Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics

Laboratory Manual
Spring, 2008

Zhengzhou University School of Chemical Engineering

Website: http://202.196.64.141/e-ChemEng/courses/106-thermodynamics/

Table of Contents
Introduction Laboratory Safety Co-ordinator and Teaching Assistants Subjects and Experiments Group Allocation Timetable Grading Laboratory Notebook Report Experiments Experiment 1: Experimental Measurement of P-V-T data Experiment 2: Measurement of activity coefficient at infinite dilution by using gas chromatograph Experiment 3: Measurement of Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium Data Experiment 4: Refrigeration cycle experiment Appendix: How to Write a Report

Introduction
The object of this course is to introduce the basic principles and methods of experimental engineering to the students majoring in the Chemical Engineering and Technology Department. The primary emphasis of the course is on fundamental understanding the underlying principles of the topics that have been discussed in the lectures using various experimental techniques, instruments and apparatus designed specifically for the subjects concerned. This laboratory course involves not only the hardware aspects of experimentation, but also the study of instrumentation and measurements techniques, as well as the philosophical content that should help serve as a foundation for the future professional career of mechanical engineers. In general, there might not be a single unique answer to the laboratory problems. Then, the student may determine the best 'answer' possible within the framework of the equipment available, the estimated errors, etc. The teaching staff have all solved similar problems before and can assist with the procedures and techniques required for the successful completion of the experiment. Hence, success in the course will depend upon the student's own initiative and ideas toward the problem solving in a given experiment. This laboratory manual available to all students at the beginning of the semester contains the detailed information about the experiment objectives with each having a brief introduction, a short description of the facility, suggestions for summary and a few references. Students must prepare themselves for the next scheduled experiment following the appropriate hand-out. Teaching Assistants conduct brief quizzes before students are allowed access to the experimental set-up to make sure students are ready. Students will not be allowed to perform the experiment without satisfactory knowledge of the expected work in the laboratory.

Laboratory Safety
Safety is of the most importance in the laboratory. Because students will be working frequently with hazardous chemicals dangerous enough to suffocate and/or burn human body instantly. Safety is essential. All students must view the safety video, entitled "Safety First in Campus Labs" during the first session of the laboratory. If students have any doubt and questions about safety, stop immediately what have been doing and consult Teaching Assistants/Coordinators. In order to avoid or at least minimise the risk of an accident the followings are requested. Students not complying with these simple rules will be asked to leave the session. (1) Know where the fire extinguisher is located in the laboratory. (2) Wear suitable footwear (i.e. no bare feet, no open toe shoes). (3) Do not wear clothes that may be caught in apparatus (i.e. no loose clothing). (4) Long hair should be tied behind the head. (5) Safety goggles must be worn around testing equipment, rotating machinery, and chemicals. (6) Do not consume food or drink, nor smoke in the laboratory. (7) All experiment must be performed within the allocated time. Students are not allowed to work in the laboratory without proper supervision.

Co-ordinator, Technician & Teaching Assistants In Charge Spring term 2008

1. Co-ordinator: Prof. Baozeng Ren 2. Technician: Mrs. Chunlan Ban 3. Teaching Assistants: There will be seven teaching assistants for this course. They will have responsibility for safety in

the laboratory, demonstration and conducting the laboratory experiments, answering questions, asking quizzes and grading the notebooks and reports. They will explain the underlying principles of the experiments and show how to properly use the machines, instruments and apparatus required for the experiments.

Teaching Assistants Name Experiments Huang Qiang Experimental Measurement of P-V-T data Ren Baozeng Measurement of activity coefficient at infinite dilution by gas chromatograph Jiang Zhenxi Measurement of Vapor Liquid Equilibrium Data Hou Cuihong Refrigeration cycle experiment 4. Introduction: (Room 405North BuildingExperiment Center for Chemical Engneering) Laboratory 1: (Room 208North BuildingExperiment Center for Chemical Engneering) Laboratory 2: (Room 404North BuildingExperiment Center for Chemical Engneering) Laboratory 3: (Room 407North BuildingExperiment Center for Chemical Engneering) Laboratory 4: (Room 409North BuildingExperiment Center for Chemical Engneering)

Subjects and Experiments

The laboratory experiments in this course will be performed in groups of three to four students. The laboratory has been arranged such that each stand has sufficient space and equipment for these groups. Each group will perform one experiment per week, and should hand in a report by the following week. There are 4 experiments in this semester which are divided into four main subjects:

Group Allocation Group with 6

Grading
The final grade for each student will be determined based on the following component weights for each experiment. The marks for reports and notebooks are assigned to the whole group while those for quizzes and lab performance are assigned to each student member in a group. Therefore, the individual students in each group may get different marks depending on their performance for quizzes and during the experiments. Reports: Contents 50% and Organization and Format 10% Laboratory Performance and Notebooks: 25% Quiz: 15 % Total: 100%

Laboratory Notebook
A laboratory notebook must be kept by each group. It will contain the most intimate thoughts, as well as all possible methods of solving problems that arise; for example, why one method has been chosen as best, raw data, calculations, error estimates, etc. Write legibly so that the brilliance of your thoughts can be seen by those grading your efforts. It will also be informative for the Teaching Assistants/Coordinators to see how each group conducts the designed experiments, so that in the back of each notebook a log of the hours spent working on each experiment should be kept, as well as a brief description of what has been done for each period logged. The notebooks must be suitable for producing graphs of raw data. Each new experiment must begin at the top of a clean page and be titled by the experiment name. The notebook should include sketches of the experimental configuration, dimensions, block diagrams, etc. as necessary to adequately describe your procedure. Sufficient detail must be included so that someone else can ascertain what has been studied and accomplished. All of your raw data must be recorded in your lab notebook. Since very little can be learned by looking at a column of numbers, a rough graph, as appropriate, MUST be made in the notebook of the results to confirm the expected trend of the experiment. Before leaving the laboratory, the Teaching Assistant must sign your notebook after each laboratory session. The notebooks will be collected and graded.

Reports
Each group is required to prepare a written report at the conclusion of every experiment. The reports must always be brief, but yet provide sufficient information to convey to the reader that you understood the principles and techniques involved. The reports for this course should never exceed 15 equivalent typed pages. Note that the largest percent of your final grade will be determine by the report of each group's laboratory experiment. Laboratory partners in a group should discuss the experiment among themselves until they fully understand all of its aspects. If parts of the experiment need further clarification, consult with the TeachingAssistants/Coordinators. A plagiarized report (whether in part or in full) including copying from other sources, from reports prepared by other groups, including another group in particular, will not be allowed and will result in a zero grade. All reports MUST be handed in to the Teaching Assistant in charge by the days of the week following the experiments. This means that students will have precisely one week to prepare their report after each experiment. 20% of the grade allocated for reports will be deducted for every one day late submission. These reports should conform to acceptable standards of report writing. The type of information in your reports will vary from one experiment to another, but your reporting style should always state the purpose, background, technique, and results as clearly as possible. Your reports should always contain a cover page, short abstract, brief introduction, main body, and summary/conclusions. (1) Cover sheet: Contains the course title, experiment number and name, name of teaching assistant in charge, group number, names and ID numbers of students, dates of experiment and submission, etc. (2) Abstract: A "report in miniature" that gives a sampling of the contents. (3) Introduction: States the purpose of experiment and provides preliminary material and motivation. (4) Main body: Normally splits into subheadings including, (a) Experimental plan.

(b) Experimental and/or analytical techniques with sketches and diagrams. (c) Sections to explain, discuss and/or prove special problems, e.g. hypothesis, dynamic response, etc. (d) Results including graphs of your data. (5) Discussion, Conclusions and/or Summary: Discusses the principle results and how they conform to the expectations. (6) References: List of supporting documents used and cited in the report. (7) Appendices: Contains information necessary to the report but not important enough to include in the main body; examples may include sample calculations, mathematical derivations and lemmas, error analysis and data tabulation. Your suggestions on how the experiment might be modified to improve the clarity of illustration of principles, the functionality of the experiments are always welcome. You may include your feedback in the Appendices part of the report. DOs and DONTs Many important points are often lost in the reports because a few rules are not properly followed. The most common cause is that the writers are not specific enough in making a statement about their experiment or results. To guide you, a few simple DO's and DON'Ts are listed below. Please refer to the article appended at the end of this manual for further details on "How to write a Report." DO use folders for your reports (they can be reused in the future) DO label all graphs with a title, a figure number, the variables on the abscissa and ordinate, the dimensions of the variables, etc. DO write the equation of any line/curve in a graph used to correlate data. DO use figures and sketches to explain complicated mechanisms. ("A picture is worth a thousand words.") DO define your variables the first time they are used. DO order your figures sequentially in the report. DO use equations ton describe the physical phenomenon under study but, always provide a reference for them if they are derived in the report. DO use error analysis to ascertain the uncertainty and accuracy in your data. DONT place any important results in the appendices. Only results that are supportive of your main thesis should be in the appendices. DON'T use the 1st and 2nd person. Professional reports always use the 3rd person; e.g., Don't say "We set up the experiment ..." but rather state "The experiment was set up ..." DON'T crowd the graphs, figures and text so that when they are bound the left-hand margin cannot be seen. DON'T include graphs, figures, appendices without referencing or referring to them in the report. DON'T report more digits in a result than allowed by the accuracy of the experiment; i.e. if your instrument can only resolve two decimal places, do not report a final result implying more accuracy. DON'T use words such as a "good approximation", "small error", etc. instead, be specific by stating "approximately 5%", "only 2% error", etc.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING THERMODYNAMICS LABORATORY

EXPERIMENT 3: MEASUREMENT OF THE VAPOURLIQUID EQUILIBRIUM DATA see saparated file