Summary Our group investigates new approaches for modeling chemical reactors and mass transfer operations. Transport theory and numerical methods are very important in this work, as are the experiments being done here and elsewhere. We are performing dynamic experiments on heat transport in reproducible packed tubes. These data are being used to construct an integral equation for packed-tube reactor states and to provide a new approach to reactor design.
Orthogonal collocation remains an active interest of our research group.
We are applying this approach to fluid mechanics and separation processes and to chemical reactors. Another continuing theme in our research is boundary layer analysis. Investigations in progress include turbulent heat and mass transport at fixed and mobile interfaces. Dominant-balance analysis gives useful information about the heat and mass transfer with only mild assumptions regarding the fluid motion. Several of the projects in which we are currently involved include development of computational software for a variety of modeling tasks, such as solving equations and estimating parameters.