Chemical Engineering Department

Course Name: Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics I

Course Number: CME 220
Instructor: Dr Kathleen Haigh

Assignment (Homework) Number 1

Due Date: Tuesday, 9 July 2019

Instructions:
Complete all 4 questions. Each student must complete the assignment. The assignment should
be submitted online as a single file in either word or .pdf format. The template include on
blackboard should be used for the submission.

Question 1:
A batch reactor of toluene is at a temperature of 90 F. Your handbook states that toluene
boils at 388.75 K. How many degrees Celsius is required to heat the toluene until it boils?
During a heating process the temperature of the system rises by 10 C. Express the rise in
temperature in K, F and R.

Question 2:
Pressures up to 3000 (atm) are measured with a dead-weight gauge. The piston diameter is
0.17(in). What is the approximate mass in (lbm) of the weights required?

Question 3:
An astronaut weighs 780 N in Houston, Texas where the local acceleration of gravity is g = 9.792
m.s-2. What is the astronaut’s mass and weight on the moon, where g = 1.67 m.s-2.
Question 4:
A gas is confined in a 0.57 m diameter cylinder by a piston, on which rests a weight. The mass
of the piston and weight together is 150 kg. The local acceleration of gravity is 9.831 m.s-2, and
atmospheric pressure is 101.57 kPa.
a) What is the force in newton’s exerted on the gas by the atmosphere, the piston and the
weight, assuming no friction between the piston and the cylinder?
b) What is the pressure of the gas in kPa?
c) If the gas in the cylinder is heated, it expands, pushing the piston and weight upward. If
the piston and weight are raised 0.95 m, what is the work done by the gas in kJ? What is
the change in potential energy of the piston and weight?