ABSTRACT
Computer simulation programs can be extremely useful tools in the design and analysis of physical systems. This chapter discusses five of the programs that have been developed and used rather extensively in the design and analysis of solar heating and cooling systems. Of these five programs, two are used primarily as analysis tools and the remaining three are used primarily as design tools. These five programs are the TRNSYS, SIMSHAC, FCHART, SOLCOST, and the Relative Areas programs. The chapter discusses the executive program calls the subroutines for the analysis according to the system description supplied by the user. Several computer simulation models have been developed for the design and analysis of solar heating and/or cooling systems with the above-mentioned objective in mind. The chapter also presents comparisons between TRNSYS and SIMSHAC. The two mentioned programs are extremely useful as analysis tools, require a major computational facility, and require some expertise in programming.
