Feature overview
GLN Analysis version 3.0 answers the four questions a ground loop network is judged on: (1) does every borehole get its share of the flow, (2) is that flow turbulent at the heating peak, (3) is each pipe the right size, and (4) what head must the circulating pump supply. The last one decides the energy efficiency of the installation, because the pumping power it implies is subtracted from the benefit of the system for as long as the system runs. The module answers them on the drawing itself, and updates the answers as the design changes. The table below summarises the principal features available in this release.
GLN Analysis
Feature overview
| Drawing & Modelling | |
| Diagram-driven modelling (a node per component, an edge per pipe) | ✓ |
| Component types in the palette (active, passive, thermal, instrumentation, storage) | 35 |
| Valve, exchanger and heat-pump genres, each with its own symbol and default K | ✓ |
| Ready-made archetypes shipped with the module | 4 |
| Ground heat exchanger generator (single-U, double-U, coaxial; parallel or series) | ✓ |
| Reusable archetypes with thumbnails | ✓ |
| Independent networks in one drawing, each with its own fluid, flow rate and temperature | ✓ |
| Result maps drawn on the network itself (pressure, velocity, head, elevation) | 4 |
| Hydraulic Solver | |
| Newton-Raphson mass balance at every free node | ✓ |
| Darcy-Weisbach distributed losses, Swamee-Jain friction factor | ✓ |
| Minor losses as K·ρv²/2 | ✓ |
| Piezometric head formulation (gauge pressure plus ρg·z) | ✓ |
| Sparse Jacobian, pattern analysed interactively | ✓ |
| Solution recalculated interactively, in a few milliseconds | 500 boreholes |
| Pumps | |
| Pump slots, each with its own H-Q points and efficiencies (seeded as a size ladder, meant to be replaced by the curve of the pump specified) | 5 |
| Curve completed to the shutoff head and the runout flow | ✓ |
| Separate hydraulic and motor efficiencies | ✓ |
| Operating point — flow, head, fluid power and electrical draw | ✓ |
| Control modes (constant speed, constant head, imposed flow) | 3 |
| Fluids & Pipes | |
| Heat carrier fluids through the Melinder correlations | 5 |
| ρ and µ evaluated at each network's own temperature | ✓ |
| Pipe entries (28 metric DN and 21 imperial IPS, SDR 9 / 11 / 17) | 49 |
| Design Checks & Diagnostics | |
| Velocity window checked per pipe (m/s) | 0.3 – 2.5 |
| Friction gradient window checked per pipe (Pa/m) | 100 – 400 |
| Reynolds number and flow regime, per pipe | ✓ |
| Balancing indicator (highest to lowest borehole loop flow) | ✓ |
| Results & files | |
| Guided analysis-tree workflow | ✓ |
| Per-pipe and per-node results tables (sortable, with the three advisory checks in the cell they judge) | ✓ |
| Unified project file (drawing, pumps, fluid and project record, shared with the GHE and TRT modules) | .ghe |
| Reusable pipework archetypes (saved from a selection, inserted from a thumbnail gallery) | .hya |
| High-resolution capture of the active view (animated GIF while the flow animation runs) | PNG |
| Verification | |
| Reference scenarios | 40 |
| Cross-checked against an independent solver (EPANET 2) | ✓ |
| Worked examples of the reference textbook reproduced | ✓ |
| Analysis Suite | |
| Modules in one application (TRT interpretation, GHE design, GLN hydraulics) | 3 |
| Parameters carried from one module to the next (TRT → GHE → GLN, choosing which technique's value travels) | ✓ |
| Documentation | |
| Illustrated user manual written for this module (9 figures) | 33 000 words |
| Read inside the application, as a PDF, and online (no registration) | ✓ |
| Context help on every panel, opened from the panel itself | ✓ |
| Quick-start walkthrough of a complete analysis | ✓ |
| Linked reference section — every method traced to its publication | ✓ |
| Specifications | |
| Operating system | Windows 10+, macOS 14+ |