B6341 - MODELLING TOOLS FOR PROCESS ENGINEERING ANALYSIS

Learning outcomes

The course will build on previous background on mass, heat and momentum transport to give to students more advance tools for the analysis of real process engineering problems of interest for offshore application, related for example to product purification, decarbonization, reduction of waste and increase of efficiency. In particular the course will provide the students with advanced modelling tools for analysing momentum, energy and mass transport in multi-dimensional problems under different flow regimes as well as mathematical model to describe and/or predict the thermodynamic behaviour of pure substances and non-ideal mixtures. Technologies and processes for offshore energy production Introduction to and training in sustainable design of production processes in the offshore sector. Application of knowledge in mass and energy balances, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, heat transfer, unit operations to process selection and simulation in offshore energy processes. Analysis of the role of technical constraints, economic factors, environmental impact and safety in process design.

Course contents

The course is divided in two modules covering respectively thermodynamic and transport modelling.

Module 1
The first module will focus on modelling tools which can help the analysis of thermodynamic behavior of complex systems. In particular starting from the corresponding state theory, the use of equation of state (e.g van der Waals and generalized cubic equation of states) and of activity coefficient models ( e.g , an Laar, Wilson and NRTL models) will be presented to solve different types of thermodynamic problems overcoming limitations imposed by the use of ideal gas EoS or ideal mixture approximation and reducing the need of external data for the solution.

Module 2
The second module will first provide knowledge about tools from Linear Algebra which are essential for the representation of mass, momentum and energy fluxes in 3D space and then the local form of general balance and specific constitutive equations will be derived. The student will learn how to develop consistent mathematical models for the description of mass, momentum and energy transport processes, in terms of field equations and boundary conditions. The student will then be trained to recognize characteristics of the solutions of corresponding models from the structure of governing equations, to be able to anticipate characteristic time/space values, as well as specific scaling laws in the problem. Abilities that students developed in the above modelling analysis will be finally applied to examples of phenomena and processes of offshore engineering

Readings/Bibliography

The course will be based mainly on the materials (slide papers and reviews) that the professors will made available to the students. Additional information about the treated topics can be found in the following books:

S. I. Sandler, "Chemical and Engineering Thermodynamics " 3rd Edition, Wiley and Sons (1999)

J. M. Smith, H. C. Van Ness, Michael M. Abbott – “Introduction To Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics” (7th Edition) McGraw-Hill Education, 2005

R. C. Reid, J. M. Prausnitz, and B. E. Poling, “The Properties of Gases and Liquids", McGraw-Hill, New York, 1987.

W. M. Deen, “Analysis of Transport Phenomena", 2^nd Edition, Oxford University Press, 2012

R. B. Bird, W. E. Stewart, E. N. Lightfoot, “Transport Phenomena", John Wiley & Sons, 2007

Teaching methods

Lessons in presence with the help of slides and other materials

Assessment methods

The assessment will be based on a written test involving both exercise and open (or multiple-choice) question covering the different topics treated during the course.

In general, at least one exercise and one open question (or a set of multiple-choice questions) will be considered for each module of the course

Exam dates (6 throughout the year) are published on Almaesami and the student must register in advance to take part in the exam.

If the student fails the exam, s/he can retry on a subsequent date.

If the student passes the exam, s/he can accept the score, or reject it and retry the exam on a subsequent date. A positive score can only be rejected once, the second (most recent) positive score will be registered.

The student has the possibility to withdraw from the exam before the end, if s/he prefers not to be assessed.

Teaching tools

Lectures, slides, equation tables, meetings with professor (upon request) during office hours

Office hours

See the website of Marco Giacinti Baschetti

See the website of Ferruccio Doghieri