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Método de Contribución de Grupos: una Herramienta Fundamental en cursos Avanzados de Termodinámica y Física de Fluidos para la Estimación de Propiedades de Sustancias

2016; SciELO; Volume: 9; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.4067/s0718-50062016000300011

0718-5006

Elías N. Fierro, Claudio A. Faúndez, José O. Valderrama,

Process Optimization and Integration

The so-called Group Contribution Method for estimating properties of substances is presented and discussion about its use as a basic method that could be included in advanced courses of thermodynamics, physicalchemistry and physics of fluids is done.The idea is to show students that physical and physical-chemical properties of substances are related to their chemical structure and to the physical and chemical nature of the atoms and groups that form a molecule.Therefore, the method considers that a molecule is formed by defined groups to which a contribution to a given property is assigned.After that, it is assumed that such a contribution is the same in any compound in which that group appears.This works presents some examples that can be shown in a formal course and proposes short and long term assignments.The assignments involve general concepts of thermodynamics, knowledge of spreadsheets calculations, and management of data bases.The usefulness of the Group Contribution Method as a tool in learning methodology based on problems is also discussed.It is concluded that that this types of methods are appropriate for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses of physics, chemistry, chemical engineering and related areas.