Transport Phenomena in Our Life

Do you know about Chemical Vapor Deposition?

Numerous products are produced by this method. The CVD process is interesting; it
includes: (1) the mass transport phenomena of fluid flow and diffusion; (2) the heat
transport phenomena of convection and conduction. More

films
Biofilms are colonies of bacteria attached to surfaces in an extracellular
polysaccharide matrix. The colonization of surfaces by bacteria has many transport
implications, including increasing heat transfer resistances in seawater heat
exchangers (such as those used in nu clear reactor cooling towers) and increasing
drag on moving surfaces (such as on boat hulls) due to the visco elasticity of the
biofilm interface. Additionally, transport phenomena are critical in the study of
biofilms, such as nutrient and antibiotic diffusion through the film, and how fluid
shear affects biofilm morphology.

The skin of the water

If you want to know what happened between molecules on and inside a fluid, you
need to study phenomena such as tension and friction. These forces explain how
waves are formed and how soaps, detergents and disinfectants work.

Desalination by reverse osmosis

Next time you pick up a bottle of Aquafina, take note that you are actually drinking
purified ocean water that has been desalted using a process known as reverse osmosis.
In reverse osmosis, water is forcibly moved across a semi-permeable membrane
against its natural concentration gradient, from an area of low concentration to an area
of higher concentration. The membrane allows the transport of water molecules, but
solids (i.e. salts) are too large to pass.

Hurricanes
Hurricanes are an example of mass, momentum, and heat transport phenomena that
many of us would rather do without. These massive storms form when surface winds
converge over warm water in lower latitudes where there is a large area of warm,
humid air. This heat transfer from the ocean surface to the air supplies the energy to
sustain the hurricane. As we all know, these phenomena can have devastating affects
on people's livelihoods, causing severe wind damage, storm surge, tornadoes, and
flooding from large amounts of rain associated with the hurricane.
Chemical engineering in cooking
The following website introduces the most common thing in our daily life, cooking.
We have to eat everyday, but we might never think what the principles are behind the
preparation of the delicious food. On the website, we can see how cooking associates
with the heat transfer, mass transfer and kinetics which a chemical engineer must
learn in his studies. With those connections, the transport phenomena will be no more
boring equations. It's a part of our life. So, don't just eat. Eat with knowledge!

Blood flow in our body

There is approximately 5 liters of blood inside the human body. The organs in the
body are immersed in blood and rely on the blood to operate appropriately to allow
for the body to function properly. The blood has two major functions that sustain the
human body: (1) to transport materials to and from the body and (2) to defend the
body against foreign intrusions. In terms of transport phenomena, the blood allows for
transport of oxygen and nutrients into the body's cells as well as remove waste.

Transport phenomena of pollutant in the sea

Sea is closely related to our life. Sea provides us many kinds of food, so it also gives
fishermen job positions. Sea is also a resource of Torism. The beaches give us lots of
happiness in our Holiday. However what if sea is polluted? Since industrial
revolution growing economy not only makes our life better but also sents out many
pollutants into the sea. To protect the marine environment a project has begun in
which transport phenomena of pollutant in the sea would be analyzed. The project
will try to detect the concentration distribution of pollutant in the sea water column
and sediment, and "elucidate the source, transport and fate of the pollutants".

Hydrologists: snowmelt in alpine areas

Winter inevitably brings cold air, ice and snow. There are many researchers
particularly interested in snow and they are known as snow hydrologists. Their goal is
to determine snow properties and more specifically snowmelt runoff properties in
alpine areas. To accomplish this task, snow hydrologists have applied transport
phenomena principles to determine meltwater movement, heat and solute transport.
The importance of understanding transport phenomena in snowmelt processes will
help researchers model it as the global ecology is changing.

Intestinal transport of insulin-like growth factor-I in the suckling rat

Insulin-like growth factor is important growth promoting factor in mammalian milk.
It has been hypothecated that IGF is transported through gastrointestinal tract, though
the method is not been well proven.
Transport Phenomena in Microsystems

An increasing number of micro-devices involve the manipulation of fluids and has led to an
exciting new field of research called microfluidics. Microfluidics allows to create miniaturised
heat-exchanges, micro-reactors, ``lab-on-a-chip'' bio-chemical sensors or hand-held gas
chromatography systems for the detection of trace concentrations of air-borne pollutants.