Varma A., Morbidelli M., Wu H. Parametric Sensitivity in Chemical Systems

Cambridge University Press, 1999. — 358 p.The behavior of a chemical system is affected by many physicochemical parameters. The sensitivity of the system's behavior to changes in parameters is known as parametric sensitivity. When a system operates in a parametrically sensitive region, its performance becomes unreliable and changes sharply with small variations in parameters. Thus, it is of great value to those who design and operate chemical reactors and systems to be able to predict sensitivity behavior.
This book is the first to provide a thorough treatment of the concept of parametric sensitivity and the mathematical tool it generated, sensitivity analysis. The emphasis is on applications to real situations. The book begins with definitions of various sensitivity indices and describes the numerical techniques used for their evaluation. Extensively illustrated chapters discuss sensitivity analysis in a variety of chemical reactors - batch, tubular, continuous-flow, fixed-bed - and in combustion systems, air pollution processes, and metabolic processes. In addition, various plots and simple formulas are provided to readily evaluate the operational behavior of reactors. Chemical engineers, graduate students, researchers, chemists and other practitioners will welcome this valuable resource.
Arvind Varma is the Arthur J. Schmitt Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame.
Massimo Morbidelli is Professor of Chemical Reaction Engineering at ETH Zentrum, Switzerland.
Hua Wu is Senior Chemical Engineer at Ausimont Research & Development Center, Milano, Italy.