Wow, a lot more interest in this than I thought.
As I said in the other thread, I'm not at all qualified to design the user interface for something like this. (And what's being discussed is a lot more elaborate than I'd envisioned.)
I'd prefer to start off relatively simple with a well designed architecture that would allow the addtion of features later. Something like the
Kryotherm TEC software where you can click on icons to bring up a 'subcalculator' and fill in the details. These 'subcalculators' could be added at a later date. I'm afraid that if the plan were too grand from the start, the project would die from participant burnout.
gmat,
As I said in the other thread, I'm not at all qualified to work on the user interface. It sounds like you are very well qualified for that, and even if you don't have time to do much coding for something like this, you could be a lot of help in designing a good architecture.
I can work on coding component models and the simulation itself in C. Would there be problems with accessing a C module from XML. I know absolutely nothing about XML.
What form do you see the component models taking? I'd envisioned defining a C function for each component. You'd pass a flowrate to each function and it would return a dP. (and C/W if applicable.) Not the most convenient scheme for adding models I imagine.
jaydee,
I think that if this thing got off the ground, it wouldn't take long to get around the forums that it was here. The people who really wanted to look before they leaped would find it fairly quickly. I would like to see the simulator allow for fan selection, but I think leaving that until after the 'wet side' was done, would increase the odds of something useful being completed.
Bill,
I'm not sure anyone has the 'stamina' to do the whole job by themselves, but with a good overall architecture, the job can be broken up into reasonable chunks and hopefully people willing and qualified will take on the subtasks. It may be possible to recruit some people who do not hang out here. Macklin over at oc-forums offered to do some coding when I was working on a TEC simulator. (Shortly afterwards I discovered the Kryotherm simulator and lost interest in reinventing the wheel.)
I'll contact JoeK about setting up a "WC calculator" topic. Definitely a good idea to keep everything in one easy to find place.
Alchemy,
You're over my head. I had pictured finding the intersection of the pump, and system PQ curves with a search algorithm:
1)Find the dP of the pump at X lpm and the sum of the dP's of the components at X lpm.
2a)If pump dP is greater than component-sum dP double the flowrate.
2b)Else halve the flowrate.
Repeat until desired accuracy is reached.
(Not well stated, but you probably see what I mean.)
There may well be much better methods. I don't claim any expertise in this stuff at all. From my own fiddling around, I've seen that even crude techniques can yield useful insight into the system interactions. I'm definitely interested in algorithms that simplify the coding.