Chemical Engineering with Maple

Abstract

Chemical engineering students are required (by accreditation agencies) to make appropriate use of computers throughout their program. Appropriate use is defined as including most of the following: (1) programming in a high level language; (2) use of software packages for analysis and design; (3) use of appropriate utilities; (4) simulation of engineering problems. Maple (Char, 1991) is a powerful and flexible computing tool that has the potential of becoming the software of choice for much scientific and engineering work, perhaps replacing, at least in part, other computer based methods such as traditional programming languages and special purpose analysis and design programs. The fact that Maple is designed for symbolic manipulation should not be taken to imply that it is unsuitable for the numerical calculations that dominate engineering computing today. Maple’ s symbolic mathematical abilities combined with numerical capabilities and sophisticated graphics allow new approaches to the teaching of traditional materials. In this paper we focus on a few ways in which Maple can be used in selected courses in the chemical engineering curriculum.