Development of a Visual Tool for Heat Transfer Analysis Using Excel VBA

A B S T R A C T Microsof t Excel has been used for scient i f ic numer ica l s imula t ion . I n Exce l s imula t ion , each cell of a spreadsheet is regarded as a nodal po in t . Based on a concrete image of a phys ica l model, d iscret ized govern ing equat ions and boundary condit ions are w r i t t e n i n appropr ia te cells. Ca lcu la t ion is per formed automat ica l ly to ob ta in numer i ca l resul ts. I n the present study, Exce l V B A is in t roduced and an icon-based v isua l spreadsheet is developed for heat t rans fer analysis. I t is based on the color-coded cells te rmed Icon Cell, where a series of discret ized equations are embedded i n advance. B y us ing macro but tons, the icon cells are ar ranged on a spreadsheet and t hey show numer i ca l resul ts immediate ly . The icon-based Excel s imu la t i on does not requi re any computer p rog ram wr i t i ng , and therefore i t is a very handy tool for scient i f ic researches and p rac t i ca l eng ineer ing appl icat ions.