Transport Processes in Chemically Reacting Flow Systems

Book excerpt: Transport Processes in Chemically Reacting Flow Systems discusses the role, in chemically reacting flow systems, of transport processes—particularly the transport of momentum, energy, and (chemical species) mass in fluids (gases and liquids). The principles developed and often illustrated here for combustion systems are important not only for the rational design and development of engineering equipment (e.g., chemical reactors, heat exchangers, mass exchangers) but also for scientific research involving coupled transport processes and chemical reaction in flow systems. The book begins with an introduction to transport processes in chemically reactive systems. Separate chapters cover momentum, energy, and mass transport. These chapters develop, state, and exploit useful quantitative ""analogies"" between these transport phenomena, including interrelationships that remain valid even in the presence of homogeneous or heterogeneous chemical reactions. A separate chapter covers the use of transport theory in the systematization and generalization of experimental data on chemically reacting systems. The principles and methods discussed are then applied to the preliminary design of a heat exchanger for extracting power from the products of combustion in a stationary (fossil-fuel-fired) power plant. The book has been written in such a way as to be accessible to students and practicing scientists whose background has until now been confined to physical chemistry, classical physics, and/or applied mathematics.