John C. Chen
Carl Anderson Professor of Chemical Engineering and
Director, Institute for Thermo-Fluid Science & Engineering

Associated with

Institute of Thermo-Fluid Engineering and Science

Laboratory for the Study of Viscous and Complex Fluid Processing

Ph.D. University of Michigan, 1961
M.S. Carnegie Mellon, 1959
B.ChE. The Cooper Union, 1956

Contact Information
phone: (610) 758-4098   e-mail: jcc0@lehigh.edu

Click here to meet this professor's graduate students

Research Interests
Click here to view a poster that further describes these interests.

Hydrodynamics and Heat Transfer in Fluidized Beds

Fluidized beds find wide  application in chemical industry as  reactors, combustors, absorbers, and  heat exchangers. We are interested in  the complex mechanisms of  multiphase flow and heat transfer in  such gas-particulate systems.  Experimental research is carried out in  our laboratory. Currently, our program  is concentrated on "fast fluidization",  the regime encountered in circulating  fluidized beds. Special instrumentation  has been developed to characterize  particle clusters. This information is  used in analytical models to represent  the two-phase fluid mechanics. A  pseudo-continuum approach, using  kinetic theory analogy, is being  formulated for computer simulation of  steady-state flows.  

Convective Boiling and Evaporation for Chemical Processing 

Many processes in the chemical  industry require the vaporization or  boiling of multi-component fluids. We  are investigating the phenomenon of  interactive fluid flow, heat transfer, and  mass transfer in such processes.  Two-phase flow loops are used to  measure convective boiling  coefficients for both single component  fluids and fluid mixtures flowing in  tubes and tube bundles. Other projects  are studying multi-component  evaporation in falling films, important  for processing of specialty chemicals,  food products, and polymers. With  support from the chemical industry,  our goal is to seek phenomenological  understanding through  experimentation, and to develop  models for engineering design.

Environmental Technology

Multi-phase transport phenomena are encountered in a great number of  environmental technologies, ranging from treatments for reduction of emissions  to remediation of waste products. Our research group utilizes its expertise in  multi-phase transport phenomena to aid development of various environmental  technologies, including the development of alternate refrigerants to reduce  ozone depletion, fluidized combustion for direct combustion of coal with in-situ  capture of SO2 and fire-suppressant technology using environmentally friendly  fluids.

Recent Scholarship

For selected 2002 scholarship, click here.

For selected 2001 and prior years scholarship, click here.

"Alive Today, Aristotle Would Major in Engineering"