Software FEMLAB

This appendix gives a brief overview of the methods that are preprogrammed in the software packages Excel, MATLAB, Aspen Plus, and FEMLAB. The interested reader may pursue the references for more specific details. 

This example will highlight the radial effects in a tubular reactor, which up until now have been neglected to simplify the calculations. Now, the effects of parameters such as inlet temperature and flow rate will be studied using the software program FEMLAB. Follow the step-by-step procedure in the Web Module on the CD-ROM. 

Polymath 5.1 and a special version of FEMLAB are the software packages included with this book, along with extensive tutorials using screen shots. 

FEMLAB. The FEMLAB software includes a partial differential equation solver. This edition includes a specially prepared version of FEMLAB on its own CD-ROM. With FEMLAB the students can view both axial and radial temperature and concentration profiles. Five of the FEMLAB modules are ... 

Instructions are included on how to use not only the software package. of Polymath. MATLAB, and FEML. B. but also on how to apply ASPEN PLUS to solve CRE problems. Tutorials with detailed screen shots are provided for Polymath and FEMLAB. 

The numerical solutions of the governing model equations have been obtained (Ye et al., 2006 Abdullah et al., 2006) using the software package FEMLAB (Comsol, Sweden). The base values of model parameters were taken from the experimental work of Ye et al. (2007) and are listed in Table 14.1. 

In MATLAB, an optional pdetool toolbox allows one to solve 2-D BVPs and to perform various low-level mesh generation and assembly operations. There exists also a more advanced software package, FEMLAB, (www.comsol.com), from the developers of pdetool, that can solve multiple PDEs of various types in two and three dimensions. The supplemental material in the accompanying website contains an example of the use of FEMLAB to model a microftuidic H-filer, requiring the simultaneous solution of the Navier-Stokes equations and a mass balance. A second FEMLAB example in the supplemental material models natural convection between two flat, vertical plates at different temperatures (Figure 6.30). 

---