Matlab Refprop Interface
This project was a rewrite of a pre-existing software library developed and maintained by NIST. The NIST variant was a Fortran-language piece of code that integrated Refprop code directly and resulted in a native MEX function. Because it was a native fucntion, it could not be distributed in a compiled form since it relied on machine-specific compilers.
As
such, there was very low usage of the NIST tool. My contribution was
to rewrite the mex function into portable Matlab m-code and to call the
DLL library (on Windows) functions using Matlab-provided loadlibrary
functions. Matlab's loadlibrary functions load from the appropriate
forms on Linux and Mac platforms, so the m-code version that I produced
was portable, more easily maintained, and available to a wider audience.
After
obtaining permission from GE management to open source the code, NIST
staff were extremely grateful and relayed how many Matlab users had been
pleased to ahve the m-code version rather than the Fortran code, for
which compilers were not readily available.
