Stephen Butler (center), manager of Texas research and development for Eastman Chemical Company, presents a check for $75,000 to Dr. M. Nazmul Karim (left), department head and chair professor II, and Dr. Benjamin Wilhite (right), associate professor.
Eastman Chemical Company of Texas City, Texas, has contributed $75,000 toward experimental development in the area of fluid dynamics — specifically multiphase flow in porous media, led by Dr. Benjamin Wilhite, associate professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University.
The donation will fund the production of a transparent, columnar apparatus that will provide students with the unique opportunity to study multiphase flow in porous media, gather data and prove transport equations.
“It remains a critical challenge for engineers to fully understand how gas, liquid and gas-liquid mixtures flow through porous media—be it a packed bed, soil or shale rock,” said Wilhite. “We expect that the resulting experiment will thus be of significant pedagogical value not only to the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering but also to our colleagues across the Dwight Look College of Engineering.”