The implementation of the IEA/ECBCS Annex 42 fuel cell cogeneration
  model as a plant component has been completed.  This treats both
  PEMFC and SOFC devices.
- The implementation of the IEA/ECBCS Annex 42 combustion cogeneration
  model as a plant component has been completed.  This treats both
  internal combustion engine and Stirling engine devices.
- An idealized VAV/CAV zone control law has been added for use
  in early design stage investigations.
- There was a bug in the calculation of mean radiant temperatures
  (MRT) in the espvwf module.  This was repaired.
- For bi-directional optical properties a bug was fixed in handling the
  direct-to-diffuse component of the transmitted radiation. Previously it
was
  incorrectly multiplied by the incident diffuse irradiation; now it is 
  multiplied by the direct irradiation (with shading factor if applicable).
  The only impact is for models with bi-directional data - the magnitude of
  the correction will depend on whether the direct-to-diffuse component is
  significant for this case.
- The power-only-component model of a wind turbine has been modified. A new
  option was added to allow users to specify wind speed data in a boundary
  condition definition file.  A new 'look-up table' feature has been added
  to support this wind turbine model.  With this an external text file can
  be created with two columns of data (wind speed and power output in this
  case).  A plant domain, electric domain, or special material model can
  make use of the look-up table which includes facilities for interpolation.
- The calculation of the auxiliary power draw of the hydrogen PEMFC plant
  model has been corrected. This change affects simulation results using
  this model.
- The WATSUN-PV special material model has been modified to take into
account
  the reflection of the PV module surface when calculating the effective
  irradiance reaching the solar cell. This change affects simulation results
  using this model.
- Support has been added for linear thermal bridges.  This feature can be
  invoked by the user via Project Manager's zone menu.
- Support for plant controller sensor based on temperature difference
between
  two plant components nodes has been added.
- A new plant component has been created for a fully mixed water storage
  tank with an immersed coil heat exchanger.  The heat transfer between
  the coil and the tank fluid can be based either on a correlation for
  a horizontal tube or for a helical coil.
- A new plant component has been created for a stratified water storage
  tank.  The number of stratified layers that can be used to represent
  the water within the tank can vary from 1 to 100.
- A new plant component to represent make-up water flows has been created.
  The temperature of the make-up water flow can be calculated or specified.
- A new plant component that imposes a flow rate between two other plant
  components has been created.  The imposed flow rate can be scheduled.
- The existing pump plant component has been modified to support flow
  of a mixture of 50% propylene glycol and 50% water.


Project Manager
---------------
- A number of changes have been made to harmonise and tidy up the
  Project Manager interface. Essentially, this involves modifications
  to help messages and default settings, and rationalisation
  of the menu syntax.  Note that there is no change
  to menu item ordering and therefore no impact on
  script operation or simulation results.
- The code related to events profiles has been updated in order
  to support a greater number of profiles. Warning messages
  regarding incorrect events profiles have been improved.
- A bug could cause a reversal on surface ordering after
  exporting to a viewer format file.  This has been repaired.
- A number of 'continue' options have been added to dialogues
  to improve program navigation.
- Minor format changes have been made to the IPV report.
- A new capability has been added to allow the extrusion of
  zone enclosures from a surface.
- The menu structure related to zone rotations and transforms
  has been improved and some new functionality has been added.
- The standard materials databases (constr.db2.a) has been
  updated with data acquired through a web search as well
  as data from "Inventory of Carbon & Energy" by Hammond &
  Jones, University of Bath 2006.
- The code related to control law 11 has been updated:
  the interface has improved feedback and help, a glitch
  in data entry has been repaired and improved for clarify,
  the trace output has been expanded, and the data provided
  in the QA report has been expanded.
- Project manager now issues a warning rather than a failure
  for out-of-range wind reduction factors for network air flow.
- To conform to EU Energy Performance Building Directive
  an alternative materials database format has been 
  added.  This change will be transparent for legacy models
  using binary materials databases.
- Changes in format of IPV report specific to cooling
  data to allow plotting in I2PV java tool.


Results Analyzer
----------------
- The frequency of residuals plotting during CFD solutions
  has been doubled.
- The CFD module allows the visualization of flow on a time-step
  basis.  Previously this was restricted to 99 time-steps.  With
  this commit up to 999 time-steps can be visualized.
- New functionality has been added to the facility that produces
  xml and csv simulation outputs.  Time-step data can now optionally
  be stored to disk rather than pushing data onto the heap.  This
  substantially reduces bps's memory requirements (by 5 to 70%)
  but also increases run-time (by 5 to 20%).  Documentation on
  invoking this new feature is included in a text file.
- A midnight spike bug related to graphing and timestep listings
  of casual gain data which has been corrected.


Quality Control Utility
-----------------------
- A large number of additional regression tests have been added including
  the full suite of inter-program comparative test cases for
micro-cogeneration
  devices developed by IEA/ECBCS Annex 42.


Climate Data
------------
- A number of new climate files have been added: Dijon (France),
  Seoul (South Korea), Hong Kong, Guangzhou (China), and Prague (Czech).
- Support added to clm for the importation of Korean
  climate data.


Additional Changes
------------------
- Many additional changes have been made that are transparent to the user.
  Information on these, as well as further details on all the
above-mentioned
  changes, can be found in ESP-r Central's change log by providing the
  following URL to your web browser:
https://esp-r.net/wsvn/espr/wsvn/esp-r/.

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