Product Description

Problem Solving in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering with POLYMATH™, Excel, and MATLAB®, Second Edition, is a valuable resource and companion that integrates the use of numerical problem solving in the three most widely used software packages: POLYMATH, Microsoft Excel, and MATLAB. Recently developed POLYMATH capabilities allow the automatic creation of Excel spreadsheets and the generation of MATLAB code for problem solutions. Students and professional engineers will appreciate the ease with which problems can be entered into POLYMATH and then solved independently in all three software packages, while taking full advantage of the unique capabilities within each package. The book includes more than 170 problems requiring numerical solutions.

This greatly expanded and revised second edition includes new chapters on getting started with and using Excel and MATLAB. It also places special emphasis on biochemical engineering with a major chapter on the subject and with the integration of biochemical problems throughout the book.

General Topics and Subject Areas, Organized by Chapter

• Introduction to Problem Solving with Mathematical Software Packages

• Basic Principles and Calculations

• Regression and Correlation of Data

• Introduction to Problem Solving with Excel

• Introduction to Problem Solving with MATLAB

• Advanced Problem-Solving Techniques

• Thermodynamics

• Fluid Mechanics

• Heat Transfer

• Mass Transfer

• Chemical Reaction Engineering

• Phase Equilibrium and Distillation

• Process Dynamics and Control

• Biochemical Engineering

Practical Aspects of Problem-Solving Capabilities

• Simultaneous Linear Equations

• Simultaneous Nonlinear Equations

• Linear, Multiple Linear, and Nonlinear Regressions with Statistical Analyses

• Partial Differential Equations (Using the Numerical Method of Lines)

• Curve Fitting by Polynomials with Statistical Analysis

• Simultaneous Ordinary Differential Equations (Including Problems Involving Stiff Systems, Differential-Algebraic Equations, and Parameter Estimation in Systems of Ordinary Differential Equations)

The Book's Web Site (http://www.problemsolvingbook.com)

• Provides solved and partially solved problem files for all three software packages, plus additional materials

• Describes discounted purchase options for educational version of POLYMATH available to book purchasers

• Includes detailed, selected problem solutions in Maple™, Mathcad®, and Mathematica™

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #407295 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 752 pages

About the Author

Michael B. Cutlip is an emeritus professor in the Department of Chemical, Materials, and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Connecticut. He is a coauthor of POLYMATH. His research interests include chemical and electrochemical reaction engineering.

Mordechai Shacham is the Benjamin H. Swig Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is a coauthor of POLYMATH . His research interests include analysis, modeling, regression of data, applied numerical methods, and prediction and consistency analysis of physical properties.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Book Overview

This book provides extensive problem-solving instruction and suggestions, numerous examples, and many complete and partial solutions in the main subject areas of chemical and biochemical engineering and related disciplines. Problem solutions are clearly developed using fundamental principles to create mathematical models. An equation-oriented approach that enables computer-based problem solving on personal computers is utilized. Efficient and effective problem solving is introduced employing numerical methods for linear equations, nonlinear equations, ordinary and partial differential equations, linear and nonlinear regressions, and polynomial curve fitting. Basic to advanced problem solving is covered utilizing a novel integrated approach with three widely used mathematical software packages: POLYMATH, Excel, and MATLAB. Readers may choose to focus on one or more of these software packages or utilize another mathematical software package.

The book and a dedicated web site (http://www.problemsolvingbook.com) furnish all necessary problem information, software files, and additional enrichment materials. For advanced applications, unique software tools are provided for solving complex problems such as parameter estimation in dynamic systems and solution of constrained systems of algebraic equations.

Intended Audience

This book is intended for individuals who are interested in solving problems in chemical and biochemical engineering and in related fields by using mathematical software packages on personal computers. It can serve as a textbook for students in conjunction with college- and university-level courses, and it can be a companion reference book for individual students. For professionals, it can be an invaluable reference book that also allows extensive self-study in problem solving using the most widely used software packages.

Background

Prior to the introduction of the personal computers and mathematical software packages in the early 1980's, desktop calculations for engineering problem solving were mainly carried out with hand-held calculators. Sometimes mainframe computers were utilized, which required source code programming. Since then the emphasis has gradually moved to computer-based (or computer-enhanced) problem solving or CBPS on desktop or notebook computers. By the time the first edition of this book was published in 1999, it became evident that CBPS can be a very important, or possibly the most important, application of the computer in scientific and engineering education and in industrial practice.

The first edition of this book provided examples to the use of CBPS in core chemical engineering subject areas using the POLYMATH software package. Shortly after the publication of the first edition, we carried out several comparison studies in order to determine what types of software packages should be included in the "toolbox" of the engineering student and the practicing engineer that would enable the effective and efficient solution of practical problems. We arrived at the conclusion that three types of software are needed. There is a need for a numerical problem solver, such as POLYMATH, that accepts the model equations close to their mathematical forms and provides their numerical solution with very minimal user intervention. Additionally, there is also a need to be able to use spreadsheet software, such as Excel, because of its wide use in business and industry. Software like Excel is also used for the organization and presentation of information in tabular and graphical forms and for database management-related operations. Software packages that support programming, such as MATLAB, are needed to implement algorithms which are required in graduate research and advanced mathematics, programming, control, and numerical analysis courses.

It is increasingly important for today's engineering student and forward-looking engineering professionals to be proficient in the use of several software packages, and thus we greatly expanded the book so that it now includes solutions in Excel and MATLAB, in addition to POLYMATH. New problems have been introduced that demonstrate how the special capabilities of each of these packages can best be utilized for efficient and effective problem solving.

The POLYMATH Numerical Computation Package

The POLYMATH package provides convenient solutions to most numerical analysis problems, including the problems that are presented in this book. We authored and published the first PC version of POLYMATH in 1984, and it has been in use since then in over one hundred universities and selected industrial sites world wide. The version available at the time of the publication of the book, POLYMATH 6.1, was released in 2006. This package contains the following programs:

Ordinary Differential Equations Solver

Nonlinear Algebraic Equations Solver

Linear Algebraic Equations Solver

Polynomial, Multiple Linear, and Nonlinear Regression Program

The programs are extremely easy to use, and all options are menu driven. Equations are entered in standard form with user-defined notation. Results are presented in graphical or tabular form. A sophisticated calculator and a general unit conversion utility are available within POLYMATH.

The new and unique capability of the latest POLYMATH to automatically export any problem to Excel and MATLAB with a single keypress is extensively utilized within this book. Automatic export to Excel includes all intrinsic functions and logical variables. A POLYMATH ODE_Solver Add-In is included for solving ordinary differential equations in Excel. Upon export to MATLAB, the equations are ordered in the computational sequence, the intrinsic functions and logical statements are converted, and a MATLAB function is generated. Template files to run the functions are available in the HELP section of POLYMATH or from the book's web site.

Current information on the latest POLYMATH software is available from http://www.polymath-software.com.

Many departments and some universities have obtained site licenses for POLYMATH. These licenses allow installation in all computer labs, and individual copies can be provided to all students, faculty and staff for use on personal computers. Detailed information is available from academic@polymath-software.com

Use of This Book

This book is intended to serve as a companion text for the engineering student, the faculty instructor, or the practicing engineer. The instructions in the practical use of mathematical software package on representative problems from most chemical and biochemical engineering subject areas provide direct insight into problem setup and various practical aspects of numerical problem solving. For the undergraduate student at the early stages of his/her studies, the book can serve as the textbook for learning to categorize the problems according to the numerical methods that should be used for efficient and effective solutions. It provides basic instruction in the use of three popular and widely used software packages: POLYMATH, Excel, and MATLAB. Emphasis is on setting up problems and effectively obtaining the necessary solutions.

In addition to providing general numerical solving capabilities, the text gives problems in most subject areas so that it can serve as a reference book in most courses, as it provides example problems that can be illustrative of problems that may be assigned in the various courses. The book also provides help with problem solving in advanced level for problems often encountered in undergraduate and graduate research such as nonlinear regression, parameter estimation in differential systems, solving two-point boundary value problems and partial differential equations, constrained equation solving, and optimization.

For the practicing engineer, the book serves as resource book in computer-based problem solving. It provides a solid foundation in problem solving and can develop basic and advanced skills in the utilization of spreadsheets. Practical problems illustrate various problem solving approaches that can be implemented for problem formulation, problem solving, analysis, presentation of results, and documentation. Of particular interest is the coverage of the correlation and regression of data with statistical analysis. All of the book's problems can be solved with the Excel spreadsheet software that is widely used in industry.

Engineering faculty can use the book to introduce numerical methods into an individual course, a sequence of courses, or an entire departmental curriculum. This book provides supplementary problems that can be assigned to students in order to introduce numerical problem solving which is avoided in most textbooks. Many of the problems can be easily extended to open-ended problem solving so that critical thinking skills can be developed. The numerical solutions can be used to answer many "what if" type questions so that students can be encouraged to think about the implications of the problem solutions. The book can also be used as a companion textbook for an introductory computer programming course or a comprehensive course in numerical analysis.

Book Organization

All the chapters of the book, except the introductory Chapter 1, are built around problems that serve to provide practical applications in a particular subject area. Most of the problems presented in the book have the same general format for the convenience of the reader. The concise problem topic is followed by a listing of the engineering concepts demonstrated by the problem. Then the numerical methods utilized in the solution are indicated just before the detailed problem statement. Each of the problems presents the detailed equations and parameter values that are necessar...

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