user interface

SteamTab™ User Interface

SteamTab Menu

As an add-in package to your spreadsheet application, SteamTab quietly becomes a part of your spreadsheet. You only see it when you need to use it.

There are a number of way you can access the rich functionality offered by this unique package. If you are comfortable in using spreadsheet functions, then you can access the SteamTab Functions directly in your spreadsheet. If you are not familiar with the syntax of the SteamTab Functions, then you can use the SteamTab Dialogs, accessible from the spreadsheets Tools menu (Excel users) or the SteamTab menu (Lotus users). From the SteamTab menu you gain access to all of the features of SteamTab.

Figure 1a: SteamTab Menu in Excel (click to see image).
Figure 1b: SteamTab Menu in Lotus (click to see image).

The SteamTab pop-up menu contains the following menu items:

• Saturated
  Selecting this menu item brings up the saturated steam properties dialog box which helps you obtain saturated vapor or liquid steam properties, or two-phase steam properties.
• Superheated/Subcooled
  The menu item displays the dialog box for obtaining supercritical or subcooled steam properties. This dialog box is also used for constant property processes, such as, isenthalpic, isentropic, constant volume, etc. SteamTab uses a highly efficient iterative search algorithm to quickly calculate all constant-process properties.
• Constant Properties
  Selecting this menu item brings up the constant properties dialog box which you can use to select the required constant steam property.
• Options
  This menu item allows you to select the units and other configuration options. You can access the options from any of the SteamTab dialog boxes.
• Help
  Provides you with easy access to online help.
• About SteamTab
  Gives you information regarding the version of SteamTab installed on your machine.

Based on the input information you provide, the SteamTab Dialogs will actually write the correct function with the right arguments in the output cell you specify. You can then copy and paste this result anywhere in your spreadsheet.

For example, Figure 2 below shows the saturated properties dialog that you can use to obtain the saturated vapor or liquid properties.

Figure 2: Saturated Properties Dialog (Excel Example)

To obtain superheated or subcooled steam properties, you use the Superheated/Subcooled SteamTab Dialog, as shown in Figure 3 below. Using this powerful mechanism, you can obtain superheated or subcooled steam properties at any for the two specified independent variables:

• Specified: Temperature and Pressure
• Specified: Temperature and Specific Volume
• Specified: Temperature and Entropy
• Specified: Temperature and Enthalpy
• Specified: Temperature and Internal Energy
• Specified: Pressure and Specific Volume
• Specified: Pressure and Entropy
• Specified: Pressure and Enthalpy
• Specified: Pressure and Internal Energy

Figure 3: The Superheated/Subcooled Dialog Lotus 1-2-3 Example)

Above all, you can use the power of the spreadsheet itself to create your own imaginative solutions to steam related problems. SteamTab is fully compatible with all of the spreadsheet features, such as:

• Copy and paste
• Goal seek
• Solver (for minimization calculations)
• Array or matrix operations