CHEE 6397 Mathematical Methods in Chemical Engineering

Homework 1a

Problem 1. Solving linear systems of equations

a. Solve the following systems of equations. (Show all work.) x 1 2 3 4 1 10 x2 5 6 7 8 26 x3 9 10 11 12 42 x4 and

1 5

2 6

3 7

4 8

x1 x2 x3 x4

10 26 41

9 10 11 12

b. Solve the above systems of equations on Mathematica1, using the commands

LinearSolve[{{1,2,3,4},{5,6,7,8},{9,10,11,12}},{10,26,42}] Solve[{{1,2,3,4},{5,6,7,8},{9,10,11,12}}.{x1,x2,x3,x4}=={10,26,42},{x4,x3,x2,x1}]

and
LinearSolve[{{1,2,3,4},{5,6,7,8},{9,10,11,12}},{10,26,41}] Solve[{{1,2,3,4},{5,6,7,8},{9,10,11,12}}.{x1,x2,x3,x4}=={10,26,41},{x4,x3,x2,x1}]

Comment on the results.

UH students can download Mathematica from www.uh.edu/software at no cost.

CHEE 6397 Lecture Notes

Problem 2. Solving mass balance equations

Michael Nikolaou

B5 D5
Figure 1 Reaction-separation process unit with recycle

The corresponding mass-balance equations are shown next.

A1 A2 B1 B5 B2 D5 D2 B3 B2 A2 D3 D2 A2 D4 100D5 B4 0.01B5 B3 B4 B5 D3 D4 D5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

a. b. c. d. e. f.

Write the above system of equations in matrix/vector form. Are the above equations compatible? Is the solution of the above system of equations unique? What is the general solution? What is the dimension of the solution space? What variables can be selected freely, so that the remaining variables can be uniquely defined?

Problem 3. Dimensional analysis

The velocity, v , of a liquid leaving a nozzle depends upon the pressure drop, p , and the liquid density, . a. If there exists a relationship f (v, p, )
f ( 1, 2,...) 0.
0 , find dimensionless variables
i

Separator C1

The following process (Figure 1, as shown in the lecture notes) refers to a chemical plant with recycle. B4 D4 A2 B2 B3 D2 D3 Reactor R1 A1 Mixer M1 A B D B1

, such that

b. If it is desired to express v as a function of p and

, i.e. v

g(pa ,

) , find the values of a, b .

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