Computer-Aided Analyses and Optimisation of Fluid-Thermal Systems Using Excel

Computer-Aided Analyses

Abstract

With its wide availability on personal computers, Excel has been used as a graphical or computational tool in various engineering courses. Numerous papers on the use of Excel as a teaching aid have also been published in relevant journals or presented at specialised conferences over the past two decades. However, most of the previous experiences and efforts, if not all, focus on a particular type of analyses or a particular feature of Excel and do not utilise the full capability of Excel as an effective educational modelling platform. Moreover, the relevant papers are written in the form of short research articles and do not describe a general approach or provide sufficient information for using Excel as a modelling platform for the various types and levels of thermofluid analyses. This book complements the previous efforts in this regard by first describing an Excel-based modelling platform that is adequate for conducting various types of computer-aided thermofluid analyses and then showing how the platform can be used to deal with each type of these analyses.