Overview

Most engineering companies don’t let their employees download software that can help them perform their tasks quicker onto their workstations without consulting their IT departments. This is why Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool that an engineer can use. It allows engineers to create calculators to help them perform repetitive calculations quickly and are less prone to errors. So I decided to create an Excel calculator that helps an engineer calculate the heat transfer of planar walls and pipe walls more quickly.

The calculator assumes 1D heat transfer through walls and pipes and steady state heat transfer conditions are met. The user inputs two initial conditions. Either the power of the heat source and one temperature reading of either side of the wall, or the delta temperature from the two sides of the wall.  The user then inputs the overall dimension of the length, width, and height of the boundary conditions. The user can choose from SI or U.S. customary units by clicking on the dropdown. The user then inputs the boundary conditions for each element and the heat transfer mode. The elements can be modeled either in series or in parallel. 

The results for the heat transfer, heat flux, temperature readings, and delta temperature are calculated. The temperature between each layer is also calculated and graphed.