Since flight requirements often necessitate last-minute re-analysis, it became crucial to develop flexible and comprehensive transport phenomena analysis software that would quickly ensure all vehicle and payload requirements would be satisfied. The software would replace various mainframe-based software, such as the Thermal Radiation Analyzer System (TRASYS) and the Systems Improved Numerical Differencing Analyzer (SINDA).
The software would need to have the flexibility to employ models that could be developed and modified as vehicle systems change. By use of event files which contain simple, intuitive commands, the characteristics of individual missions could be built as inputs to the model. By moving the Environmental Control & Life Support (ECLS) system model to the PC environment, each analyst would have execution, storage, and processing management control. And of course, software portability would be greatly increased.
It was decided that the most effective way to achieve a user-friendly interface was to develop a C++ object-oriented Windows language (heat and mass) transport phenomena analysis program. The Personal Computer Transport Analysis Program (PCTAP) would allow the programmer to develop small models of different transport devices, such as heat exchangers and tubes, and then link and modify these models to form the overall PCTAP. By having small user-definable models, users can easily build models of any system, then import these into the PCTAP. It also allows parameters to be redefined anywhere in the process flow through event files that the user can customize for each process. In addition, the overall program can be modified by developing new module programs and linking them to existing PCTAP modules.