By Faculty Name

Anthony G. Dixon

Professor

Department: Chemical Engineering
Professional Page
Office: Goddard Hall, 224A
Phone: +1-508-831-5350
Fax: +1-508-831-5853
agdixon@wpi.edu

Educational Background

Research & Teaching Interests

Chemical reaction engineering; inorganic membrane reactors; heat transfer in chemical reactors; environmental reactor design; mathematical modeling and simulation; computational fluid dynamics; diffusion in porous catalysts and zeolites

Research

Professor Dixon’s current research interests are in using scientific computing tools such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC), as well as the more traditional modeling approaches of chemical engineering, to understand and analyze transport and reaction in chemical reactors. Although he maintains research interests in catalytic membrane reactors and microchannel reactors, the main focus of Prof. Dixon’s research group in recent years has been on using CFD to simulate fixed bed reactor tubes and catalyst particles. A current partner in this effort is Johnson Matthey Catalysts (UK).

CFD is a method of simulating fluid flow in systems with complicated geometry. It has been used to simulate blood flow through heart valves and blood vessels, flow around the keel of America’s Cup yachts, and flow around new racing car designs, among many other applications. Heat transfer, species mass transfer and chemical reaction can also be included, and CFD has been used in the process industries for bioreactor design, multiphase reactor simulation, mixing and heat exchanger design. Our group uses CFD to optimize catalyst particle design and to simulate slim fixed-bed reactor tubes in steam reforming, a technology used to produce hydrogen from natural gas, for use in fuel cells, and other downstream applications.

Our research into the detailed modeling of such heterogeneous chemical reactor systems will make it possible in the future to effectively optimize and understand the intricate processes at play in these reactors. Using techniques such as CFD on a large scale in the chemical industry may reduce the need for much more expensive empirical experimentation.

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