Software

Math and Engineering Software

  • Polymath Polymath is an extremely user friendly software package that is best suited for solving chemical reaction engineering problems. In this text/website we will mostly use DEQ for solving coupled differential equations, e.g., conversion and temperature, but will also use REG for fitting data to a curve as well as non-linear regression to determine the best values of parameters to fit the data.

  • Wolfram Wolfram CDF Player is used for viewing .cdf files. Its main feature is creating dynamic and interactive examples which allow users to vary various parameters using sliders and generate results live (i.e. allow users to immediately change parameters, and continuously update the plot.) If you wish to also edit the code that generates these programs, you will need to purchase and download Wolfram Mathematica, which can be found here: http://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/. (Note for all U-M students: CAEN computers have Mathematica installed, so you can easily edit and view the mathematica files.)

  • Python Python is a general purpose language for scientific computing and data processing. Through Jupyter Notebooks, it is used to interact with computational simulations on the web.

  • MATLAB MATLAB is a high-performance language for technical computing. It is a matrix-based language which allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementation of algorithms, and interfacing with programs written in other languages. To run MATLAB code you need MATLAB software can be purchased from https://www.mathworks.com/.

  • COMSOL: The Chemical Reaction Engineering Module in COMSOL is used to solve space and time-dependent problems.

  • Excel Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application which uses grid of cells arranged in rows and columns to perform basic and complex mathematical computations and functions. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language. In this text, we will use Excel for performing linear regression.

  • Aspen Plus: Instructions for using Aspen Plus to solve chemical reaction engineering problems (software not included).
    The Aspen™ website can be found at www.aspentech.com.

  • Visual Encyclopedia of Equipment - Reactors Section: Additional information on different types of reactors.

  • Reactor Lab: Instructions for using ReactorLab to simulate a variety of chemical reactors.

Multimedia Software

  • Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome is the preferred web browser for this website.
  • Acrobat Reader 9.0 or higher Installation
  • Adobe Flash Player 10.0 or higher Installation
  • Adobe Shockwave 11.5 or higher Installation
  • PowerPoint 2007 or 2010 is used to display some materials.  If you do not have this software, then please download the PowerPoint Viewer and install the free software from the Microsoft download page.