Quick start

One application, three modules - TRT Analysis is one of the three modules of the Analysis Suite, which are installed together and share a single window. The three buttons at the left of the toolbar switch between them, and the button that is lit tells you which module is active:

• TRT — interpretation of a thermal response test, the subject of this manual.
• GHE — design and simulation of a ground heat exchanger field.
• GLN — design of the hydraulic network that connects it.

Switching module rebuilds the analysis tree, the panels and the console around the work at hand, so the window shown in the figure below is the TRT one. Several things follow from this arrangement and are worth knowing from the start: each module is licensed separately and the licence that applies is the one of the module currently active; the project sheet is common to the three, so a project keeps one identity whichever module works on it; and the panels shared between modules, such as the heat carrier fluid or the test borehole, change meaning with the module and carry their own help page.

The three modules also chain naturally. The ground thermal conductivity and the borehole thermal resistance this module interprets are what GHE needs to design a field; the field GHE designs is what GLN then balances hydraulically. Nothing forces that order — each module stands on its own — but a complete project usually travels it.

Activating a professional licence - TRT Analysis runs in demonstration mode until a valid licence code is submitted. In that mode the bundled sample test is loaded automatically the first time the module is opened, so a complete interpretation can be followed from end to end, but the data controls are locked: the import, copy and paste buttons, the sampling period, the filter length and the raw-data table are disabled, and projects cannot be saved or opened. Everything downstream stays live, so the phase boundaries, the regression windows and the model sliders can be moved freely on the sample. To activate the professional version, open License Agreement from the main menu and accept the end-user licence agreement. This opens the Licenses panel, a table listing every module of the Analysis Suite with its current status — Licensed, Demo, or Expired — and, once licensed, its expiry date. Paste the licence code you received after purchase into the box below the table and click Activate: a code activates the module it was issued for, or a Suite code activates every module at once. Licence codes are available at gheanalysis.com. The licence is validated online each time the software starts; a short offline grace period keeps a previously activated licence working if no connection is available, after which the module falls back to demonstration mode.

A first interpretation - The workflow follows the analysis tree from top to bottom. Each node shows the inputs and charts for that stage; you can move between them in any order, and every change updates the results immediately.

1. Project description — enter the client, project and test details.
2. Thermal response test data — import the 4-column .csv file, set the sampling period and low-pass filter, then select the test phases with the dual-range slider.
3. Undisturbed temperature — determine T_g (manual input, circulation phase or vertical profile). Loading a dataset selects the circulation phase for you, since that method reads T_g from the measurements themselves.
4. Test borehole — describe the instrumented borehole (H, borehole and pipe diameters, λ_p, λ_g) and review the resistance breakdown (R_f, R_p, R_g) computed at the operating point of the test.
5. Heat carrier fluid — select the fluid and antifreeze concentration used during the test, then read the Reynolds number of each phase to confirm the flow stayed turbulent.
6. First-order approximation — fit the heating-phase regression, and the recovery-phase regression when the test carries one, to obtain λ_s and R_b^*.
7. Short-term g-function — refine the estimate by adjusting the calibration sliders and minimizing the RMSE.

At any step, the help button gives guidance on the current panel, and the same content forms the chapters of this manual.

The three pages of the console, on the right, report the results of each stage as it is set up: the phase statistics together with the undisturbed temperatures, then the regression results, then the calibrated short-term g-function parameters. TRT data and Undisturbed temperature bring up the same first page; FOA model and Short-term g-function each bring up their own. Saving the project also writes the two result files alongside it.

Panel layout and interaction - The module reuses the resizable split layout of the suite. Drag the dividers between panes to give more room to whichever element you are reviewing, typically the charts while a phase boundary is being placed, or the raw-data table while the record is being checked. This is particularly useful when working on a single screen. As elsewhere in the suite, numerical fields respond to the mouse wheel and to the ↑ / ↓ keys as well as to typing.

Three interactions belong to this module. The dual-range sliders are refined from the keyboard, one sample at a time: click the slider that holds keyboard focus, then press Q or E to move the start of its window and A or D to move its end; on the Thermal response test data panel, clicking anywhere on the panel is enough. The charts can be zoomed by dragging a selection rectangle with the mouse, or with the mouse wheel about the cursor, to inspect a boundary closely; the Restore View button of the main toolbar returns every TRT chart to its full extent at once. Zooming changes the view only, never the data a regression uses. And hovering any curve or histogram bar shows a tooltip with the value under the cursor, named and with its unit; the Toggle tooltips on or off button of the main toolbar suppresses them when they get in the way of reading the curves themselves.