Software : CyclePad, construct and learn about thermodynamic cycles

This is an old software but this is very useful. Through using CyclePad I can build and practice my design skills and learn how to reason about thermodynamic cycles. A thermodynamic cycle is a collection of components which either takes in heat and produces energy, or takes in work and produces some transfer of heat, perhaps as a refrigerator or as a heat pump. Examples of thermodynamic cycles include power plants, refrigerators, propulsion plants, and engines. CyclePad helps you:

• Specify the structure of your design , in terms of the parts of the cycle and how they are connected together.
• Analyze your design, by figuring out the consequences of assumptions you make about it. Such assumptions include numerical values, e.g. operating temperatures and pressures, and modeling assumptions, e.g., whether or not to consider a turbine as isentropic.
• Perform sensitivity analyses to understand how different choices of your design contribute to its performance. For example, CyclePad can figure out how the efficiency of a system changes as a function of other parameters, such as a turbine inlet temperature.

CyclePad is the first articulate virtual laboratory the Qualitative Reasoning Group has implemented. CyclePad enables students to construct and analyze a wide variety of thermodynamic cycles. A hypertext explanation facility provides the student with access to the chain of reasoning underlying the derivation of each value. CyclePad is currently being field-tested in undergraduate engineering classes at Northwestern University, The U.S. Naval Academy, and Oxford University.

CyclePad performs steady-state analyses of both open and closed cycles.Steady-state analyses provide the kind of initial guidance needed in conceptual design, because in the conceptual design of thermodynamic cycles the important questions concern the operating conditions and estimates of efficiency and cooling/heating/power produced by the cycle.

CyclePad works in two phases, build mode and analyze mode. In the first phase (build), you use a graphical editor to place components and connect them with stuffs. A thermodynamic cycle consists of a collection of components connected together in some appropriate fashion. The components CyclePad knows about include compressors, turbines, heaters, coolers, pumps, mixers, splitters, throttles, and heat exchangers. CyclePad describes connections in terms of the properties of the material at the connection, that is, the properties of the stuff that is flowing between the components.

Simple Rankine Cycle

In the above diagram, for example, you will see that there are four components: a heater, a turbine, a cooler, and a pump. These components are connected via four stuffs, S1, S2, S3, and S4. The major source of information about the cycle is the set of parameters associated with each stuff and each component. CyclePad knows what parameters are associated with each component and with each stuff. It knows that the set of what parameters are relevant can vary; when a stuff is saturated, for example, its dryness (quality) becomes relevant, and a turbine which is not approximated as isentropic requires some specification of its presumed efficiency. Part of your job as a designer is selecting numerical values and modeling assumptions to see if a particular design can satisfy your performance criteria (e.g., desired work output, efficiency, etc.)

Source/References : Northwestern University- CyclePad

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CYCLEPAD.RAR