Orthogonal collocation methods using Mathematica© in the graduate chemical engineering curriculum

ABSTRACT We present in this pedagogical paper several important aspects of the application of orthogonal collocation for solution of Chemical Engineering problems. These include: the Stefan–Maxwell diffusion; the start‐up of a Poiseuille Flow in a Newtonian Fluid; the transient heat conduction with temperature‐dependent thermal conductivity; and the reaction‐diffusion in a drop. The presented method of resolution (i.e., orthogonal collocation) of such problems can be easily introduced in any graduate‐level chemical engineering numerical method course. Indeed, this technique has been used for the past four year at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) in the graduate‐level core numerical methods course called CHE 560. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput. Appl. Eng. Educ. 24:101–113, 2016; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae; DOI 10.1002/cae.21676