Chemical Engineering Basics Questions

Chemical safety – recognizing explosives: Which of the following substances is NOT an explosive used in detonators or munitions?

Welding metallurgy – Cr–Mo steels: Chromium–molybdenum alloy steels generally should NOT be welded using which process due to risks of carbon pickup, excessive HAZ softening/hardening, and cracking?

Basic electricity – resistance dependence: For a metallic conductor, resistance R is proportional to which geometric parameter(s), given length l and cross-sectional area A?

Thermodynamics – absolute zero pressure: At what temperature can absolute zero pressure (a perfect vacuum with zero molecular collisions) be attained?

Mechanics of materials – resilience: In a standard stress–strain diagram for a ductile metal, the area under the curve up to which point is defined as the modulus of resilience (elastic strain energy per unit volume)?

Grinding wheels — The perceived hardness (softness or hardness) of a grinding wheel depends on the type and amount of bonding material used. For general-purpose cutter and tool grinding (i.e., to keep the wheel self-sharpening as edges dull), which grade of grinding wheel is normally preferred?

Pipe friction — For steady, fully developed flow in a pipe, the Darcy–Weisbach friction factor depends on Reynolds number and relative roughness. Which parameter below does the friction factor <em>not</em> directly depend upon?

Colloids — Fog in the atmosphere is an example of which type of colloidal system (dispersed phase in dispersion medium)?

Open-channel laminar flow — For the most economical channel section (maximum discharge for a given area), vertical velocity profiles are often discussed. For laminar flow in an open channel, the vertical distribution of velocity can be reasonably assumed to be:

Foundry metallurgy — The principal metallic product tapped from a cupola furnace is called:

Surface condenser practice — In steam power-plant condensers, steam is routed on the shell side and cooling water through the tubes. Which reason best supports this configuration?

Fire safety — Which one of the following substances is effectively incombustible under ordinary conditions and is used as a non-flammable solvent?

High-temperature wear — Which oxide ceramic is generally recognized for the highest hardness and is therefore used where very high wear resistance at elevated temperature is required?

Heat-treating for machinability — Machinability of hard alloys and tool steels is improved chiefly by which heat-treatment process?

Nuclear engineering — If a nuclear reactor produces more fissile nuclear fuel than it consumes, what is this type of reactor called?

Thermodynamics — Maxwell’s relations are valid for which type of thermodynamic processes/systems?

HVAC and psychrometrics — In an evaporative cooling process (cooling plus humidification), which heat terms are added or removed from the air stream?

Materials and corrosion — Which of the following treatments does NOT prevent corrosion of metals?

Heat transfer — For free convection over a vertical flat plate, the Nusselt number Nu is related to Grashof number Gr. The dependence in turbulent and laminar flow, respectively, is:

Cast irons — Annealing white cast iron produces which product?