A common misperception about CAPE-OPEN interface specifications and especially the Thermodynamic and Physical Properties interface specification, either in version 1.0 or version 1.1, is that these specifications are complex and consequently difficult to implement.

The CO-LaN Thermo Special Interest Group (SIG) has among its responsibilities to help developers in implementing CAPE-OPEN interfaces. Easing the complexity perceived in CAPE-OPEN thermodynamic specifications is a goal set on the Thermo SIG. Apart from revising the v1.0 and v1.1 interface specification documents in order to make them clearer and less ambiguous, other actions towards that goal have to be developed.

Compared to CAPE-OPEN Unit Operations where wizards have been developed for various programming languages and have been widely used, developing a similar wizard for CAPE-OPEN Property Packages has always be seen as a difficult, if not impossible task. Also seasoned programmers are often not keen to use wizards and prefer source code examples.

So CO-LaN, under the proposal of the Thermo SIG, has contracted AmsterCHEM to provide source code and binaries of a full set of thermodynamic components in both v1.0 and v1.1 flavors, and developed in Microsoft Visual Basic 6 (for readability) and in C++ (for performance even if the codes provided have not been optimized in that respect). The purpose is not to provide a fully working thermodynamic library but rather a framework on which anyone may implement his/her own thermodynamic models. Consequently the calculation part of the thermodynamic components relies simply on an ideal vapor phase and an ideal liquid phase.

You are invited to download the single installer that deploys the source codes, the binaries and the documentation. Installation of the binaries includes registration of the components so that they are immediately recognized as CAPE-OPEN components by any CAPE-OPEN PME.

Evaluating the efficiency of such a development action is always difficult. We therefore kindly ask you to provide CO-LaN with any feedback you consider appropriate.