1. Software package categories

Thermodynamics software tools fall into three broad categories.

– Fluid property calculators, sometimes called property servers, are distinguished by the number of fluids offered, the accuracy of calculations, the independent variables accepted, the user-friendliness of their interface...

– Component calculation tools can be used to dimension the unit operations undergone by fluids (compression, expansion, combustion, etc.). Not only do they incorporate fluid property calculators, they can also take into account the characteristics of an industrial component (isentropic or polytropic efficiency of a compressor, etc.) to determine the final state of the fluid passing through it.

– The third category of tools corresponds to generic modeling environments, which can be used to assemble component models to form complex...