Access and Utilization of the DIPPR Physical Property Database in Ch. E. Education

Problem solving with real data is very important in the practice of chemical engineering, and many educational benefits arise when realistic problems are incorporated in chemical engineering coursework. The educational use of realistic problems has been hindered by the difficulty of finding reliable and consistent property data and making these data conveniently available during the problem solving process.

Recent developments within POLYMATH Software™ now provide convenient and interactive access to the DIPPR® physical property database during problem solving. This capability within POLYMATH also allows problems containing the database property information to be easily exported to Excel® and MATLAB™ for problem solution.

Details of an interface for accessing the physical property database during problem solving will be given. Examples will be given using POLYMATH, Excel and MATLAB. The presentation will feature real-time demonstrations. The combination of numerical problem solving with access to physical property data may well become a new paradigm in ChE education.