Desenvolvimento de software acadêmico para engenharia química utilizando linguagem Python: separador de mistura binária

Abstract

In this paper we sought to develop an academic software for mass balance calculations in a binary mixture separator, aiming to solve all sets of variables with the same computational routine, in which the user chooses the variables and sets its values, just like it is done in sequential modular simulators. This subject was choose due the lack of software available for this kind of calculations that are easy to use, most of them require some knowledge of specific programming languages. To achieve the final program the first step was to draw a project of the numeric solution and the graphic interface, after that, for the computational implementation the programming language Python was used with its available libraries; such as Kivy for graphic development, Numpy for numeric purposes among others. In order to make the implementation process easier the numeric and graphic part of the code were developed separately and them they were integrated using object oriented programming concepts. In the end of the research an intuitive and easy to use software was developed, where the user had only to put the values that he had and press a button to calculate and show the problem status for the imputed data, the software is capable to calculate the problem for 24 different sets of variables using the same numerical routine. This paper can be used as a basis for futures works that seek to use the knowledge from chemical engineering with software and graphical interface development.