A Java Based Web Application for Performing Chemical Equilibrium Analysis in Thermodynamics Courses

The topic of chemical equilibrium is frequently covered in thermodynamics courses. In assignments, students are often presented with simple problems in which the quantities of a few reacting species are specified. The student is asked to calculate the molar composition of the product mixture at a particular temperature and pressure when the mixture has reached an equilibrium state. For problems involving three or four species, students can hand calculate the equilibrium composition with reasonable effort using equilibrium constants. In problems involving many species, using equilibrium constants is not practical and specialized software is required. Instructors will commonly introduce their students to STANJAN, CEA, Cantera, or CHEMKINtrade. These packages are cumbersome to use relative to the contemporary Internet, point-and-click environment students now expect. In this work we have implemented a Java applet based on the numerical method employed by CEA to calculate the equilibrium composition of a mixture of ideal gases and integrated the applet into the expert system for thermodynamics (www.thermofluids.net) developed at San Diego State University