[TRNSYS-users] Solar Desalination

[matthew stroud <mattbstroud@gmail.com>]

Hi all,

I'm writing my thesis on solar desalination in the Southwest U.S.  NREL's System Advisor Model (SAM) 
support suggested there might be a way to utilize TRNSYS for modeling 
such a plant.  The specific problem I'm trying to modeling is a 
distillation plant coupled with a concentrated solar thermal heat 
collection system.  The plant needs to vary its output based on 
insolation, as apposed to adapting the incoming solar radiation to fit 
the needs of steady state equipment like power generators and turbines 
operating at 60Hz.  The change in system design should lead to a reduced
 capital and energy cost for desalination and concentrate management 
plants.

My department routinely uses the free 1D version of HYDRUS, an unsaturated 
hydrology program, and other programs coupled with Matlab to perform 
tasks which the GUI wasn't intended for.  I was hoping to construct 
something like that for my thesis using TRNSYS or SAM.  

Has anybody ever used TRNSYS or SAM in this way?  A SAM approach would be better, as it's free, and my project recently ran out of funds. 

Thanks,

Matt

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Matthew Stroud
Graduate Researcher
The University of Arizona
MS Hydrology | BS Mechanical Engineering | EIT
750 Van Ness Avenue Number 203


San Francisco California 94102
Email: stroud@email.arizona.edu
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