Phase Program 

Rice University

Department of Chemical Engineering

The Phase Homepage

The philosophy behind this software is to give students of thermodynamics an introduction to the subject of mixture phase diagrams by using the display and animation capabilities of powerful computer graphics hardware. We hope that by using the program students will gain an appreciation of what the diagrams mean in terms of physical-property behavior and also of the importance of visual thinking and hyperdimensionality in understanding thermodynamics. But it is also important that they learn the limitations of the drawings. In the interest of producing elaborate, global displays of P,T,x,y properties, all data in this tutorial have been generated through the equation-of-state method by using the Peng-Robinson equation with common mixing rules as implemented in the ASPEN PLUS chemical process simulator. Thus many of the subtleties of mixture thermodynamics are not touched upon in this presentation and will have to wait for later sequels that have a different focus.

The Phase software was developed for Silicon Graphics workstations by Kong S. Tian and Professor Kenneth R. Jolls assisted by Richard J. Campero in the Chemical Engineering Department, Iowa State University.

The software was ported from Unix to Windows and further enhanced by Jasper Yen, Hector Perez, and Professor Walter G. Chapman in the Chemical Engineering Department, Rice University.


If you have trouble downloading Phase, a CD can be provided to you.

We need to keep track of each copy that is used because we must pay a royalty charge for the runtime graphics library. Because of this, we must charge $20 per copy. Please inform us of the number of runtime copies you install using the form below or at wgchap@rice.edu and send a check made payable to Rice University to

Prof. Walter G. Chapman
Rice University
Chemical Engineering Dept., MS-362
P.O. Box 1892
Houston, TX 77251-1892

The first copy to each university is complimentary. Enjoy!


  Send mail to wgchap@rice.edu

This page was created by W.G. Chapman
This page has been accessed Counter times since set October 12, 2000. 

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