Analyse systems via virtual models to find the best solutions

We use various simulation programmes to represent integrated or partial systems. We can then expose this virtual twin to many possible boundary conditions and test its behaviour – long before construction begins.

Exploring physical questions virtually

  • How large do the heat storage and solar thermal plant need to be in order to reliably supply the demand of the district heating together with the existing waste heat?
  • Which design of heat storage and which materials are efficient in the long term?
  • How is the underground influenced by the heat storage?

Such questions could be answered by building many systems in reality and monitoring them for years. Instead, we find the best solutions faster and in many variants by examining integrated systems or parts of them in simulation models.

For this purpose, we simulate the respective target system in various simulation programmes and thus create a “virtual twin“.

Thanks to Solites’ many years of simulation experience, this virtual twin shows a system behaviour that can be expected in practice. This allows us to virtually expose the target system to many possible boundary conditions, test the behaviour and optimise the system.

Dynamic system simulations

Our models for dynamic system simulation for heat and electricity generation in the TRNSYS programme have been validated over many years since 1995 using measurement data from pilot projects.

In international cooperation in tasks of the IEA (International Energy Agency), simulation models for heat storages have been compared with each other since 2020 under the management of Solites. We were able to achieve very good matches between simulation and built reality.

Thanks to the extensive simulation models, we developed the simplified SCFW calculation programme and made it publicly available.

Comparison of measurement data with the results of a TRNSYS simulation for temperatures in a large heat storage

Numerical flow simulations

We use CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations with the programmes ANSYS Fluent and Open FOAM to more precisely investigate details in water-filled heat storages.
Using a network of millions of cells within the water volume of a heat storage, we can investigate the flow behaviour during loading and unloading, for example. We can also take a closer look at the dimensioning of the loading unit (diffusers) using the models.

CFD simulation of temperature stratification and flow in a heat storage (shown in cross-section)

Finite element simulation

In calculations with the software FEFLOW (Finite Element subsurface FLOW system), we investigate, for example, the influence of a heat storage tank on the surrounding soil with its specific properties.

We also calculate the optimum type and amount of thermal insulation to be planned around the storage and the resulting heat losses.

In FEFLOW simulated heating of the ground adjacent to a pit thermal energy storage

Interlinked heat and mass transfer in porous media

We use Dumux to answer questions about the passage of water vapor through the covering of underground thermal storage tanks and the optimum design of the thermal insulation layers with different materials.

We are currently developing and validating the models for this application.

Temperature distribution simulated with Dumux within a foam glass gravel insulation layer (shown in cross-section)