Courses | VD Academic Affairs

High pressure vessels, cylindrical vessels, spherical vessels, methods of fabrication, materials of construction, reasons for vessel failure, thin tanks, design of closures, tall vertical vessels, self-supported and guyed vessels, flanges, gaskets, pump and compressor selection, heat exchangers.

The student undertakes an independent project (theoretical and/or experimental) under the supervision of a faculty advisor, the objective is to provide the student with an opportunity to integrate and apply the knowledge gained throughout his courses in an actual problem, the student must document his study in a technical report and give an oral presentation.

First order differential equation. Partial differential equations. Laplace transforms. Fourier transform. Separation of variables. Similarity solution. Pertubation analysis. Polynomial approximation. Non-linear regression. Multiple regression. Introduction to neural networks.

This objective of this course is to give students a good grounding in fluidization technology, which is widely employed in the petrochemical and other industry sectors. Topics to be covered include: basics of fluidization; types of fluidized bed (e.g. dense-phase, fast-fluidized beds, three-phase beds, etc.); industrial applications; gas distributors - their importance and design; gas cleaning equipment, e.g. cyclones, bag filters, etc., bubble mechanics; heat and mass transfer; modelling and design.

Background to the food industry, food-processing operations; brief descriptions of relevant food chemistry and microbiology; heat-treatment operations; sterilization and pasteurization (retorting); UHT processing; refrigeration; and a description of food processing sectors relevant to Kuwait (e.g. milling and baking).

Review of first second and third laws of thermodynamics. Applications of the first and second laws. Fundamental equations and thermodynamic relations. Gibbs-Duhem equation. Partial molar quantities. Equations of state and fugacity calculations. Thermodynamic departure quantities. Intermolecular forces and property estimations. Phase equilibrium calculations. Chemical reaction equilibrium and effects of temperature and pressure on reaction conversions. Statistical thermodynamics and partition functions. Use of statistical thermodynamics in estimating thermodynamic properties.

Effect of temperature, pressure and mixing patterns on conversion and product distribution in complex homogeneous reactions. Theoretical models for non-ideal flow and fluid mixing.

History of artificial intelligence. Expert system knowledge, computing and manipulation of knowledge. Proces applications of expert systems such as the co-operate intelligence network, production management and supervision including setpoint optimization, process sequencing and production recipes. Process control applications in intelligent operator interface, predictive control and fuzzy control. Applications in safety systems and alarm management.

Different patterns of flow: in an annulus, two immescible fluids, creeping. Equation of continuity, of motion and of change. Velocity distribution in turbulent flow. Time smoothed equations, eddy viscosity and friction factors for different flows. Fluidized bed hydrodynamics. Turbulance theory and applications to mixing.

Correlations of heat transfer coefficient. Unsteady and two dimensional conduction: analytical solution compared to numerical techniques and where each method fits. Thermal boundary-layers flow and temperature distribution in turbulent flows. Application of different numerical techniques in fluid flow-heat transfer problems. Introduction to some topics in radiation. Two phase heat transfer case study for design.

Models for diffusion and dispersion. Mass transfer with chemical reactions. Simultaneous heat and mass transfer. Modelling of absorption, extraction and adsorption systems. Energy requirements for operations. Synthesis of separation sequences.

Principles of molecular diffusion and measurement and characteristics of diffusion coefficient. Flow field induced by mass transfer. Heat and mass transfer in absence of a flow field. Flow field induced by body forces or external forces, finite difference solution of transport problems. Moving boundary problems.

Dispersion models of pollutants in the atmosphere. Particulate matter and design of control equipment. Gaseous pollutants and design of control equipment. Atmospheric photochemical reactions. Instrumentation, measurement and emission testing equipment. Air pollution packages. Application.

Concept of clean technologies with minimal emissions. Concept of waste minimization and its applications in process design. Waste reduction technologies such as in-plant modifications, recycle, recovery and re-use and waste exchange. Case studies will include examples from petroleum refining, petrochemical and chemical industries.

Introduction to Computer Aided Design (CAD). Chemical Engineering Simulation Systems (CHESS). Flow sheet synthesis. Distillation column simulators (Distill). Absorption, extraction and distillation simulators (ABDIS). Workshop problems.