pygfunction 1.0.0rc4

A g-function calculator for Python

# pygfunction: A g-function calculator for Python

[](https://travis-ci.org/MassimoCimmino/pygfunction)

## What is pygfunction?

pygfunction is a Python module for the calculation of thermal response factors, or g-functions, for fields of geothermal boreholes. g-functions form the basis of many simulation and sizing programs for geothermal heat pump systems. g-Functions are superimposed in time to predict fluid and ground temperatures in these systems.

At its core, pygfunction relies on the analytical finite line source solution to evaluate the thermal interference between boreholes in the same bore field. This allows for the very fast calculation of g-functions, even for very large bore fields with hundreds of boreholes.

Using pygfunction, g-functions can be calculated for any bore field configuration (i.e. arbitrarily positionned in space), including fields of boreholes with individually different lengths and radiuses. For regular fields of boreholes of equal size, setting-up the calculation of the g-function is as simple as a few lines of code. For example, the code for the calculation of the g-function of a 10 x 10 square array of boreholes (100 boreholes total):

`python time = [(i+1)*3600. for i in range(24)] # Calculate hourly for one day boreField = gt.boreholes.rectangle_field(N_1=10, N_2=10, B_1=7.5, B_2=7.5, H=150., D=4., r_b=0.075) gFunc = gt.gfunction.uniform_temperature(boreField, time, alpha=1.0e-6) `

Once the g-function is evaluated, pygfunction provides tools to predict borehole temperature variations (using load aggregation methods) and to evaluate fluid temperatures in the boreholes for several U-tube pipe configurations.

## Requirements

pygfunction was developed and tested using Python 2.7. In addition, the following packages are needed to run pygfunction and its examples: - matplotlib (>= 1.5.3), required for the examples - numpy (>= 1.11.3) - scipy (>= 1.0.0)

The documentation is generated using [Sphinx](http://www.sphinx-doc.org). The following packages are needed to build the documentation: - sphinx (>= 1.5.1) - numpydoc (>= 0.6.0)

## Quick start

Users - [Download the latest release](https://github.com/MassimoCimmino/pygfunction/releases).

Developers - To get the latest version of the code, you can [download the repository from github](https://github.com/MassimoCimmino/pygfunction) or clone the project in a local directory using git:

` git clone https://github.com/MassimoCimmino/pygfunction.git `

Once pygfunction is copied to a local directory, you can verify that it is working properly by running the examples in pygfunction/examples/.

## Documentation

pygfunction’s documentation is hosted on [ReadTheDocs](https://pygfunction.readthedocs.io).

## Contributing to pygfunction

You can report bugs and propose enhancements on the [issue tracker](https://github.com/MassimoCimmino/pygfunction/issues).

To contribute code to pygfunction, follow the [contribution workflow](CONTRIBUTING.md).

## License

pygfunction is licensed under the terms of the 3-clause BSD-license. See [pygfunction license](LICENSE.md).