Archived-Announcements-2013

From most recent to earliest

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• 27 Apr: It's with great sadness that I wish to let you know that Dr. Don Woods passed away on Friday evening. He was a phenomenal instructor in our department, and we all still benefit from the work he did. The problem solving method we use (Define, Explore, Plan, Do, Check, Generalize) was adapted and refined for Chem Eng applications by him, among many other contributions. We will use much more of his work in the upcoming 4N4 course next term. Details about his life and funeral.
• 18 Apr: grades for assignment 4A AND 4B (combined) have been uploaded into Avenue.
• 18 Apr: grades for the final exam and course project will be available at the end of the month.
• 11 Apr: details about the final exam.
• 10 Apr: Another reminder that course evaluations are running. The comments and feedback you provide are extremely helpful to improve this course, and other courses that I teach at McMaster.
• 09 Apr: if you want to improve your Python skills over the summer, consider registering for this Coursera course.
• 09 Apr: the final class on Wednesday will be an overview of the entire course, and review what we have covered. This should be helpful as part of your learning for the final exam.
• 28 Mar: the course project scope, like all engineering projects, has just been updated. Please download the revised PDF; changes are marked in red text. It is due on 05 April, at 15:00 (updated).
• 27 Mar: bring your laptops to class; the class will be tutorial-like, with Q&A, so everyone can benefit from each other's questions and the answers.
  • I'm glad that many of you got your problems sorted out with your code at the tutorial class tonight, and figured out now how to set up the course project. That was exactly the purpose, so that you can all learn from each other, even if you are different stages of the project.
• 25 Mar: code on this page has been updated to show how to find an optimum.
• 25 Mar: a number of you are struggling with MATLAB code, and even more concerning, the conceptual issues around the course project. Rather than continue with new material, I will make the next 2 classes (11A and 11B) more tutorial like. Come with your questions, and let's make sure we get some good projects submitted!
• 24 Mar: Project update 1
  • The project due date has been postponed to 04 April, at 17:30, to give you some more time to get a really good simulation and report together.
  • The heat transfer coefficient should be \(U = 631\,\text{W.m}^{-2}\text{.K}^{-1}\)
  • The following requirements have also been removed from the project, because they are not a core part of the course.
    • No need for any mechanical design, materials of construction (i.e. cross out the entire 3rd bullet point of step 3)
  • I will be specifying the gas viscosity, particle size of the catalyst, and the number of tubes to use in the next day or two. For now you should be able to use reasonable estimates of these, based on what typical reactors look like and by looking up typical values.
• 21 Mar: I was surprised that most of you had not seen structured variables in MATLAB before in tonight's class. I had assumed you were familiar with them. I have updated the code to show how structured variables can be used to carry information around between the outer function (driver.m) and the inner function (pfr_example.m).
• 18 Mar: we will begin the next section on steady-state nonisothermal reactor design.
• 17 Mar: the next 2 tutorial sessions will be an open opportunity for you and your group to start your course project. Come with your plan and work on it in tutorial time. The instructor and TAs will be available for general guidance. This is a good practice round for the sorts of projects you will start to see in your 4th year courses, where you have limited assistance from the TAs and instructor.
• 14 Mar: for those that missed the class, here are the notes used in class tonight. However most of the material written up on the board was derived, or from memory, so you'll have to watch the video for that.
• 12 Mar: solutions to tutorial 5 are posted (assignment 3B)
• 12 Mar: I've been asked to post a summary of the problem solving strategy (plan/explore/etc). There is a complete worked out example in the midterm solutions for the last question. You should also read this article - note that the method was designed here at McMaster, and is now widely uses across the world by other universities.
• 10 Mar: the next tutorial is posted, and is due as part of assignment 4 on Friday, 15 March in the Chem Eng dropbox, by 16:00; (or hand in at class on 14 March).
• 10 Mar: assignment 4 consists of the following 40 points:
  • Questions 2 [9] and 3 [11 points] from tutorial 6.
  • Question 1 from tutorial 7 [20 points].
• 07 Mar: details about the course project are posted now. It is due sooner than you think. Material in prior classes and the coming classes are required to successfully complete this project.
  • Update: you can do the project on your own; with one other person; or in a group of 3. Groups larger than 3 are not allowed, there isn't enough work in the project to have groups larger than this. Groups smaller than 3 obviously will require more work per person, but then that's your choice.
• 05 Mar: as requested, I've posted some suggested problems for you to work on outside tutorials and assignments.
• 04 Mar: a summary of the course evaluations. Thank you for your valuable feedback.
• 03 Mar: You might be interested in the YouTube webcasts present by Dr. Fogler, on various chapters of his textbook. Most of the videos cover exactly the same topics as this course.
• 03 Mar: the next tutorial, tutorial 6 is posted.
• 28 Feb: if you wish to purchase and use Polymath for the course, visit http://polymath-software.com/fogler/ to get discount coupon codes. A 4-month software version can cost US$ 13.95 after using the coupon.
• 28 Feb: midterm grades are posted in Avenue; they will be returned at class.
• 26 Feb: grades for the assignments (1 and 2) have been uploaded to Avenue. Grades for assignment 3 will be available after assignment 3B is graded. Grades for the midterm will be available on Thursday. Please bring any discrepancy to my attention right away.
• 25 Feb: please review the example covered in class on 25 February. Ensure that you understand how the problem was derived and then coded into your choice of Polymath, Python or MATLAB. Run the code for your choice and duplicate the plots shown.
• 22 Feb: Tutorial 5 is posted. Please have a copy of MATLAB, Python and/or Polymath installed on your laptops. If you can't get it working, bring your computer to Monday's tutorial and I will help getting it working.
  • The tutorial is due as assignment 3B on 28 February.
  • Some demo source code to help you in the tutorial is now available.
• 22 Feb: Solutions to the midterm are posted. At the very least, please read the comments on the first 2 pages; we also went through the solutions in the class on 14 February.
• 14 Feb: please bring your laptops to the tutorial on Monday/Tuesday (25 and 26 Feb). We will learning to use Python, MATLAB and/or Polymath.
• 13 Feb: a copy of the midterm has been posted. Please bring it to class on Thursday ... we will be reviewing it.
• 11 Feb: Solutions to assignment 3 are now posted to help you prepare for the midterm.
• The tutorials on Monday on Tuesday are a chance for you to review any questions from your studies for the midterm. Come with questions and concepts you don't understand. I cannot make it to the Tuesday tutorial (but Vida is there). Plenty of space on the Monday tutorial.
• Important: Details about the midterm are posted.
• Tutorial 4 has been posted; it is due as assignment 3A on 11 February.
  • Only questions 1, 2 and 3 are due for hand-in. Question 4 should be attempted on your own though.
  • No late hand-ins on this one, because solutions will be posted right away so you can study for the midterm on 13 February.
  • Note that in question 1, the correct value for \(K_C= 100\,\text{mol.m}^{-3}\).
• Complete solutions have been posted for assignment 2.
• For the class on Thursday, 31 January
  • Print and bring the handout from Monday's class on stoichiometric tables.
  • Bring the handout from Wednesday's class on stoichiometric tables.
  • If you like, print the slides used in class on Wednesday.
• 28 Jan: Assignment 2 is posted and is due in class on 30 January.
• 27 Jan: Tutorial 3 is available now.
• 24 Jan: The slides on undergraduate projects with the MACC
• If you want to receive these announcements on your cell, but don't have a Twitter account, text: follow 3k4reactors to this number 21212 and you'll get a text message instead of a tweet.
• Assignments are due in class on Monday night, 21 Jan, or submit it electronically (do not submit in the Chem Eng dropbox).
  • To submit electronically, you should start and complete your assignment in Google Docs. Then share the assignment with the 2 gmail addresses given in the link above.
• There's been a request that the course slides be made available for the entire week. This is unfortunately not possible as the slides are being prepared as the course proceeds, being finished just before class. An unfortunate side-effect of teaching a course for the first time and updating the material.
• The course videos and audio are available regarding the course overview. In the future I won't announce these. Click on the link in the Administrative section above.
• The first assignment/tutorial is posted. See you on Monday/Tuesday in the tutorial slot.
• Slides for the overview class are available.
• The course outline is now available.
• The first class is Monday, 07 January in T13, room 127 at 17:30.
• Welcome to the website for 3K4, Introduction to Reactor Design.