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ChE 240 Sample Midterm Questions

This document provides sample midterm questions for a chemical engineering course. It includes 8 practice problems that cover various chemical engineering topics like: [1] direct algorithms and numerical errors, [2] solving systems of linear equations in MATLAB, [3] applying Newton's method for root finding, [4] significant figures in approximate numerical solutions, [5] developing an iterative algorithm to solve an equation of state using Newton's method, [6] writing MATLAB code to implement the iterative algorithm, and [7] setting up a system of equations for chemical reactions in parallel and computing the Jacobian matrix. Students are instructed to show their work and answer concisely without wasting time copying the questions.

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Ahmed Ali
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93 views2 pages

ChE 240 Sample Midterm Questions

This document provides sample midterm questions for a chemical engineering course. It includes 8 practice problems that cover various chemical engineering topics like: [1] direct algorithms and numerical errors, [2] solving systems of linear equations in MATLAB, [3] applying Newton's method for root finding, [4] significant figures in approximate numerical solutions, [5] developing an iterative algorithm to solve an equation of state using Newton's method, [6] writing MATLAB code to implement the iterative algorithm, and [7] setting up a system of equations for chemical reactions in parallel and computing the Jacobian matrix. Students are instructed to show their work and answer concisely without wasting time copying the questions.

Uploaded by

Ahmed Ali
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Sample Midterm Questions

The Midterm will be in this same format.

ChE 240, Spring 2021


First Midterm

Answer the following questions and problems on sheets of paper. DO NOT WASTE TIME
COPYING THE QUESTION. (There is, however, one sketch you will have to reproduce).
Some of these are short questions and some are longer problems. Do not waste time with
long answers to the short question. Number the problems carefully and where appropriate,
draw a box around the answer. Submit your test papers via LMS as a single pdf.

Prob. 1. What is meant by a direct algorithm? Give an example of a direct algorithm.

Prob. 2. What are the two main sources of errors in numerical computations? Give a brief
description/definition of each.

Prob. 3. A set of linear algebraic equations can be written in vector-matrix form as:
Ax=b
where A is the coefficient matrix, x, the vector of unknowns, and b the vector of right hand
sides.
What does MATLAB return as a result of the following statements? State clearly whether B and
S are matrices, vectors, or scalars.

B = inv(A)

S = A\b

Prob. 4. Below is a sketch of the first iteration of an algorithm that finds a root of the function,
f(x).

f(x) f(x)

first iteration

x1 xo x
(i) What is this particular algorithm called?

(ii) Draw in the next iteration

Prob. 5 The exact answer to 7 figures for a certain problem is 3.234567. A numerical
calculation results in an answer of 3.234244. How many significant figures does the
approximate answer have if rounding is used? If chopping is used?
Prob. 6. A popular equation of state is the Carnahan/Starling Equation. It is of the form

2 3 3
P/RT = a η (1 + η + η − η ) / ( 1 − η)

Where P/RT have their usual meaning, a is a constant, and η is the molar density.

6a. Develop Newton’s method for finding η, given all the other parameters. (To make the
notation simpler, use the symbol x instead of the greek letter η and let P/(aRT) = K. )
Write out the recursion relation in detail, i.e. not f(x)/f’(x) for the next guess for η, given an
initial guess.

6b. Write a MATLAB procedure that applies three interations of the algorithm, assuming an
initial guess xo. Do not apply any convergence criterion or input/output – just the inner
loop.

7. Consider two reactions in parallel, both of which involve a reagent A.

2A + B = C

3A + D = E

Starting with a stochiometric mixture of A, B and D, and letting x denote the degree of
conversion to C, and y the degree of conversion to E, the equilibrium conditions may be
written as
K1 = x/[(5 – 2x – 3y)2 (1-x)]

K2 = y/[(5 – 2x – 3y)2 (1-y)]


7a. Write these as a root finding problem to find x and y that satisfy these conditions.

7b. Write out the formula for the Jacobian matrix.


8. There will be a tank problem…

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