How chemical engineers can contribute to fight the COVID-19.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus, promoter of COVID-19, already infected millions of people around the world, resulting in thousands of fatal victims. Facing this unprecedented crisis in human history, several research groups, industrial companies and governments have been spending efforts to develop vaccines and medications. People from distinct knowledge fields are doing their part in order to overcome this crisis. Chemical Engineers are also contributing in the development of actions to control the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, many chemical engineers still do not know how to use the knowledge acquired from Chemical Engineering school to collaborate in the fight against the COVID-19. In this context, the present paper aims to discuss several knowledge fields within the Chemical Engineering and correlated areas successfully applied to create innovative and effective solutions in the fight against the COVID-19.

Computational methodology for the development of microdevices and microreactors with ANSYS CFX.

In the present paper, a computational methodology for the development of microdevices and microreactors are presented. The methodology was based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), i.e., the solution of transport equations governing the flow field. The methodology presents a step-by-step tutorial for modeling and simulation of such microdevices that can be used by beginner or experienced users. The proposed methodology was employed in two study cases: fluid mixing and fluid mixing accompanied by chemical reaction. Two new geometry designs were evaluated: a micrometric scale channel with triangular cross section (MT) and a millimeter range scaled channel (MTB). It is expect that the reported methodology contributes to the popularization of CFD usage among researchers, scientists and Microfluidic enthusiasts. Also, it can motivate future studies to focus firstly on geometry optimization by numerical simulations, providing a faster and economical way to develop microdevices. •A CFD-based methodology was presented for the development of microdevices and microreactors•The methodology can be used in distinct fluid mixing and chemical reaction systems•Numerical simulation allows a faster microdevice development procedure with costs reductions.