Getting Started 🧑‍🎓

Get Access to Grøft Design^®

Grøft Design^® is a subscription-based web application. To obtain a license contact us.

If your organization have licenses to Grøft Design^®, the organization’s administrator can assign a license to you. Please note that the license is personal.

Start Your First Project

Visit the project overview page to create a new project. Simply fill in the required project details, and you’ll be ready to start.

Note that you can also manage the componets in Grøft Design^® and create new cables, pipes and time series for your project if needed.

Trench cross-section and Simulation Section

The user interface of Grøft Design® is divided in two sections, “Trench cross-section” and “Simulation”. The design of the trench and adding of cables, among other things, is done in the “Trench cross-section”, while the simulation of different scenarios is performed in the “Simulation” section.

Trench Cross-section

In this section, the trench is designed. After adding the trench contents, it is possible to change the thermal resistivity in the different trench zones. The shield/sheath-bonding system of the cables is also selected in this section.

Create a Trench Segment

Projects are composed of various trench segments, each representing a 2D cross-section of the trench. By entering the length of the trench segment, you can obtain an accurate estimate of masses and materials within it.

Design Your Trench Section

Upon creating the trench segment, you will enter the section designer. Here, you can add cables, pipes, concrete duct banks and other materials. You can also experiment with different conditions for the surrounding masses.

Often the thermal resistivtity in the conductor zone will be worse than 1 mK/W, for example if you have dry out. In Grøft Design^® you can quickly run simulations of different soil conditions.

When adding cables you can pick one of your favorite cables or choose among an extensive cable library by using the search button.

Simulation

In this section the different simulations are performed. There are several types of simulation available in Grøft Design® and one has to be selected when creating a scenario:

Steady State

The simplest type of scenario, with the fastest simulation. It shows how conditions will stabilize if they last indefinitely. If maximum current load is used, this will give a conservative estimate of the current carrying capacity.

Cyclic Load

A time analysis where all loads repeat in fixed cycles. The simulation result will show what each cycle looks like after the system has stabilized over time.

Cyclic Load, 24h

A variation of cyclic load where the period is fixed to 24h and only the current load is variable. This opens up the use of load factors according to IEC 60853 if one does not have access to complete load profiles. When using load factors the simulation result will be limited to the maximum temperature during a stabilized cycle.

Variable Load

A general time analysis, which can be used if none of the more specific scenario types cover the need. For example, for emergency loads, short-circuit currents or non-cyclical loads.

Results

Tutorial video of the result page:

Export Report

Once satisfied with the project, export results for a single trench segment or multiple segments. Customize the exported values to include specific details.

Export single trench segment:

Export project: