ORCmKit: an open-source library for organic Rankine cycle modelling and analysis

As for many other technologies, modelling and simulation of organic Rankine cycles (ORCs) are crucial for design, optimization and control purposes. However, model development is often time consuming and the scientific community lacks of open-access tools to study ORC systems. For these reasons, researchers from the universities of Liège and Ghent in Belgium gathered their knowledge and created “ORC modelling Kit” (ORCmKit), an open-source library dedicated to the steady-state simulation and analysis of organic Rankine cycles. Both component-level and cycle-level models are provided and different ORC architectures can be simulated. For each of the main component of ORC systems, different models are available with increasing complexity which allows a wide range of modelling possibilities. In order to remain general and accessible to as many people as possible, three widely used programming languages are covered within ORCmKit, i.e. Matlab, Python and EES (Engineering Equation Solver). Besides source codes, ORCmKit also includes calibration tools for empirical and semi-empirical models as well as a complete documentation for ease of use.