Fluid mechanics is an ancient science that alive incredibly today.

The modern

technology requires a deeper understanding of the behavior of real fluid on other hand

mathematical problems solved by new discovery. Fluids mechanics have many important role

in our society especially on engineering fields. For chemical engineering, it used in process

industry, for the computational fluid dynamics for oil and gas industry, for medical research

and biomedical device and many more.

The chemical engineer is responsible for the storage and transfer of the materials to

the reactor. Likely to involve pumps and piping. They may involve pneumatic conveying

(powders blown along in gas - more tricky). If one is a gas, then the flow will be by pressure

which means we have to allow for the change in density as it expands along the pipe (and the

effect of temperature as it typically cools). Hence the work on differential equations.

Fluid mechanics may have complicated systems where the analytical solution is tedious

and time consuming. Changing one or more boundary conditions may add more challenges.

Computer software provides easy and flexible solution to the fluid mechanics systems even

when the boundary conditions are changing to describe the reality. In this work MATLAB code

is used to solve the well-known third order ordinary differential equation that is Blasius

equation. The results obtained are compared to other numerical and analytical solution

available in the literature.

The MATLAB code used to solve Blasius equation is written using Euler method as
follows:

Mat Lab code for Euler to solve Blasius Equation

function
E=Euler(ff,fy,fz,a,b,ffa,ya,za,m)
m=80;
a=0.0;
b=8;
h=(b-a)/m;
ya=0.0;
za=0.39; %changed by trial and error until f(b)=1.0
ffa=0.0;
y(1)=ya;
z(1)=za;
ff(1)=ffa;
for j=1:m;
eta(j)=a+(h*(j-1)); ff(j+1)=ff(j)+(h*y(j));
y(j+1)=y(j)+(h*z(j)); z(j+1)=z(j)+(h*(-
1*ff(j)*z(j)));
j=1:m;
eta=a:h:b;
ff(j)=ff(j)';
y(j)=y(j)';
z(j)=z(j)';
disp(' eta f fprim
fdoubprim')
ans=[eta' ff' y' z']
plot(eta,z);

i. Algorithm

1. Start

2. Define the function.

3. Declare the variables

m,a,b,h,ya,ffa

4. State initial conditions (t0, y0) , n, and step size(h).

m = 80

a = 0.0

b = 8

h = (b-a)/m

ya = 0

za = .39

ffa = 0

5. Start loop. Trial and error until f(b)=1.0

If yes, continue to 6
 If no proceed to 9

6. Calculate the value of y

7. Add a step

8. Return to 5

9. Display the results.

10.Plot (eta,z).

11.End.

ii. Output

Graph: MATLAB solution using Euler method

Results comparison between MATLAB work and results in the literature

 The results shown in the final solution was obtained using Matlab are comparable in

the published data. The other figure shows the comparing data of obtained and data obtained

by numerical integration. And we can determine the small difference between the two figures.

Results showed that with a simple code written using MATLAB the problem can be

simulated and solved easily. A comparison between the solution obtained by MATLAB and

the solutions published in literature showed a comparable results and same trends. Computers

software allows getting very accurate results depending on the numerical method selected for

the solution.

In chemical engineering, solution to each and every unsteady state problem can be

obtained from differential equation with appropriate boundary conditions. Heat balance,mass

balance and momentum balance all end up in a differential equation. Matlab can be used as

a tool to solve differential equations. Thus matlab can be used to get solutions of chemical

engineering problems starting from very basic to huge complex problems.

The tool is very important. It will save your time and will allow you to deal with more

complex problems. With MATLAB, you can solve differential equations, plot graphs etc. It’s

easy to learn and very powerful. Its Simulink package is good for designing process control.

References:

https://www.academia.edu/12119005/Applications_of_Fluid_Mechanics_in_Different_Engin

eering_Fields

https://www.quora.com/What-is-importance-of-fluid-mechanics-in-chemical-engineering

https://www.quora.com/How-important-is-MATLAB