Utility modules#

The props module#

The props module in antupy provides a library of thermophysical properties for various fluids and materials. For all materials it allows users to easily access and utilize properties such as density, specific heat, and thermal conductivity. For fluids, specifically, it also includes properties like viscosity, enthalpy, etc.

All properties are returned as Var objects with appropriate units, making them compatible with the unit-aware calculation framework. The module includes materials such as molten salts (SolarSalt, Carbo), metals (Aluminium, Copper, StainlessSteel), and various fluids (water, air, CO2, thermal oils).

Using Material Properties#

Materials provide basic thermophysical properties like density, specific heat, and thermal conductivity. Here’s an example using copper:

from antupy.props import Copper
from antupy import Var

# Create material instance
copper = Copper()

# Get properties at a specific temperature
T = Var(400, "K")
density = copper.rho(T)
specific_heat = copper.cp(T)
conductivity = copper.k(T)

print(density)        # e.g., 8900.0 [kg/m3]
print(specific_heat)  # e.g., 385.0 [J/kg-K]
print(conductivity)   # e.g., 398.0 [W/m-K]

Using Fluid Properties#

Fluids offer additional properties like viscosity. Example with saturated water:

from antupy.props import SaturatedWater
from antupy import Var

# Create fluid instance
water = SaturatedWater()

# Get properties at saturation conditions
T = Var(373.15, "K")  # 100°C

# Thermophysical properties
density = water.rho(T)
specific_heat = water.cp(T)
viscosity = water.mu(T)
thermal_conductivity = water.k(T)

# Dimensionless numbers
prandtl = (specific_heat * viscosity / thermal_conductivity)

print(f"Density: {density:.1f}")
print(f"Enthalpy: {specific_heat:.1f}")
print(f"Prandtl number: {prandtl:.3f}")

For complete API documentation of all available materials and fluids, see the API reference.

The htc library#

Warning

This a very limited initial version of this module. Only a couple of correlations are presented as example. It is expected to implemented a wider range of correlations in future expansions.

The htc module provides a collection of functions to estimate convective heat transfer coefficients. The source are diverse of heat transfer textbooks. It includes other functions for useful correlations (such as sky temperature approximation). Results are in SI units, returned as Var, with its unit as W/m2-K. The available functions so far are:

  • antupy.htc.temp_sky_simplest() — Approximate sky temperature as T_sky = T_amb - 15 K.

  • antupy.htc.h_horizontal_surface_upper_hot() — Natural convection on an upper hot horizontal plate (Holman or Nellis-Klein correlations).

  • antupy.htc.h_ext_flat_plate() — External forced convection over a flat plate (transition-aware).

Examples of usage: