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Class: HeatTransferCoefficient

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

Supported Units

The following units are supported for initialization and conversion.

Unit str Conversion Factor to Watts per Square Meter-Kelvin (W/m2.K)
Watts per square meter-Kelvin W/m2K 1
kilowatts per square meter-Kelvin kW/m2K 1000
calories per second per square centimeter-degree Celsius cal/scm2C 41840
British Thermal Units per hour per square foot-degree Fahrenheit BTU/hft2F 5.678263

Class Reference

class HeatTransferCoefficient(value, units='W/m2K')

A class for handling heat transfer coefficient measurements with automatic unit conversion.

Parameters:

  • value : float or int
    The numeric value of the heat transfer coefficient. Must be a non-negative number.
  • units : str, default='W/m2K'
    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 HeatTransferCoefficient object of 200 W/m²K  
>>> h1 = HeatTransferCoefficient(200)

# Create a HeatTransferCoefficient object of 0.2 kW/m²K  
>>> h2 = HeatTransferCoefficient(0.2, "kW/m2K")

Properties

Property Type Description
.value float The numeric value of the heat transfer coefficient, always in Watts per square meter-Kelvin (W/m2.K). 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 HeatTransferCoefficient 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:

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

Raises:

  • TypeError : If target_unit is not a valid unit.

Examples: 

# Initialize a heat transfer coefficient of 500 W/m²K  
>>> h_W = HeatTransferCoefficient(500)

# Convert to BTU/hft²F  
>>> h_BTU = h_W.to("BTU/hft2F")

>>> print(h_BTU)  
88.058309 BTU/hft2F

String Representation

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