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Steam and water properties software is quite common now and easily available from the Internet and other vendors. Most of such software are standalone in nature and generally do not require other engines for running. But the Excel add-in for steam and water properties gives more benefits since they not only provide all the functionalities but also come as a very handy tool for heat/power engineers due to the built-in power of Excel.
In the environment of Excel, the user can process the steam and water properties output for subsequent calculations, optimization, plotting, use of solver functions, heat balancing etc. Truly speaking the flexibility and possibilities of using the steam properties Excel add-in functions for further engineering and scientific calculations are almost unlimited and truly depend upon the skill and imagination of the user.
It is easy to procure steam and water properties Excel add-in software through Internet but all of them do not provide same range of functionalities. The first important aspect of such add-in software is to check that how many functions are available. Next item to examine is the input requirements, which should be versatile and preferably require minimum number of input covering the entire range of wet, saturated and superheated zones in a broad manner. Another item to look at is the choice of units. In general both SI and FPS units are required as add-ins as both of them become necessary in these days of globalization.
Review of add-in programs available over Internet suggests that most of them, though sold at a reasonable price, provides only limited number of functions and are available only in SI units. Few of them are available in British or FPS units. Many of the add-ins covers only direct functions of IAWPS-97 and only very few of them provide reverse functions, which are extremely useful at times.
Hence as conclusion it is suggested that while choosing a steam water properties Excel add-in software, the thermodynamic and heat power engineers must evaluate the availability of number of functions, units of choice, capability of handling reverse functions and the corresponding price. To know more on Excel add-in for steam and water properties please visit http://www.steam-water-properties.com/ The author is a mechanical engineer from Calcutta University and has more than 30 years experience in power plant engineering. He has been developing engineering software for regular use for the last 15 years. Read his article Software For Steam And Water Properties and visit http://www.steam-water-properties.com/ |