Transport Phenomena Fundamentals, Second Edition

Book excerpt: Although the practice of chemical engineering has broadened to encompass problems in a range of disciplines, including biology, biochemistry, and nanotechnology, one of the curriculum’s foundations is built upon the subject of transport phenomena. Transport Phenomena Fundamentals, Second Edition provides a unified treatment of heat, mass, and momentum transport based on a balance equation approach. Designed for a two-term course Used in a two-term transport phenomena sequence at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, this text streamlines the approach to how the subject is taught. The first part of the book takes students through the balance equation in the context of diffusive transport, be it momentum, energy, mass, or charge. Each chapter adds a term to the balance equation, highlighting the effects of that addition on the physical behavior of the system and the underlying mathematical description. The second half of the book builds upon the balance equation description of diffusive transport by introducing convective transport terms, focusing on partial rather than ordinary differential equations. The Navier–Stokes and convective transport equations are derived from balance equations in both macroscopic and microscopic forms. Includes examples and problems drawn from Comsol® software The second edition of this text is now enhanced by the use of finite element methods in the form of examples and extended homework problems. A series of example modules are associated with each chapter of the text. Some of the modules are used to produce examples in the text, and some are discussed in the homework at the end of each chapter. All of the modules are located online at an accompanying website which is designed to be a living component of the course. (available on the download tab)