CHEN30005: Heat and Mass Transport Processes

Exam (70%, primarily covering mass transfer), 2 practical "reports" (2.5% each, these are more like answering tutorial questions based on your results rather than an actual report with an abstract, intro. etc.), 2 assignments (5% each. This semester the assignments were designing a cooling tower for a given location and designing a distillation column to meet given specifications using HYSYS), midsemester test (15%, primarily covering heat transfer).

Content: This is one of the core subjects for the Chemical Systems major and is probably the most engaging and applicable to industry subject I have taken thus far. The content covered builds directly onto what was learnt in Transport Processes and is focused primarily on applying the concepts of heat transfer (forced convection, natural convection, diffusion) and mass transfer (Fick's first law and now second law for steady and unsteady mass transfer) to unit operations and more complex problems. For heat transfer, these included things like shell and tube heat exchangers (single and multiple pass), plate heat exchangers, phase changes in heat exchangers, natural convection around surfaces with isothermal boundary conditions and constant heat flux conditions etc. For mass transfer, this included flash distillation, differential distillation, multistage distillation, gas absorption/stripping, humidification (cooling towers) and membrane systems. As you can see, there is a huge amount of content covered which is why YOU MUST KEEP UP WITH TUTORIALS IF YOU HOPE TO PASS. I will say it here that Sandra (the lecturer) is notorious for writing exams and tests that tend to be difficult not because the questions asked are very obscure, but because she very often finds new ways to ask questions using the course's concepts. So, I would say that doing well in the course relies on you understanding the concepts inside and out as well as keeping up with the work which doesn't stop piling up even up to the very last day of class.

Lecturers: Sandra is absolutely up there as one of the best lecturers I've had so far in my degree. She reminds me a lot of David Shallcross in her style of teaching, and she puts a real emphasis on why the content is actually useful with constant references to industry applications which was great. Additionally, her lecture notes are very comprehensive (which is why there is no prescribed textbook; her notes are essentially the textbook) so you can rely fully on them. Additionally, Sandra is very active in the discussion board where you can ask questions about anything in the course which is extremely helpful (especially as assignment and exam deadlines draw near).

Assessment: In terms of the practical classes, these are extremely easy to do in class (often involving measurements of heights or simply using logging data), and the "reports" required are really just using your data to do what are essentially tutorial questions. For this reason, the practical classes are worth only 2.5% each for your final mark, and are more for guiding your study.

The assignments given are worth 5% each. For my assignments, the first involved designing a distillation column for a given specification in HYSYS (each student is given a different feed, distillate and bottoms condition to use as well as operating pressure so nobody can really copy anyone else). A short report of only 2 pages was allowed where you essentially discussed the fluid package choice, the process you went through to design the distillation column and some downstream operations you used to store your product. The second assignment involved designing a cooling tower for a given location (again, each student is given a different location). This assignment required you to use numerical integration which could be done by using Excel or MATLAB. In terms of how well these assignments were managed, how marks were distributed were uploaded by Sandra on the LMS in sample answers so this made it easy to know where you went right/wrong.

The midsemester test is 1.5 hours long and covers essentially all of the heat transfer content that will have been covered up until that point. If you have kept up with tutorials over this time you should be well prepared for the test, and Sandra does provide you with the previous year's midsemester test to practice. Note also that Sandra does give a "Heat Transfer Pre-Semester Test" on the LMS which is worth no marks, however questions from this test have shown up on midsemester tests before (eg. the first pre-semester test question was the first question on my midsem). The midsem was generally fair with no trick questions.

The final exam is worth 70% of the mark and requires you get 40% on it to pass. This paper can be very tough at times and will require you to really think about how to solve the problems, however if you go through the myriad of past papers you should be relatively well prepared for it. Again, there are no trick questions on the papers, however Sandra does have a problem with typos in exams which can be very annoying.

Recommendation: Again, this is a Chemical Systems major core subject so you will have to take this subject if you wish to proceed in this direction. However, if you wanted to take this subject, I would say it is a really great course to take for solving more complex problems related to heat and mass transfer that whilst tough, is very rewarding.

Yes

Prof. Sandra Kentish.

There are past exams going back several years, however pre-2010 papers do cover material not found in the current course. Sandra did provide numerical solutions to past papers going all the way back to 2002, and she often explained how to get the solution in the discussion board promptly which was great.

5 Out of 5

None.

3 lectures per week (two 1 hour lectures, one 2 hour lecture), 1 tutorial per week (1 hour), 2 practical classes per semester (3 hours per class), 1 computer simulation (HYSYS) class per semester (2 hours).

2014, Semester 1.

Not yet received.