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Class: HeatFlux

The HeatFlux class is a subclass of Variable designed to represent heat transfer rate per unit area. It ensures accurate calculations by storing all values internally in its base SI unit, Watts per square meter (W/m2).

Supported Units

The following units are supported for initialization and conversion.

Unit str Conversion Factor to Watts per Square Meter (W/m2)
Watts per square meter W/m2 1
kilowatts per square meter kW/m2 1000
Watts per square centimeter W/cm2 10000
British Thermal Units per hour per square foot BTU/hft2 3.1546
calories per second per square centimeter cal/scm2 41840

Class Reference

class HeatFlux(value, units='W/m2')

A class for handling heat flux measurements with automatic unit conversion.

Parameters:

  • value : float or int
    The numeric value of the heat flux. Must be a non-negative number.
  • units : str, default='W/m2'
    The unit of the provided value. Must be one of the supported units.

Raises:

  • ValueError : If value is negative.
  • TypeError : If units is not a valid unit.

Examples: 

# Create a HeatFlux object of 300 W/m²  
>>> q1 = HeatFlux(300)

# Create a HeatFlux object of 0.3 kW/m²  
>>> q2 = HeatFlux(0.3, "kW/m2")

Properties

Property Type Description
.value float The numeric value of the heat flux, always in Watts per square meter (W/m2). This is the internal representation used for all calculations.
.original_value float The numeric value as provided during initialization.
.original_unit str The unit as provided during initialization.

Methods

to(target_unit)

Returns a new HeatFlux object converted to the target_unit. The original object remains unchanged.

Parameters:

  • target_unit : str
    The unit to convert to. Must be one of the supported units.

Returns:

  • HeatFlux
    A new HeatFlux object with the same value, represented in the target unit.

Raises:

  • TypeError : If target_unit is not a valid unit.

Examples: 

# Initialize a heat flux of 1000 W/m²  
>>> heat_flux_W = HeatFlux(1000)

# Convert to kW/m²  
>>> heat_flux_kW = heat_flux_W.to("kW/m2")

>>> print(heat_flux_kW)  
1.0 kW/m2

String Representation

  • __str__(self)
    Returns a human-readable string representation of the heat flux, rounded to six decimal places, using its original value and unit.
  • __repr__(self)
    Returns a string representation suitable for developers and debugging.