In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. It does not assume or postulate any natural laws, but explains the macroscopic behavior of nature from the behavior of such ensembles.
Hard spheres are widely used as model particles in the statistical mechanical theory of fluids and solids. They are defined simply as impenetrable spheres that cannot overlap in space. They mimic the extremely strong repulsion that atoms and spherical molecules experience at very close distances. Hard spheres systems are studied by analytical means, by molecular dynamics simulations, and by the experimental study of certain colloidal model systems. The hard-sphere system provides a generic model that explains the quasiuniversal structure and dynamics of simple liquids.
Thermofluids is a branch of science and engineering encompassing four intersecting fields:
Denis James Evans, is an Australian scientist who is an Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University and Honorary Professor at The University of Queensland. He is widely recognised for his contributions to nonequilibrium thermodynamics and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and the simulation of nonequilibrium fluids.
According to van der Waals, the theorem of corresponding states indicates that all fluids, when compared at the same reduced temperature and reduced pressure, have approximately the same compressibility factor and all deviate from ideal gas behavior to about the same degree.
Barry Azzopardi (1947–2017) was a professor of chemical engineering specialising in multiphase flow research. He was a chartered engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers.
Arthur B. Metzner was a Canadian born United States professor of chemical engineering and noted rheologist.
In physics and thermodynamics, the Redlich–Kwong equation of state is an empirical, algebraic equation that relates temperature, pressure, and volume of gases. It is generally more accurate than the van der Waals equation and the ideal gas equation at temperatures above the critical temperature. It was formulated by Otto Redlich and Joseph Neng Shun Kwong in 1949. It showed that a two-parameter, cubic equation of state could well reflect reality in many situations, standing alongside the much more complicated Beattie–Bridgeman model and Benedict–Webb–Rubin equation that were used at the time. The Redlich–Kwong equation has undergone many revisions and modifications, in order to improve its accuracy in terms of predicting gas-phase properties of more compounds, as well as in better simulating conditions at lower temperatures, including vapor–liquid equilibria.
Leslie Gary Leal is the Warren & Katharine Schlinger Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is known for his research work in the dynamics of complex fluids.
In engineering, physics, and chemistry, the study of transport phenomena concerns the exchange of mass, energy, charge, momentum and angular momentum between observed and studied systems. While it draws from fields as diverse as continuum mechanics and thermodynamics, it places a heavy emphasis on the commonalities between the topics covered. Mass, momentum, and heat transport all share a very similar mathematical framework, and the parallels between them are exploited in the study of transport phenomena to draw deep mathematical connections that often provide very useful tools in the analysis of one field that are directly derived from the others.
Riki Kobayashi (1924–2013) was a chemical engineer and a long-time professor of chemical engineering at Rice University. A native of Harris County, Texas, he attended Rice University and earned the Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering at the age of 19. After serving in the U.S. Army, he went to the University of Michigan, where he earned the Master of Science degree in 1946 and the Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1951, both in chemical engineering. He became a member of the Rice faculty in 1951 and remained there until he retired in 1994. He died July 19, 2013, in Houston, Texas.
John Michael Prausnitz is a professor of chemical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, a position he has held since 1955.
Ioannis George (Yannís) Kevrekidis is currently the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering within the Whiting School of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University. He holds secondary appointments in the Whiting School's Department of Applied Mathematics & Statistics and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Department of Urology.
Dan Luss is an American chemical engineer, who is the Cullen Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Houston. He is known for his work in chemical reaction engineering, complex reacting systems, multiple steady-states reactor design, dynamics of chemical reactors, and combustion.
Gholam Ali Mansoori, G. Ali Mansoori also known as "GA Mansoori" is an Iranian-American scientist known for his research within energy, nanotechnology and thermodynamics. He is a professor at the Departments of Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering and also Physics at University of Illinois at Chicago.
Athanassios Z. Panagiotopoulos is currently the Susan Dod Brown Professor and Department Chair of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering of Princeton University.
Vladimir Nikolajevich Pokrovskii is a Russian scientist known for his original contributions to polymer physics and economic theory. He was the founder of the Altai school of dynamics of nonlinear fluids.
PC-SAFT is an equation of state that is based on statistical associating fluid theory (SAFT). Like other SAFT equations of state, it makes use of chain and association terms developed by Chapman, et al from perturbation theory. However, unlike earlier SAFT equations of state that used unbonded spherical particles as a reference fluid, it uses spherical particles in the context of hard chains as reference fluid for the dispersion term.
Carol Klein Hall is an American chemical engineer, the Camille Dreyfus Distinguished University Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at North Carolina State University. Her research involves biomolecule simulation, self-assembly of soft materials, and the design of synthetic peptides.
Ronald G. Larson is George G. Brown Professor of Chemical Engineering and Alfred H. White Distinguished University Professor at the University of Michigan, where he holds joint appointments in macromolecular science and engineering, biomedical engineering, and mechanical engineering. He is internationally recognized for his research contributions to the fields of polymer physics and complex fluid rheology, especially in the development of theory and computational simulations. Notably, Larson and collaborators discovered new types of viscoelastic instabilities for polymer molecules and developed predictive theories for their flow behavior. He has written numerous scientific papers and two books on these subjects, including a 1998 textbook, “The Structure and Rheology of Complex Fluids”.
