The basic portal functionalities are shown hereunder: home page, structure, search or advanced search, bread-crumbs trail, FAQ, glossary ...

Please note that we are still working on this portal. It will be under construction until 2008, because of the important extent of resources which are to be put in it.

Do not be astonished if there are some gaps or silences, we shall try to fill the gaps of the portal as soon as we can. But there is still a lot to be done ...

Furthermore a large number of resources are only available in French. If an English version exists, it is automatically displayed.

As you have noticed the home page displays a series of direct links towards the most visited portal resources. At any moment, you may go back to the home page by clicking on the " Thermoptim-UNIT " logotype located on the top banner of the portal.

Portal structure

With the index tabs located on the top band and the directories on the left of the active frame, you can access to the main portal sections. The four first sections include a series of thematic pages. These pages are on one hand a rough introduction to the topic, and, on the other hand, give links to various educational activities (on-line courses, exercises ...) .

Browsing these sections, you will have a look over the whole course, as if you were reading the summary of a book, but with the possibility to access to a rapid overview of the listed topics.

Thermodynamics fundamentals presents, of course, the basis of the discipline.

Methodological guides gives access to various indications on how to deal with some difficulties which arise when calculating energy systems.

Technologies gathers rough presentations about the main energy technologies, distinguishing the following :

• the components (compressors, turbines, combustion chambers ...).

• the complete systems (gas turbines, reciprocating engines, steam power stations...).

Global issues is related to the main problems in the energy field :

• Energy in a macro-economic point of view (energy industries, energy and economic accounting).

• The geopolitical aspects (world energy situation, energy problems in the developing countries, reserves and resources, energy markets).

The two other sections are the following :

Education is involving two main items:

• The first one presents the pedagogy of applied thermodynamics that we recommend.

• The second one gives access to the on-line resources, particularly to the whole set of Diapason sessions dedicated to online training.

Software deals on one hand with the Thermoptim software package and on the other hand with tools necessary to design and publish Diapason sessions.

These two sub-sections include tools presentation, documentation, and various resources.

You may also use a simple or advanced search engine, with which you may list the documents including the keywords you have entered. You may thus search through the whole portal, and then select the chosen documents among the search results.

You only need to enter the keyword to be searched in the field marked Search, then click on the " OK " button. You may get access to advanced search from the displayed results page.

When you are browsing the portal, the path you are following is displayed on the top left of the activated windows (see below). Each step of your path is separated from the next one by a ">" mark. This path, called 'Bread-crumbs trail', is actually an hypertext link which enables you to go back to any former node (step) of your path.

 The  FAQ   gives answers to a set of questions frequently asked by Thermoptim users.