pyCaRM

pyCaRM (CApacity Resistance Model) is a Python library for the simulation of borehole heat exchanger (BHE) systems. It models the transient thermal response of the ground and borehole, supporting single and multi-borehole configurations with surface boundary conditions.

📖 Documentation: https://betalab-team.github.io/pyCaRM/

Features

• Single and multi-borehole field configurations
• Supported BHE types: single U-tube, double U-tube, coaxial, helical
• Ground stratification support
• Surface boundary conditions (solar radiation, sky radiation, convection)
• Voronoi-based field decomposition for multi-borehole layouts
• Finite Line Source (FLS) thermal interference model
• Parallel and series borehole connection modes
• Heat flux mode: drive the simulation from a heat pump-side thermal load and supply temperature, with heat pump COP/EER performance accounted for
• Time-variable grout thermophysical properties driven by soil moisture content (irrigation input)

Installation

Install from PyPI:

pip install pyCaRM-BHE

Alternatively, clone the repository and install from source:

git clone https://github.com/BETALAB-team/pyCaRM.git
cd pyCaRM
pip install .

Developers:

git clone https://github.com/BETALAB-team/pyCaRM.git
cd pyCaRM
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Optional Dependencies

• CoolProp — for computing fluid thermophysical properties. Install with pip install pyCaRM-BHE[coolprop]. See Fluid Properties for usage.

Documentation

Full documentation is available at https://betalab-team.github.io/pyCaRM/.

Examples

Complete working scripts for all supported configurations are available in the examples/ folder. See also the documentation for detailed usage guides.

• SingleUtube_multi_parallel.py — multi-borehole field, parallel mode
• SingleUtube_multi_series.py — multi-borehole field, series mode
• SingleUtube_multi_series_heat_flux.py — multi-borehole field, series mode, heat flux (COP/EER) mode
• SingleUtube.py — single borehole, single U-tube
• DoubleUtube.py — single borehole, double U-tube
• Coaxial.py — single borehole, coaxial
• Helical.py — single borehole, helical
• Helical_variable_properties.py — single borehole, helical, time-variable grout properties from soil moisture

Authors

Developed at BETALAB – Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova.

• Alessio Tollin
• Angelo Zarrella

Citation

If you use CaRM in your research, please cite:

[Citation will be added after publication]

The models and methods CaRM builds on are listed in the References page of the documentation.

License

MIT License — see LICENSE for details.