Python in Chemical Engineering:�Basics and Applications

Mentor : HITESH BHATIA , hiteshtb21@iitk.ac.in

Software Required : Python 3.0

Pre-requisites : Material and Energy Balance Calculations ,Fluid Mechanics, Heat Transfer

Project Objective and Outcome

• Modern engineering calculations are hard to imagine without a flexible and efficient programming language. Python is such a language.
• Why Python ?
• Large user base and mature capabilities with Python 3.
• Great language for self paced learning (HLL like MATLAB)
• Widely shared by ChE’s through repositories on GitHub.com
• The goal of this course is to introduce undergraduate ChemE students to Basic Python (including NumPy and SciPy) and demonstrate how it can be used for solving a spectrum of chemical engineering problems specifically Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer.
• Taking this course, a motivated student will learn to utilise Python for solving problems within the ChemE curriculum, working on Research projects and solving practical problems in industry.

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Flow of polymer beads in solvent

Variation of viscosity with shear rate for polymer solution

Outline of the project

1. Data Type,Operators,Function Calls
2. Data Structures (Sequences)
1. Lists
2. Strings
3. List and string operations
3. Iteration
• Flow of execution (FOR,WHILE)
• List operations + Accumulator Pattern + Range function
• Nested iterations
4. Conditional Execution
5. Sequence Mutation ,Methods on Lists
6. Numpy and Scipy libraries
7. Plotting in Python (Matplotlib)

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Python Basics

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Applications in Chemical Engineering

1. Free settling of a spherical particle in infinite expanse of fluid (Stokes’ Law)
2. Solving heat diffusion equation
3. Simulating flow in a heated tube
4. Simulating a double pipe heat exchanger (Temperature profiles)

and more if time permits.

Thank You

Feel free to contact me for any queries @:

hiteshtb21@iitk.ac.in

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