HOWARD UNIVERSITY

Department of Chemical Engineering

Advanced Transport Phenomena (2014)
CHEG 501
Instructor:
Dr. Preethi Chandran
Office:
1011 Downing Hall; Phone: 202-806-4595 (office)
Email:
preethi.chandran@howard.edu
Lecture Room: LKD 2006
Lecture Time: TuTh, 2.10 pm 3.30pm
Office Hours:
Other meetings by appointment
Text:
Transport Phenomena, by Bird, Stewart, and Lightfoot; John Wiley and Sons, Revised 2nd
Edition, 2007.
Course Requisites: Students are expected to have taken classes in Mass and Energy
Balance, Fluid Dynamics, Calculus, and Differential Equations; and also have a working
knowledge of Matlab software.
Goals of the course:
1. Physical laws guiding mass, momentum, and energy transport in a system
Examples of some systems are - viscous fluid flowing in a tube (an
idealization of blood flow in a blood vessel), falling films (an idealization of
paint coating), and heat transfer from a surface (think about that burger on
the grill).
2. Generalized mathematical tools to describe the physics at play in a system
For instance, tensors capture the idea of frame invariance (the burger grills
the same way whether you are standing by it or pacing around it), the
divergence operator captures how density changes at every point, etc.
3. Computational methods to solve the mathematical equations of a system
Numerical analysis techniques will allow you to translate these differential
equations into an algebraic form that can be solved on the computer (think
about the simulations of air flow over an aircraft wing).
4. Do a project where you apply all that you learn

COURSE OUTLINE
TOPIC

READING
Chapter(s)

Momentum Transport (molecular and shell balance)

Tensor and vector algebra
Continuum Mechanics
Exam 1

0, 1, 2,
Appendix A
TBA

Equations of change, Differential operators,

Material coordinates, cylindrical coordinates, solving 3
2D
systems
Exam 2
Correspondence with heat and mass transfer
Solving nonlinear equations with Matlab
Project presentation and critique

Grading
Exam 1
Exam 2
Project
Quizzes, Assignments, and Class Participation

25%
25%
25%
25%

Graduate students will be given a more difficult exam and will be required to do Matlab
Simulation on their project.
Projects:
Students will take up a topic (based on their research, a journal paper, a seminar, or
some everyday occurrence that piques their interest), present
1. introduction
2. statement of problem or critical analysis of journal paper
3. analysis with transport equation
4. proposal to solve the equations and obtain material properties
Graduate students can either conduct the experiments or solve the equations with
Matlab simulation.
American Disability Act: Howard University is committed to providing an educational
environment that is accessible to all students. In accordance with this policy, students
in need of accommodations due to disability should contact the Office of the Dean for

Special Student Services for verification and determination of reasonable

accommodations as soon as possible after admission to the University, or at the
beginning of each semester.