Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 A Preview
- 2 Basic Principles
- 3 Unidirectional and One-Dimensional Flow and Heat Transfer Problems
- 4 An Introduction to Asymptotic Approximations
- 5 The Thin-Gap Approximation – Lubrication Problems
- 6 The Thin-Gap Approximation – Films with a Free Surface
- 7 Creeping Flow – Two-Dimensional and Axisymmetric Problems
- 8 Creeping Flow – Three-Dimensional Problems
- 9 Convection Effects in Low-Reynolds-Number Flows
- 10 Laminar Boundary-Layer Theory
- 11 Heat and Mass Transfer at Large Reynolds Number
- 12 Hydrodynamic Stability
- Appendix A Governing Equations and Vector Operations in Cartesian, Cylindrical, and Spherical Coordinate Systems
- Appendix B Cartesian Component Notation
- Index
1 - A Preview
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 A Preview
- 2 Basic Principles
- 3 Unidirectional and One-Dimensional Flow and Heat Transfer Problems
- 4 An Introduction to Asymptotic Approximations
- 5 The Thin-Gap Approximation – Lubrication Problems
- 6 The Thin-Gap Approximation – Films with a Free Surface
- 7 Creeping Flow – Two-Dimensional and Axisymmetric Problems
- 8 Creeping Flow – Three-Dimensional Problems
- 9 Convection Effects in Low-Reynolds-Number Flows
- 10 Laminar Boundary-Layer Theory
- 11 Heat and Mass Transfer at Large Reynolds Number
- 12 Hydrodynamic Stability
- Appendix A Governing Equations and Vector Operations in Cartesian, Cylindrical, and Spherical Coordinate Systems
- Appendix B Cartesian Component Notation
- Index
Summary
A BRIEF HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF TRANSPORT PHENOMENA IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
“Transport phenomena” is the name used by chemical engineers to describe the subjects of fluid mechanics and heat and mass transfer. The earliest step toward the inclusion of specialized courses in fluid mechanics and heat or mass transfer processes within the chemical engineering curriculum probably occurred with the publication in 1923 of the pioneering text Principles of Chemical Engineering by Walker, Lewis, and McAdams. This was the first major departure from curricula that regarded the techniques involved in the production of specific products as largely unique, to a formal recognition of the fact that certain physical or chemical processes, and corresponding fundamental principles, are common to many widely differing industrial technologies.
A natural outgrowth of this radical new view was the gradual appearance of fluid mechanics and transport in both teaching and research as the underlying basis for many of the unit operations. Of course, many of the most important unit operations take place in equipment of complicated geometry, with strongly coupled combinations of heat and mass transfer, fluid mechanics, and chemical reaction, so that the exact equations could not be solved in a context of any direct relevance to the process of interest. Hence, insofar as the large-scale industrial processes of chemical technology were concerned, even at the unit operations level, the impact of fundamental studies of fluid mechanics or transport phenomena was certainly less important than a well-developed empirical approach (and this remains true today in many cases).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Advanced Transport PhenomenaFluid Mechanics and Convective Transport Processes, pp. 1 - 12Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007