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STUDY QUESTIONS
3.1 INTRODUCTION
Q. What is R*i?
The mass reaction rate.
Q. What is r*i?
The molar reaction rate.
Q. What is 𝝃̇?
𝑟𝑖
The extent of reaction. It is equivalent to .
𝑣𝑖
Q. What are three requirements of a system of equations in matrix notation in order for the
system to have one unique solution?
The coefficient matrix must be square.
The coefficient matrix must be non-singular.
The solution column vector must be nonhomogeneous, e.g. not all zero components.
Q. What types of process flows are and are not amenable to linear modeling?
Unsteady state are not amenable. Sometimes, reactor and separator models are also no
amenable. In general, batch and steady state processes are amenable and simplified with linear
models.
Q. How many linearly independent equations can be written describing splitter performance?
C x (S-1), for C components and S streams. The S-1 comes from the constraint that all
fractional splits must sum to one.
Q. How many linearly independent fractional recoveries can be written for a separator?
C x (S-1) for C components and S streams. The sum of the fractional recoveries for a
component across all streams must be 1.
Q. Compare diverging trees, converging trees, and loops. How are each of these approached?
Diverging tree- starts at one point and branches out. Solved most easily beginning to end.
Converging tree- many units converge to one unit. Solved most easily end to beginning, or by
arbitrarily specifying input flows and then scaling everything accordingly at the end.
Loops: flows move backward and forward between units. Set up linear models for each units as
usual, then walk through to relate an inlet stream to a looping stream.