• Do you know about Chemical Vapor Deposition?
  Numerous products are produced by this method. The CVD process is interesting; it includes: (1) the mass transport phenomena of fluid flow and diffusion; (2) the heat transport phenomena of convection and conduction. More details at this link (contributed by Quanzeng).

• Microbial biofilms
  Biofilms are colonies of bacteria attached to surfaces in an extracellular polysaccharide matrix. The colonization of surfaces by bacteria has many transport implications, including increasing heat transfer resistances in seawater heat exchangers (such as those used in nuclear reactor cooling towers) and increasing drag on moving surfaces (such as on boat hulls) due to the viscoelasticity of the biofilm interface. Additionally, transport phenomena are critical in the study of biofilms, such as nutrient and antibiotic diffusion through the film, and how fluid shear affects biofilm morphology. More details can be found here (contributed by Rebecca).

• The skin of the water
  If you want to know what happened between molecules on and inside a fluid, you need to study phenomena such as tension and friction. These forces explain how waves are formed and how soaps, detergents and disinfectants work. Please visit this link (contributed by Gregory).

• My Goodness, my Guinness!
  Its St. Patricks day and I'm sitting at Finn McCool with my lads eating some boiled potatoes and throwing back a couple of Pints of Irish water, i.e. Dublin's own Guinness. Looking at my pint I noticed something particular, the bubbles of my drink were going to the bottom of my pint. Is this possible? I had taken a course in fluid dynamics and I had thought bubbles always traveled up. Was it I, I did have a few with the lads, or was Irelands own, George Stokes wrong. To answer these questions see this web site (contributed by Vivek).

• Desalination by reverse osmosis
  Next time you pick up a bottle of Aquafina, take note that you are actually drinking purified ocean water that has been desalted using a process known as reverse osmosis. In reverse osmosis, water is forcibly moved across a semi-permeable membrane against its natural concentration gradient, from an area of low concentration to an area of higher concentration. The membrane allows the transport of water molecules, but solids (i.e. salts) are too large to pass. For more info, see this link (contributed by Vikram).

• Hurricanes
  Hurricanes are an example of mass, momentum, and heat transport phenomena that many of us would rather do without. These massive storms form when surface winds converge over warm water in lower latitudes where there is a large area of warm, humid air. This heat transfer from the ocean surface to the air supplies the energy to sustain the hurricane. As we all know, these phenomena can have devastating affects on people's livelihoods, causing severe wind damage, storm surge, tornadoes, and flooding from large amounts of rain associated with the hurricane. For more information, check out these two links (contributed by Heather).

• Chemical engineering in cooking
  The following website introduces the most common thing in our daily life, cooking. We have to eat everyday, but we might never think what the principles are behind the preparation of the delicious food. On the website, we can see how cooking associates with the heat transfer, mass transfer and kinetics which a chemical engineer must learn in his studies. With those connections, the transport phenomena will be no more boring equations. It's a part of our life. So, don't just eat. Eat with knowledge! See this link (contributed by Shih-Huang).

• Blood flow in our body
  There is approximately 5 liters of blood inside the human body. The organs in the body are immersed in blood and rely on the blood to operate appropriately to allow for the body to function properly. The blood has two major functions that sustain the human body: (1) to transport materials to and from the body and (2) to defend the body against foreign intrusions. In terms of transport phenomena, the blood allows for transport of oxygen and nutrients into the body's cells as well as remove waste. See this link (contributed by Diana).

• Transport phenomena of pollutant in the sea
  Sea is closely related to our life. Sea provides us many kinds of food, so it also gives fishermen job positions. Sea is also a resource of Torism. The beaches give us lots of happiness in our Holiday. However what if sea is polluted? Since industrial revolution growing economy not only makes our life better but also sents out many pollutants into the sea. To protect the marine environment a project has begun in which transport phenomena of pollutant in the sea would be analyzed. The project will try to detect the concentration distribution of pollutant in the sea water column and sediment, and "elucidate the source, transport and fate of the pollutants". More details about the project can be found in this link (contributed by Xin).

• Hydrologists: snowmelt in alpine areas
  Winter inevitably brings cold air, ice and snow. There are many researchers particularly interested in snow and they are known as snow hydrologists. Their goal is to determine snow properties and more specifically snowmelt runoff properties in alpine areas. To accomplish this task, snow hydrologists have applied transport phenomena principles to determine meltwater movement, heat and solute transport. The importance of understanding transport phenomena in snowmelt processes will help researchers model it as the global ecology is changing. More information can be found at this link (contributed by Patricia).

• Intestinal transport of insulin-like growth factor-I in the suckling rat
  Insulin-like growth factor is important growth promoting factor in mammalian milk. It has been hypothecated that IGF is transported through gastrointestinal tract, though the method is not been well proven. The following study deals with in vivo suckling model for IGF intestinal adsorption as descibed in this link (contributed by Kinjal).

• Fluid dynamics study of avalanches
  Every winter lots of skiers get trapped by avalanches. How does one model avalanches which will help predict potentially dangerous areas and hence prevent fatalities? Avalance study falls under fluid dynamics: a subset of transport phenomena. An introduction to avalance modelling can be found at this link (contributed by Rama).

• Transport Phenomena in Microsystems
  An increasing number of micro-devices involve the manipulation of fluids and has led to an exciting new field of research called microfluidics. Microfluidics allows to create miniaturised heat-exchanges, micro-reactors, ``lab-on-a-chip'' bio-chemical sensors or hand-held gas chromatography systems for the detection of trace concentrations of air-borne pollutants. More details about current research activities can be found at this link (contributed by Inna).

ENCH630: Transport Phenomena