Student Name: AUS ID #

CHE 510-Transport Phenomena

Final Exam
Time allowed: 2 hours

Write and sign: I promise in my honor to uphold AUS Academic Integrity code.
i) All physical properties are assumed constant in all questions.
ii) Provide full and clear derivations and justifications of your work
iii) In case a shell balance is required or needed, show the control volume clearly.

1. [5 marks] Estimate the diffusivity DAB (in cm2/s) of H2 (A) in Argon (B) at 2.6310-4
atm and 527oC using Eq. 17.3-12.

2. [9 marks] An isothermal second order chemical reaction occurs in a plug flow reactor
(PFR).
AD
A is present in small amounts in B. The inlet concentration is CA0, and the flow is to be
treated as piston flow with a uniform velocity profile v. The binary mass diffusivity is
represented as DAB.
a) [3 marks] Neglecting diffusion and using a shell balance, show that the
concentration profile satisfies
dC
v A  kC2A
dz
Show clearly your control volume.

b) [3 marks] Find the concentration profile as a function of z.

c) [3 marks] Using Appendix B.11 and including diffusion effects while treating the
system as pseudo-binary, find the new differential equation.

3. [9 marks] A solid sphere of radius a is immersed in a quiescent liquid enclosed in an

impermeable spherical container of radius R. A homogeneous chemical reaction
( A  D ) of order 0, and of constant k ( R A   k  ) occurs in the solution. The
solubility of A in the solution is assumed small and denoted as c A 0 , and the binary mass
diffusivity as DAB (in which B denotes the solvent). Consider the steady state problem.

a) [3 marks] Using a shell balance, prove the following equation

1 d  dc 
DAB 2  r 2 A   k 
r dr  dr 
Show clearly your control volume.

b) [3 marks] Find the concentration profile cA r  .

c) [3 marks] Find the rate of dissolution using two different ways.

4. [8 marks] Consider forced convection past a flat plate at T0.
The following temperature profile in the thermal boundary layer is assumed to be
T  T0  T0  T 
y
T
where y is the distance from the surface of the plate, and  T is the thermal boundary
layer thickness.
The x-component of the velocity profile is approximated by
y
v x  v

a) [2 marks] Which two boundary conditions are satisfied for the temperature profile?
Justify your answer.
b) [6 marks] Assuming   1 and the hydrodynamic boundary layer thickness  to be
given by
x
 
v
find the relationship between  and Pr, using the integral method, and assuming the
constant  is given.

5. [11 marks] Consider unsteady cooling in a spherical pellet of radius R. The rate at
which heat is generated per unit volume is Sv. Cooling occurs at the boundary through a
heat transfer coefficient h with a coolant fluid at T. The steady state temperature profile
is denoted as Ts.
The unsteady-state temperature profile satisfies
T 1   T  Sv
  2  r2 
t r r  r  Ĉp
a) [3 marks] Show that   T  Ts satisfies
 1   2  
  
 2    
r t
where   ;   2
R R
b) [2 marks] Show that  is subject to the following boundary conditions:

at   0 ; 0

  hR 
at   1 ;   Bi   Bi  
  k 
c) [4 marks] Show that   T  Ts is given by

 

   A n  n ,  n  exp  2n 
n 1

Find an expression for  n , n  , and write the equation satisfied by the Eigenvalues  n .
Hint: you can use Appendix C.
d) [2 marks] The initial temperature is T0. Give an expression for the An coefficients as a
function of T0 and Ts.