Introduction to Chemical Engineering Computing
Bruce A. Finlayson, John Wiley & Sons, 2012
What it covers
Computers have revolutionized the way chemical engineers design and analyze processes, whether designing large units to make polyethylene or small microreactors used to detect biological agents. Nowadays, you no longer have to write your own software programs to use computers effectively. Computer programs can do the numerical calculations for you, but you’ll still need to understand how to apply these programs to specific engineering challenges and validate your solution.This book will:
• illustrate the problems that you as chemical engineers may need to solve
• compare the types of computer programs you can use and illustrate which ones are best for certain applications: Excel®, MATLAB®, Aspen Plus®, and Comsol Multiphysics®
• describe how to check your work to ensure you have solved the problems correctly.
• Revised (May, 2014) to use Aspen Plus 8
• Source Code for Examples in Book: go to booksupport.wiley.com and search on Finlayson
• Supplement Using Python (solving examples in the book)
Contributions to History of Chem. Eng. Computing
My interest in computing in chemical engineering education began in earnest when I got an Apple II+ computer in the fall of 1979. Here is a Youtube video (Early Apple II+) showing a program my son (in high school) and I made in 1982 showing how you could draw on the screen and do mass balances for systems with recycle.
Early Apple II+ ChE computations
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLED93UuJeIRhxyCrJZlyzn5K8on7xZsrW
In 2008 I was honored by CACHE for my contributions to the use of computers in chemical engineering education. This is a pdf of my talk, given at the AIChE meeting in November, 2008.
Undergraduate Research Projects at the University of Washington, 2001-2009
Are you interested in a more mathematical treatment? See the SIAM book that covers error bounds and variational principles: Method of Weighted Residuals and Variational Principles.