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Assignment in Chemical Engineering
Assignment in Chemical Engineering
We move further into our practice of MATLAB coding. Upload the codes for each question separately
in the appropriate location at grader.mathworks.com, pass the pre-tests, and then submit. For this
Problem Sheet, I am allowing 5 submissions/attempts. Please be cognizant of this.
1. You will recall using a “for” loop in the last class. Read up the syntax for it and make sure
it’s clear. Another kind of loop in MATLAB involves “conditional statements”, or the if-
elseif-end loops. The idea is simple, go look at the help documentation for it first.
Let A=[-1 0 12]. We will use conditional statements to modify A, to get a new vector B.
Write a for loop, that picks up each element of the vector A in turn, and assigns them to
the scalar variables. Now use the if-elseif-end loop you have created to update the
value of this scalar variable and assign in order as elements of the vector B.
Check to make sure you have the right answer. Note that the if-elseif/else-end loop is
“nested” within the for loop. Make sure your indentation looks good.
2. Functions are very handily used in modern MATLAB versions. The script file is compact as
a consequence of using functions; and the code is overall more efficient.
a) Write a function called ‘sumofelements’ that calculates the sum of the elements in a
vector, C. The inputs to the function should be the vector, and the number of elements
in the vector. Output of the function is the sum. Put this function at the bottom of the
script file.
b) Call the above function from a script file to find the sum of elements of vector C’=[1
4.5 3.2 1.78 0 -9]. The number of elements in the vector is N and the sum of the
elements is Sum2. Use the in-build MATLAB function “numel” to determine the
number of the elements in the vector – don’t hard code N=6!
d) Next, find the sum of the elements in the first column of D and call it Sum4.
Note that for each of (b-d), you have to just call the function ‘sumofelements’ once and the
code for that function should be at the bottom of the script file. Also keep in mind that in the
function, you should initialize the sum to 0 at the start.
3. The iterative methods of solution of non-linear equations, such as the bisection, false
position and Newton’s method, can be easily implemented using your own code in
MATLAB. Here, the if-elseif/else-end loops can come in useful to check on whether the
convergence criterion is satisfied. Look up the command “break” – it will help in exiting a
loop when a condition is satisfied. The algorithm for Bisection Method is illustrated on the
screen for your reference. Note that we are doing two checks for convergence.
a) Develop a function “myfun” which calculates the value of 𝑓(𝑥) = 𝑒 0.5𝑥 − 5 + 5𝑥 . The
input is x and output is f.
b) Develop a function “relativeerror” which calculates the value of 𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟1 =
𝑥 −𝑥𝑜𝑙𝑑
100 | 𝑛𝑒𝑤 |. The inputs are xnew and xold and output is error1.
𝑥 𝑛𝑒𝑤
𝑥 +𝑥
a) Develop a function “bisection” which calculates 𝑥𝑛𝑒𝑤 = 𝑙 2 𝑢. The inputs are xl and xu,
and output is xnew
c) In the script file, put together the code for solution of the function shown in (a) using
the Bisection Method. The initial guesses are 0 & 2. Tolerance is 10-6 for both x and f.
Use the algorithm displayed. Make sure to call myfun, relativeerror, bisection, break
and use nested for/if-then-else loops. The final answer should be in the variable
xfinal1 and final function value in ffinal1. Create a vector Err1 and save all the values
of the error in the vector; and create a semi-log plot of Err1 vs. Iteration number.
d) Make a plot of f(x) vs. x and make sure that your xfinal makes sense.
4. In this question, you will repeat the above to get a solution using the false position
method, with the same initial guesses. The functions myfun and relativeerror can be used
as such from above, and don’t need to written again (always designate xl as the xold in
error calculations, in this example).
𝑥 𝑓(𝑥 )−𝑥𝑢 𝑓(𝑥𝑙 )
a) Develop a function “falseposition” which calculates 𝑥𝑛𝑒𝑤 = 𝑙 𝑓(𝑥𝑢 )−𝑓(𝑥 . The inputs
𝑢 )
𝑙
are xl, xu, f(xl) and f(xu) and output is xnew
b) Develop the code for solving the function in 3(a) using the false position method. Use a
similar algorithm and code structure as above. Put the final answer in xfinal2 and final
function value in ffinal2. Create a vector Err2 and save all the values of the error.
Create a plot of Err2 vs. Iteration number.
c) Analyse the error pattern – comparing the two methods you have used.
5. Use the above developed codes to find the solution at other initial guesses. Examine the
converged values of x and f. (no submission)
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