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Welcome on the Thermoptim-UNIT portal

Last modified: 12/18/2008 05:17 PM

Welcome,

 

You are a mere visitor discovering this portal. You will find numerous numerical resources for learning energy powered systems. You can also learn to use a software application which is dedicated to simulate various facilities, from the simplest to the more sophisticated ones.

 

You can even download extracts (in french) from the book « Energy powered systems » (« Systèmes énergétiques ») published by our editor (Les Presses de l'Ecole des Mines de Paris).

 

It is important that you first read the presentation pages explaining the basic functionalities and then to quickly look at the sections. But you may prefer to read additional informations on Thermoptim given further on downward this page.

 

Please note that this software application is not only an educational software : it is used by various manufacturers. Because actually, this software application can run powerful algorithms based on the pinch method.

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Sections of the portal

 

You should be concerned mostly by four sections, there is in them a series of thematic pages with an overall view of each subject. These pages are on one hand a rough introduction to powered energy systems and on the other hand are linked to various educational activities (on-line course, exercises ..)

 

 

When reading these sections, you will have a short and clear view of the whole course as if you were reading the summary of a book, with this additional possibility : you may get access to a short view of each described subject.

 

« Basis of thermodynamics » presents, as its title shows it, the theoretical basis of thermodynamics.

 

« Methodological guides » gives access to various indications on how to deal with some difficulties which arise when calculating energy systems.

 

« Technology » gathers rough presentations of the main technologies used in the energy powered systems.  This section is related to the following distinct sub-sections :

  • The components of a system (compressors, turbines, combustion chambers ...)
  • The complete systems (gas turbine, spark ignition and diesel engines, steam powered station ...)

 

Global problems is related to the major energy problems throughout the world.

  • Energy at the macro-economic level (the paths for energy, economic accounting and energy accounting ...)
  • The geopolitical aspects (i.e. the world situation on energy, the problem of energy in the developing countries, the question of reserves and resources, the energy markets).

 

The two others sections are the following :

 

« Education» is divided into two sub-sections :

  • The first one presents the pedagogy of thermodynamics such as we recommend it.
  • The second gives access to on-line resources, and among them to the whole set of Diapason sessions to be used for distance training.

 

« Software applications » is dedicated for one part to the Thermoptim application, and for another part to software tools with which you may build up and carry out some Diapason sessions. These two sub-sections are proposed with a presentation related to each software application tool, and also with some documentation and various resources.

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 Presentation of Thermoptim

 

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Thermoptim is a software which allows students to learn thermodynamics without trouble: in parallel to or even before the presentation of the theoretical bases, they can make very practical exercises on real machines applications, such as the study of a refrigerator or an electricity plant... As the students’ knowledge is limited, this training must be as easy as possible. To motivate them, the results obtained must be realistic.

 

Thanks to its thermodynamic function libraries, Thermoptim allows one to graphically model simple or complex energy technologies without writing a single equation, and to get very accurate results which can be visually displayed in different ways. It is in particular possible to get rid of the very limitative hypothesis of the perfect gas, and to use real fluid models.

 

Should you wish to get used to this software package, then you may find, in a typical Diapason module (in french), the presentation sessions for Thermoptim and some exercises for getting accustomed to this software application.

 

You should also be aware that the capacity of Thermoptim for solving problems by far exceeds the abilities of a single engineer with his own models. Similarly, please note that the capacity for solving problems exceeds also the possibilities of the same engineer. Indeed a lot of knowledge is built in it.

 

Please note that Thermoptim is available in seven languages, should you wish to work in a different language than the french one.
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