Introduction to Process and

Materials Engineering
(CHMT1002)

Quantities and units in engineering tut pack

06–10 Feb.; 13–17 Feb.; 20–24 Feb
2017

*Attempt questions related to lecture

*Come prepared to tutorials.
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CHMT1002: Tutorial QUE 1 (ML–ZM) 06-10 Feb.; 13-17 Feb.; 20-24 Feb. 2017
Dimension and measurement

Question 1
1. Is it possible to add the following two quantities together? For those sums which are inconsistent,
state the appropriate quantity that must be multiplied to the first term to make the sum dimensionally
consistent. What are the units of the resulting sum?
a) 2 kg + 5 g d) 3×10-6 mol – 98 mol/L
b) 23.5 years + 2.6 light years e) 25°C + 25 kJ/(kg.°C)
c) 2 Pa×10 m + 3.25 kPa×5.23 L
3 f) 3 g/kg + 7 g/tonne
g) Is it possible to add 5 g of sugar to 1 L of water?
h) It is possible to add 5 m to 24 h?
2. What is the nearest order of magnitude for the following quantities:
a) 2.12×107 c) 101.325×103 – 50×103
b) 5.5×10 3 d) 100×(4.184×103)/60
3. Express the following units in terms of ratios of the base quantities of length (L), mass (M) and time
(T):
a) Grams d) Tonnes per hour
b) Pascals e) Kilometres per hour
c) Watts f) Metres squared per mile
4. Identify which of the following units of measurement are SI base quantities:
a) Degrees Celsius (°C) d) Seconds (s)
b) Moles(mol) e) Pascals (Pa)
c) Grams (g) f) Watts (W)
5. Convert the following quantities into scientific notation:
a) 3566000 m c) 234 m×907865 s-2
b) -0.000026565 mL d) (1024)3 bytes
6. How many significant figures are there in the following calculations?
a) (1.653×1023+0.00001)/2.045 + 7.33255 c) 1.000001 + 0.00001
b) 1.000000 + 0.00001 d) 0.000001 - 0.320000

Question 2
The Reynolds number, Re, is widely used in engineering fluid flow problems. It is defined by the
following equation R e = Dvρ/µ. Show that the term is a dimensionless quantity given that D is a
characteristic diameter, v is a characteristic velocity, and ρ and µ are the density and viscosity of the fluid.

Question 3
The base of a cylindrical tank has a radius of 2 m exactly.
1. What is the area of the tank base to 3 significant figures?
2. You now take a measuring tape and measure the circumference of the tank. You find that it measures
12.57 m±1 cm. What is the area of the tank base, and what is the percentage error of your
calculation?

Question 4
A rectangular concrete tank with base dimensions of 2.0 m×1.5 m (L×W) is fitted with an agitator (mixer)
on top of the tank and used as a reactor on a water treatment plant. A minimum height of 0.55 m from
the top of the reactor is reserved to secure the agitator to the tank, termed the ‘freeboard’.
1. If the required water volume to be mixed in the reactor is 7.0 m3, what must the height of the reactor
wall be?
2. Your colleague (a civil engineer) tells you that for the amount of water to be contained in the tank, a
minimum wall thickness of 0.60 m is recommended. A draftsman requires the physical dimensions of
the tank in order to produce a 3D model of the reactor. What are the actual physical dimensions of
the reactor, and what volume of concrete would be required to build this reactor?

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CHMT1002: Tutorial QUE 2 (ML-ZM) 06-10 Feb.; 13-17Feb.; 20-24 Feb 2017.
Composition and mass-volume relationships

1. Calculate:
a) The bulk density of sand (silica) if the percentage volume of intersticies (i.e. free space) is 40%.
The density of silica = 2700 kg/m3. Clearly state any assumptions.
b) The density of a mixture of 85 wt.% magnetite (density 5400 kg/m3) and 15 wt.% ilmenite
(density 4800 kg/m3)
2. Molten metal from a furnace flows down a channel as
represented in Figure 1. The bottom of the channel is semi-
circular with a radius h 1 = 0.15 m. The non-circular part of
the channel has a height h 2 = 0.10 m. The length of the
channel is L. The SG of the molten metal is 7.2. The metal
flows down the channel with a velocity of V = 0.8 m/s. The
depth of the metal in the channel (measured from the
bottom of the channel as shown in the diagram) is
H = 0.20 m. Figure 1
a) What is the mass flow rate of the metal?
b) What is the maximum mass flow rate through the channel?
3. The volumetric flow rate of a slurry stream is 80 m3/hr. A slurry is a suspension of fine particles in a
liquid (usually water or an aqueous solution). The slurry is 40 vol% solids and 60 vol% water. If the
SG of the solids is 2.9, and the SG of water is 1.0, what is the mass flow rate of the slurry?
4. The maximum solubility of table salt (NaCl) in water at 25°C is approximately 359 g/L. Assume the
volume of the solution does not change with the addition of salt
a) What is the molar concentration of the mixture in mol/L?
b) What is the molal concentration of the mixture in mol/kg? Assume that the density of water is
980 kg/m3
c) How many moles of Cl 2 gas would need to be present in order to make up an equivalent
amount of saturated salt solution?
d) What is the density of the mixture?
5. The concentration of a component in an ideal gas stream is 5.63 mol/m3. The pressure of the stream
is 20 000 Pa. The partial pressure of the component is 15 000 Pa.
a) What is the temperature of the gas stream?
b) Calculate the volumetric flow rate of the stream if the component molar flow rate is
50 mol/min.
c) What is the mass flow rate of the component if the molecular weight is 54 g/mol?
d) If the total mass flow rate of the stream is 4000 g/min, what is the density of the gas mixture?
6. A children’s playing marble is composed of 4.8 g glass (SG of 2.3) and 1.7 g plastic (density
89 kg/m3).
a) What is the SG of the object?
b) If the marble were to drop into a glass of water, would it float?
7. A waste material consists of sand (SG 2.7), a chemical salt (SG 2.1) and a dense plastic (SG 1.4).
200 g of a representative sample from the material is found to have a density of 2300 kg/m3. The salt
is dissolved out of the sample which, after drying, now weighs 170 g. What is the composition of the
waste material?
8. You are required to measure the mass and volumetric flow rate of a slurry stream. The slurry
contains only water and solids. You take a bucket and stop watch and measure the time taken to fill
the bucket. From these measurements, the following information is obtained.
• The stream fills a 10 litre bucket in 13.5 s.
• A sample of the slurry weighing 767 g is filtered and dried. The dry solids weigh 148 g.
• The density of the solids only is known to be 3200 kg/m3.
Calculate the mass flow rate of the slurry stream.
9. Calculate the density of an empty rubber lined steel pipe with an inside diameter of 0.075 m, and an
outside diameter of 0.079 m. The rubber lining reduces the pipe inner diameter of the pipe to
0.069 m. Assume that the SG of steel is 7.9 and the SG of the rubber is 1.52.

The following basic exercises involve mixtures of chemical species A, B and C which have molecular
weights of 45, 16 and 82 respectively.

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CHMT1002: Tutorial QUE 2 (ML-ZM) 06-10 Feb.; 13-17Feb.; 20-24 Feb 2017.
Composition and mass-volume relationships

10. Convert the following compositions from mass% to mol%

a) 15% A, 45% B and 40% C
b) 50% A and 35% B
11. Convert the following compositions from mol% to mass% and compare your answers with those
from question 1
a) 15% A, 45% B and 40% C
b) 50% A and 35% B
12. Calculate the molecular weight for the following mixtures.
a) 2 mass% A, 15 mass% B and 83 mass% C
b) 83 mass% A and 15 mass% B
c) 2 mol% A and 15 mol% B
d) 15 mol% A and 80 mol% B
13. Convert the following compositions
a) You have 200 kg of a chemical species with a molecular weight of 50 kg/kmol. Calculate the
number of moles of the sample in g-mol, kg-mol, kmol, and lb-mol.
b) The flow rate of a stream of CO 2 is 500 lbm/hr. What is the flow rate of the stream in
lb-mol/hr, in kg/hr, kmol/hr?
14. Show that the conversion from g-mol to lb-mol is the same as the conversion from g to lb.
15. Calculate the number of molecules in 2 lb of hydrogen and 44 g of CO 2 .
(NA = 6.02x1023 molecules/g-mol) Think about the result of your calculations
16. A gas mixture contains hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Calculate
a) The mass% hydrogen if the mixture contains 15 mol% CO and no CO 2 ;
b) The molar composition if the mass fraction of CO and CO 2 are both 0.35.
17. A gas has only three components - nitrogen, helium and 5 mol% chlorine. [N = 14 g/mol,
He = 4 g/mol, Cl = 35.5 g/mol]
a) Why can you not calculate the mass% Cl 2 with only the molecular weights and the information
given?
b) Can you calculate the mass% Cl 2 if told that the gas has 12 mol% helium?
18. Referring to the gas mixture in the previous question, convert the following information to the units
indicated.
a) 65 mass% N 2 , 12 mass% helium to mol%
b) 65 mol% N 2 , 12 mol% helium to mass%
19. A gas mixture consists of only three components – 40 mol% A, 18.75 mass% B and 20 mol% C.
The molar masses of A and C are 40 and 50 respectively. Find the molar mass of B and the molar
mass of the mixture.
20. Unless told otherwise, assume that the composition of air is 79% nitrogen and 21% oxygen on a
molar basis. (I expect you to remember this composition!!) What is the composition of air on a mass
basis? What would a composition on a volume% basis mean? And what would the volume% of O 2
in air be?
21. Air is mixed with a flue gas (exhaust gases) from a furnace in order to cool the gas. The molar
composition of the flue gas is 2% oxygen, 35% CO 2 , 10% water vapour and the rest is nitrogen. The
nitrogen concentration in the gas after the air and flue gas been mixed is 71 mol%. The flow rate of
the flue gas is 600 kg/hr.
a) What is the molar flow rate of the air stream?
b) What is the mass flow rate of oxygen in the mixed gas?

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CHMT1002: Tutorial QUE 3 (ML–ZM) 06-10 Feb.; 13-17 Feb.; 20-24 Feb 2017.
Unit Conversions

1. Convert the following:

a) 101 325 Pa to lb/(in.h2) e) 61 J/s to cal/min
b) 23.6 cm to yards f) 10 g/(cm.s) to poise
c) 789 mm3 to L g) 2.36 kilotonnes to nanograms
d) 40 nanoseconds (ns) to microseconds (µs)
2. The universal gas constant is given as 8.3145 Pa.m3/(mol.K). Convert this to the following units:
a) cm3.mmHg/(mol.K) c) L.atm/(mol.K)
b) Btu/(lb-mol.K) d) J/(mol.K)
3. One teaspoon of sugar is dissolved in a cup of water at 25°C. A cup is 250 mL. You measure the
density of the solution and find that it is equal to 1004.4 kg/m3. Assume a teaspoon of sugar is equal
to 5 g and that sugar has the chemical formula of sucrose, given by C 12 H 22 O 11 .
a) What is the concentration of the solution in molal? The density of pure sucrose is 1590 kg/m3.
Hint: play close attention to the definition of molal.
b) You find out that the saturation of sucrose in water at 25°C is 2000 g/L.
i. How many teaspoons of sugar should be added to saturate 1 L of water?
ii. What is the mass% of the sucrose in solution at saturation?
4. A Coal To Liquids (CTL) plant produces 80 000 barrels of fuel per day from coal.
a) If there are 55 barrels in a US gallon, and 220 UK gallons = 264.17 US gallons, how many UK
gallons of fuel are produced per hour?
b) A typical CTL plant requires approximately 1000 MW of energy to produce the required 80 000
barrels of fuel per day. Recent developments in CTL technology suggest that the energy
requirement for a new CTL plant may only be 820 MW.
i. What is the annual saving in energy in units of kJ?
ii. If the power rating of a typical kettle is 2.5 kW, and it takes approximately 3.5 min to boil a
full kettle of water, how many cups of tea could be made with this energy saving over the
year? The maximum volume of a standard kettle is 1.7 L. Use the definition of a cup from
Question 3 above.
5. A laboratory distillation apparatus produces distilled
water (effectively pure water) from ordinary tap water at
a rate of 0.62 mL every 1.5 s. A simplified schematic of
the experimental setup is shown in Figure 1.
Distilled water is produced by heating tap water in a
heating flask until it boils. The heated vapour from the
flask passes through a cooling coil, where it is
condensed back to the liquid phase. The condensed
liquid is collected in a storage drum and used for general
laboratory work where pure water is required. The
dimensions of the storage drum are 20 cm wide, 30 cm
deep, and 40 cm tall. The distillation process is slow. In
order to collect a sufficiently large volume of water, the
Figure 1: Simplified schematic of the
apparatus must be operated continuously for long
distillation apparatus. This
periods at a time. experimental setup is used to make
a) What is the production rate of distilled water that purified water from tap water.
this apparatus can produce?
b) Your colleague suggests that you run the apparatus overnight. You start work at 08h00 and go
home at 17h00 every day. Assuming that you begin with an empty storage drum, and that the
apparatus can be operated at a constant rate throughout the period, what will the level in the
storage drum be if you start the distillation process just before going home and turn it off when
you return in the morning? You may assume that the heating flask is sufficiently large so that it
remains full throughout this period.
c) If the apparatus is operated indefinitely, at what time will the storage drum begin to overflow?
Give your answer in hh:mm (hours:mintues) format.

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CHMT1002: Tutorial QUE 4 (ML–ZM)06-10 Feb.; 13-17Feb.; 20-24 Feb 2017.
Pressure

1. Convert a pressure of 20 atmospheres to pressure in the following units.

a) kPa c) psi
b) bar d) mm Hg
2. Calculate the pressure (in kPa) exerted by the following columns of liquid. (SG of Hg = 13.6; SG of
water = 1)
a) 45 cm of mercury c) 5 in mercury
b) 6.5 feet of water d) 1.3 m of water
3. Do the following pressure conversions. If you need atmospheric pressure assume it is 96 kPa.
a) 300 kPa absolute to kPa gauge c) 15 kPa vacuum to gauge pressure in
b) 8 kPa vacuum to absolute pressure in kPa.
kPa
4. A column of mercury is exposed to the atmosphere.
a) What is the gauge pressure 4 in from the top of the column if atmospheric pressure is
29.9 in Hg?
b) What is the absolute pressure?
c) What is the pressure in inches of water?
5. Convert the following pressures to the units specified. If you require atmospheric pressure assume it
is 1 atm.
a) 200 atm to kPa d) 25 psig to bar (absolute) if the
b) 300 kPa (absolute) to psig atmospheric pressure is 0.96 atm.
c) 25 mm Hg of vacuum e) 8.5 m H 2 O to kPa and torr.
f) A pressure difference of 9.8 mm Hg to
kPa.
6. The pressure gauge on a tank reads 45 psi on a day when the barometric pressure is 27.0 in Hg. What
is the absolute pressure in the tank in
a) Psia c) atm
b) bar d) N/m2
7. The barometric pressure (atmospheric pressure) is 13.8 psia.
a) An alcohol with an SG of 0.8 is used in a manometer. The left part of the U-tube is connected
to a process fluid at pressure and the right part is open to the atmosphere. You are told the
height difference between the levels in the two arms of the U-tube is 85 cm. What could the
absolute pressure in the apparatus be? (There are two answers.)
b) Calculate the pressure a deep-sea diver would experience at a depth of 10 m, 100 m and 10 km.
8. You come across two pressure readings – one in ‘psia’ and one in ‘psig’. The ‘psi’ part you recognize
but the ‘a’ and ‘g’ you do not. What do you think they mean?
9. Is atmospheric pressure always 1 atm? If not what makes it vary?
10. What is the difference between gauge pressure and absolute pressure? If the gauge pressure of a
fluid is –20 mm Hg, express the pressure in units of:
a) torr absolute
b) atm gauge
11. Using only the pressure conversion 1 atm = 101.325 kPa, show from first principles that 1 standard
atmosphere is equivalent to 406.8 in of water.

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CHMT1002: Tutorial QUE 5 (ML–ZM) 06-10 Feb.; 13-17 Feb.; 20-24 Feb. 2017
Temperature

1. You are doing unit conversion calculations. Among the units you have to convert is temperature in
°F. How would you decide whether the °F is an actual temperature or a temperature difference?
2. Which of the following temperature is the warmer? Justify your answers.
a) 50°F or 12°C
b) 700°R or 110°C
3. Two experiments use electricity to heat up one kg of water by (a) 53°C and by (b) 98°F. Which
experiment uses more electrical energy? Explain your answer.
4. An unusual reference gives the formula below for the heat transfer coefficient of an emulsion.
H = 0.0061(x0.6 + 0.038T)V0.35
In the formula, T is the temperature in °F, V is the flow rate of the emulsion in ft/min, X is a
characteristic dimension in inches and h is the heat transfer coefficient in Btu/hr.ft2.°F. Calculate the
heat transfer coefficient (in W/m2.K) when emulsion at 30°C flows at 1.25 m/s and the characteristic
dimension is 0.8 mm.
5. On the planet Tatuine (where Luke Skywalker comes from) they measure temperature in degrees
Dilu (°D). The temperatures there are never cold enough to freeze water. Therefore, the temperature
scale they use is based on the boiling point of water and the boiling point of certain oil. For historical
reasons, their temperature scale has water boiling at 40°D and the boiling point of oil at 120°D. The
boiling point of the oil is 355°F.
a) What is the freezing point of water in °D?
b) Develop an equation for converting (°D to °F; i.e. T°D = …………)
c) Convert 8.5 J/kg.°C to J/kg.°D
6. The rate of energy loss Q through the wall of an oven is given by
k A ∆T
Q=
∆x
where k is the thermal conductivity of the wall, A is the wall area, Δx is the thickness of the wall; ΔT
is the temperature difference between the inside and the outside of the oven
a) Work out a consistent set of SI units for this formula, given that the units of k are J/m.s.°C.
b) A particular oven has a wall area of 1.2 m2. The thickness of the wall is 1.5 inches. The
temperature inside the oven is 300°F and the outside temperature is 50°F. The thermal
conductivity of the wall material is given in the handbook as 0.45 Btu/(hr.ft.°F). If the cost of
electricity is 11 cents/kW.hr, what will be the weekly cost of maintaining the oven temperature?

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