5. Conclusion

After recalling how real fluids can be put into equations and analyzing the precautions to be taken when choosing a model, this article presented a series of thermodynamics software packages used in practice. These software tools can be used to calculate the thermodynamic state of a fluid over a wide range of its state variables.

Most existing software packages can now be run on microcomputers, making them increasingly widely available.

Depending on the case, the software packages available are either general-purpose or dedicated to a given application. The former are generally more powerful, but require more advanced thermodynamic skills on the part of the user than the latter, which are designed to meet a specific need.

This article selects those that seem most interesting, the main criteria being their potential...