Optimization with Julia: A Practical Guide for Scientists and Engineers

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the use of the CoolProp library, particularly in the context of teaching and its integration with Julia for numerical computing. Participants explore its applications in fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, and educational methodologies.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses interest in using CoolProp for teaching but has concerns about its documentation and seeks others' experiences.
  • Another participant describes CoolProp as a robust library used in various projects and suggests potential teaching applications, such as fluid flow simulations and phase transitions.
  • A different viewpoint emphasizes the potential for more interactive and engaging plots when CoolProp is combined with other post-processing software.
  • One participant disagrees with the notion that CoolProp is not suitable for students, arguing that it can make thermodynamics enjoyable for them.
  • Discussion includes the integration of CoolProp with Julia, highlighting Julia's advantages in speed and cost compared to Python and Matlab.
  • A participant mentions a textbook on optimization algorithms that uses Julia, indicating its growing popularity.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing opinions on the suitability of CoolProp for educational purposes, with some believing it can enhance student engagement while others suggest it may not be as beneficial for teaching. There is no consensus on the best approach to using CoolProp in an educational context.

Contextual Notes

Participants reference various resources and applications of CoolProp, but there are unresolved questions regarding its documentation and the best methods for teaching with it. The discussion also touches on the integration of CoolProp with Julia, which may require additional setup for users.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be useful for educators looking to incorporate computational tools in teaching thermodynamics and fluid dynamics, as well as for those interested in exploring Julia as a numerical computing language.

Omega0
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TL;DR
Thermodynamics
Hello,

CoolProp (in my case under Python, http://www.coolprop.org/ ) seems to be pretty interesting to me. I would like to use it mostly for teaching. What is your impression, do you use it? I am just asking because I trust in the physics but I am not convinced from the documentation... what ist your experience?

Cheers
 
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It looks like a robust library of C++ code used on quite a few projects and via quite a few languages.

With respect to teaching, what would you use it for? fluid flow simulations showing laminar to turbulent transitions? or something else altogether?

These python plots look like the best approach to illustrating what it can do for students:

http://www.coolprop.org/coolprop/python-plotting.html

It has a lot of other great uses for engineers in computing some key thermodynamic value but not so much for students:

https://eng-shady-mohsen.blogspot.com/2014/06/coolprop-fluid-thermodynamic-properties.html

where Coolprop is added as a plugin to Excel
 
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jedishrfu said:
With respect to teaching, what would you use it for? fluid flow simulations showing laminar to turbulent transitions? or something else altogether?
Explanation of phase transitions, triple point, etc., coming from 3D to XY plots.
These python plots look like the best approach to illustrating what it can do for students:
Nope, much better plots possible when you use CoolProp as solver and couple it with other post-processing software, interactivity is then suddenly the keyword.
It has a lot of other great uses for engineers in computing some key thermodynamic value but not so much for students:
https://eng-shady-mohsen.blogspot.com/2014/06/coolprop-fluid-thermodynamic-properties.html
where Coolprop is added as a plugin to Excel
Thank you for the link but I disagree: There has to be a lot of fun for students in diving in thermodynamics. I think CoolProp will be a way to do it.
 
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Well, it seems you've already made up your mind so the next step is to go start teaching with it.

One other thing I've noticed is that you can mix Coolprop with Julia:

http://www.coolprop.org/coolprop/wrappers/Julia/index.html

Julia is starting to take the numerical computing field by storm for its speed and cost over other choices like Python and Matlab.

https://julialang.org/

Folks use the Jupyter notebooks to interface with Julia or Python and I suspect that you could demo your Coolprop using a Jupyter notebook though it may take some effort to setup a Jupyter environment on your machine.

Using Anaconda3 distro and Julia with IJulia:

https://quantecon.org/quantecon-jl/
 
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jedishrfu said:
Julia is starting to take the numerical computing field by storm for its speed and cost over other choices like Python and Matlab.
I know Python for 20 years and NumPy/SciPy for about 10 years. I had never anyone speaking about Julia but you but I wll be aware.
 
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