The application of spreadsheets to the analysis and optimization of systems and processes in the teaching of hydraulic and thermal engineering

This article shows the capability of current spreadsheets to define, analyze and optimize models of systems and processes. Specifically, the Microsoft spreadsheet Excel is used, with its built-in solver, to analyze and to optimize systems and processes of medium complexity, whose mathematical models are expressed by means of nonlinear systems of equations. Two hydraulic and thermal engineering-based application examples are presented, respectively: the analysis and optimization of vapor power cycles, and the analysis and design of piping networks. The mathematical models of these examples have been implemented in Excel and have been solved with the solver. For the power cycles, the thermodynamic properties of water have been calculated by means of the add-in TPX (Thermodynamic Properties for Excel). Performance and optimum designs are presented in cases studies, according to the optimization criteria of maximum efficiency for the power cycle and minimum cost for the piping networks.