We are excited to announce the release of open-source Modelica package for sand heating systems. The package contains models for particle-based silica-sand thermal energy storage (TES) in heating applications.
Silica sand is an abundant, low-cost, and efficient storage medium for solar power and electricity generation. Solid particle TES could be used to benefit building and district heating systems, particularly as building electrification and renewable energy penetration increases. To enable heating system design and evaluation with sand TES, the package contains base classes through complete systems with equipment, controls, and ready-to-use scripts for simulating and plotting.
This research was led by SBS Lab members Katy Hinkelman and David Milner. The details are documented in the conference paper “Open-Source Models for Sand-Based Thermal Storage in Heating Applications“, which was presented at the 15th International Modelica Conference. This research was done in collaboration with researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory where another conference paper was published demonstrating the usage of the package via case study for district energy systems.
To access the package and related papers please visit Modelica Sand Heating Package.