Computer analytics for thermalhydraulics

The development of an interactive software tool, EQNWRITE, to help in the setup and manipulation of engineering mass, momentum and energy equations, is discussed. This software is a building tool for building mathematical models of process systems. For a given problem, EQNWRITE enables the user to interactively derive and simplify the governing equations in the desired reference frame and coordinate system. At the user's request, specified mathematical transformations are performed automatically and resulting equations are displayed. EQNWRITE allows the user to better perceive the physical significance of each term in the symbolic mathematical equations, which describe the dominant properties of a system, as they are being derived and simplified, while leaving the detailed mathematical transformations to the computer. EQNWRITE was programmed in the symbol manipulation language, MUSIMP and developed using some of the capabilities of the microcomputer based computer algebra system, MUMATH. Major programming features and capabilities of MUSIMP and MUMATH are briefly reviewed, followed by a discussion of the specific automatic transformations implemented in EQNWRITE. Finally, engineering examples are given showing the use of the transformation functions and operators.