digital tools and references
Steam Properties Capability: Steam Properties Calculations computes the properties of steam at saturation temperatures as well as at different temperatures and pressures. Required input includes temperature, pressure (if not saturated), and flow. The program calculates the following properties: pressure (if saturated), specific heat, dynamic viscosity, thermal conductivity, Prandtl number, specific volume, density, enthalpy, and entropy. The results can be displayed, printed, or saved on disk.

Hardware: IBM-compatible PC.

Developer: International Business Systems, Engineering Division, 4135 S. Adell Ave., Box 510496, New Berlin, WI 53151-0496; (414) 797-9871; fax (414) 797-8609; e-mail kishor1@ix.netcom.com.

Cost: $49.

CFD for Designers Capability: CFD2000 for Windows is a computational-fluid-dynamics (CFD) program for aerodynamics; electronics cooling; chemical and combustion processes; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning; and environmental and metallurgical applications. It includes all features provided by the workstation and supercomputer versions of CFD2000. The program is appropriate for design engineers who want to learn CFD technology using the hardware that they already have. (A credit will be applied for PC licenses to users who wish to upgrade to the workstation or supercomputer version.) The program also serves as an upgrade from the DOS version of CFD2000.

CFD2000 for Windows includes an automatic mesh generator, full three-dimensional turbulent Navier-Stokes equation solvers, and advanced visualization tools. The program checks for errors automatically and guides users through the input of geometry elements, the distribution of the numerical grid, and the designation of boundary and initial conditions as well as solution-control parameters.

The foundation of the program is a powerful 3-D Storm viscous-flow solver. CFD2000 for Windows provides a conservative finite-volume formulation, body-fitted coordinates, collocated grids, high-order differencing schemes, and user-accessible source code. Flow-visualization features include cutting planes, isosurfaces, data probes, particle tracking, profile plots, and key-frame animation. The program offers the following postprocessing tools: Data Visualizer from Wavefront Technologies, Fieldview from Intelligent Light, and Tecplot from Amtec Engineering.

Hardware: IBM-compatible Pentium PC with a Microsoft FORTRAN PowerStation compiler, 32 MB of RAM (64 MB recommended), and 40 MB of free hard-disk space (500 MB recommended), running Windows NT 3.5.1 (with Service Pack 3) or Windows 95.

Developer: Adaptive Research, 4960 Corporate Drive, Suite 100-A, Huntsville, AL 35805; (205) 830-2620; fax (205) 830-2628; e-mail sales@arc-cfd.com.

Cost: Starts at $9,995.

Heat-Transfer Tutor Capability: Heat Transfer helps engineering students improve their understanding of heat transfer. It solves conduction, convection, and radiation problems like those encountered in undergraduate heat-transfer textbooks. Conduction problems include equivalent circuit analysis for either composite walls or cylinders, analysis of rectangular or circular cross-section fins, and numerical analysis. The numerical-analysis option solves two-dimensional steady-state or transient problems for plates and cylinders. Users can also solve a known system of equations by inputting the augmented matrix into the program’s spreadsheet.

Convection problems that can be solved with the program include flow over a flat plate or through a tube. The radiation section solves gray- or black-body enclosure problems using matrix techniques. A maximum of 30 surfaces can be solved. The user inputs the shape factors, emissivities, and either the known surface temperature or heat flux. The program will solve for radiosity, irradiation, unknown temperatures, and the net heat-transfer rate. Hardware: IBM-compatible 386 or higher PC with an SVGA monitor, operating in Windows 3.1 or later.

Developer: ADJ Engineering, 929 Glenn Ave., North Brunswick, NJ 08902; (908) 247-6017.

Cost: $49.

Automated Service Management Capability: ServiceWorks automates heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning service-management functions, such as entering service calls, dispatching, invoicing and costing, and tracking maintenance agreements and parts inventory. Service histories can be maintained for each specific location and for each piece of equipment.

ServiceWorks can be integrated with flat-rate pricing software from Callahan/Roach, Maio Marketing Systems, and other vendors, so parts used during a service call can be identified without including parts information when printing the customer’s invoice. It also works with accounting programs from Great Plains, Peachtree, Quickbooks, and others. Hardware: IBM-compatible PC running Windows 3.1 or later.

Developer: H2 Software, 5500 Oakbrook Pkwy., Suite 290, Norcross, GA 30093; (800) 476-2796; World Wide Web http://www.h2software.com.

Cost: Starts at $2,500.

Electronics- Cooling CFD Software Capability: Coolit is computational-fluid-dynamics (CFD) software that performs thermal analyses of electronic equipment. The program, designed to evaluate what-if scenarios quickly and easily, features an object-based graphic user interface that enables users to interactively create, assemble, and package electronic components. The software generates grids automatically.

Coolit’s solver is based on the finite-volume method, and provides four turbulence models and a radiation model. It requires the input of only one parameter: the desired solution accuracy. An analysis’s convergence history is continuously updated in a solution-monitor window. Computed results can be viewed in an interactive graphics window. On-screen rotation, zoom -in and -out, and creation of new cross sections are controlled by point-and-click operations, helping users identify problem areas quickly and easily.

Hardware: IBM-compatible 486 PC or higher running Windows NT or Windows 95. Developer: Daat Research Corp., P.O. Box 5484, Hanover, NH 03755-5484; (603) 448-1302; e-mail sales@daat.com; World Wide Web http://www.daat.com.

Cost: Starts at $8,000.

Engineering Graphics Capability: Axum is a technical graphics and data-analysis program that produces publication-quality graphic output. Users create graphs by dragging and dropping data from any OLE 2Ðcompliant application. A wide range of two- and three-dimensional graphs can be produced, including 3-D surface meshes, linear and nonlinear curve-fitting graphs, automatic error bars, and color-filled contours. Axum graphs can be embedded into almost any word processing or presentation document.

Axum integrates seamlessly with MathSoft’s Mathcad program, enabling users to create Axum graphs within Mathcad 6.0 using Mathcad data. The graph automatically updates data whenever they change. Mathcad’s “live” document interface integrates text calculations and graphs. Results can then be documented and shared via the program’s World Wide Web or Lotus Notes links.

Hardware: IBM-compatible PC running Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT, or Windows 95.

Developer: MathSoft Inc., 101 Main St., Cambridge, MA 02142; (617) 577-1017; fax (617) 577-8829; World Wide Web http://www.mathsoft.com.

Cost: $349.95.

Fabrication Library Capability: The Library of Mechanical Design Programs includes 100 programs that serve as design aids for a wide variety of fabrication operations. There are aids for beams, columns, concrete structures, conveyors, cyclones, ducts, fans, fins, flanges, frames, gaskets, hydraulic systems, joists, journals, screws, shafts, springs, stairs, vessels, and many other types of equipment. Each interactive program includes the references and equation equations used, common materials and coefficients, and design advice and warnings.

Hardware: IBM-compatible 286 PC or later with 2 MB of RAM running DOS or Windows.

Developer: PC Fab Shop, Inc., P.O. Box 135, Crothersville, IN 47229; fax (812) 794-3220.

Cost: $245 per seat.

Designing Thermal Systems Capability: Thermoflex enables users to create models of thermal systems, including gas turbines, steam turbines, combined-cycle power plants, refrigeration systems, and coal-gasification systems. Plant models can be created by selecting from a library of component types, positioning them in arbitrary locations on the screen, and making the necessary connections to create a flow sheet.

Application-specific programs are available for creating a subset of a general plant model including all likely features and component combinations in a particular plant type. Links between the programs and Thermoflex allow users to save setup time by starting the latter from cycles designed with the application-specific programs. After a system has been designed, it can be transferred into Thermoflex for modification.

Hardware: IBM-compatible 486DX PC or higher (or 486 PC with math coprocessor) with 8 MB of RAM, 5 MB of free hard-disk space, and color graphics card, running Windows 3.1 or later.

Developer: Thermoflow Inc., 888 Worcester St., Wellesley, MA 02181; (617) 237-5573; fax (617) 237-5621.

Cost: $16,000 for a perpetual license.

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