Phase diagrams case studies

In this section we try to summarize what is known experimentally about the critical exponents in binary mixtures, together with some comments on the experimental techniques that have been used or that could be used. In the tables, estimates of range or uncertainty ( ) are the opinions of the experimenter or of those who analyse the data, not of this reviewer. Sometimes these estimates are based upon a least-squares fit sometimes they are little more than intuition. In any case, because of one or more of the complications outlined in the previous section, the true value of the exponent may lie well outside the error limits reported. Coexistence Curves.—The most numerous and most extensive measurements on binary mixtures in the critical region are, of course, those of T, x phase diagrams. Early studies not designed to yield critical exponents are rarely useful because they include few if any precise measurements close to the critical point (/ < 10-3). 

Each chapter is designed to provide the content of a 50-minute lecture. Each block of four or so chapters is backed up by a set of Case Studies, which illustrate and consolidate the material they contain. There are special sections on design, and on such materials as wood, cement and concrete. And there are problems for the student at the end of each chapter for which worked solutions can be obtained separately, from the publisher. In order to ease the teaching of phase diagrams (often a difficult topic for engineering students) we have included a programmed-learning text which has proved helpful for our own students. 

The process involved in the incident is concerned with the separation of crude into three phases. The crude is pumped into a two stage separation process where it is divided into three phases oil, gas, and water. The water is cleaned up and dumped to drain. The remaining mixture of oil and gas is then pumped into the main oil line where it is metered and sent on for further processing. A simplified process diagram is shown in Figure 7.1. The case study described here is centered on a flange leak in one of the oil pipeline pumps (pump A) and its associated pressure relief valve piping. 

The phase diagrams we have shown are based upon the fact that A and B form solid mutually soluble solid state solutions. If they do not, i.e.- they are not mutually soluble in the solid state, then the phase diagram becomes more complicated. As an example, consider the following, which is the case of limited solid solubility between A and B. (N.B.- study the following diagrams carefully)"... 

The information available on aqueous polymer blends is qualitative in nature because of the lack of a suitable theory to interpret the experimental observations. Mixed gels can be comprised of an interpenetrating network, a coupled network (as discussed above), or a phase-separated network [2]. The latter is the most common as the blends have a tendency to form two phases during gelation. In such cases the miscibility and thermodynamic stability have to be empirically investigated and proper conditions for miscible blends identified. This involves a phase diagram study as is described in [3]. 

As a case study an acetic acid process has been given. Acetic acid is produced by a liquid-phase methanol carbonylation. Acetic acid is formed by the reaction between methanol and carbon monoxide which is catalysed by rhodium iodocarbonyl catalyst. The process diagram is shown in Figure 7. 

As an example for the specific case of vanadium alloys with palladium, the trend of the average atomic volume of the alloys is shown in Fig. 4.20 and compared with the phase diagram. These data were obtained by Ellner (2004) who studied the solid solutions of several metals (Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co and Ni) in palladium. The alloys were heat treated at 800°C and water-quenched. From the unit cell parameters measured by X-ray diffraction methods, the average atomic volume was obtained Vat = c 14 (see Table 4.3). These data together with those of the literature were reported in a graph, and the partial molar (atomic) value of the vanadium volume in Pd solid solution (Fv)... 

A ternary system consisting of two polymer species of the same kind having different molecular weights and a solvent is the simplest case of polydisperse polymer solutions. Therefore, it is a prototype for investigating polydispersity effects on polymer solution properties. In 1978, Abe and Flory [74] studied theoretically the phase behavior in ternary solutions of rodlike polymers using the Flory lattice theory [3], Subsequently, ternary phase diagrams have been measured for several stiff-chain polymer solution systems, and work [6,17] has been done to improve the Abe-Flory theory. 

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