THE DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT OF PUBLIC DOMAIN SIMULATION SOFTWARE

摘要

The transient simulation program TRNSYS was originallyrndeveloped to aid in the study of solar energy systems. It was firstrnmade public in 1975 when Version 6.0 wag released. Since then itrnhas undergone continual development, and a series of versionsrnhave been documented, released, and supported. The currentrnversion, 13.1, was released in October, 1990, and is available inrnmainframe, IBM PC and Macintosh formats. TRNSYSrncapabilities have expanded as the program has evolved: it is nowrnused extensively for building, HVAC, and industrial processrnsimulation as well as for solar energy system studies. TRNSYSrnhas flexible inputs and outputs, includes a large library of standardrncomponents, is designed to be user-modified, and is extensivelyrndocumented. Approximately 500 copies of the program have beenrndistributed world-wide.rnThe purpose of this paper is to briefly describernTRNSYS, review decisions made during the process ofrndeveloping TRNSYS and to describe TRNSYS support. It isrnhoped that the exp erience gained from the development andrnsupport of TRNSYS will provide a base for the developmentrnand support of other simulation programs.