CHE3166 Process design
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · S2 2026CHE3166 Overview
- Monash University
- Semester 2 2026
- Level 3 engineering
- Two tests and project
CHE3166 Process design connects the documents, calculations and reviews used to turn a chemical-process concept into a detailed, operable and mechanically credible design.
- Assessed by Two 25% tests and a 50% team project
- Hardest step Keeping calculations and drawings on one basis
- How to prepare Recompute, interpret and trace every interface
What you get in the full CHE3166 Study & Assessment Guide
- 6 chapters, 22 pages — every assessed topic, week by week
- 13 original practice questions, each with a model answer
- 6 worked examples, solved the way CHE3166 marks
- 7 computed figures, redrawn from the course’s own numbers
- Before-you-submit checklist for the Project (50%) — what markers reward, what costs marks
Free on this page: assessment table, chapter map, one worked example, key terms, FAQ. The rest is in the full study & assessment guide.
How CHE3166 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Quiz / Test 1 | 25% | Individual; drawings and pumps; Week 8 |
| Quiz / Test 2 | 25% | Individual; all unit content; Week 12 |
| Project | 50% | Team design project delivered through three assignments |
What other students are asking about CHE3166
- Where can I find lecture notes or study guides for CHE3166 at Monash?
- The CHE3166 study guide in AskSia Library covers Process design in 6 chapters, with the assessment table, a chapter-by-chapter topic map, key terms and a worked example, free to read on this page.
- Is there a final exam in CHE3166?
- No final exam is listed in the offering this AskSia Library guide is built from; CHE3166 is assessed by Quiz / Test 1 25%, Quiz / Test 2 25%, Project 50%.
- What does CHE3166 cover on utilities, economics and system boundaries?
- In AskSia Library's CHE3166 guide, the Utilities, Economics and System Boundaries chapter explains system boundaries, utility duties, annual costs and economic screening.
- What does CHE3166 cover on materials selection and maintenance?
- In AskSia Library's CHE3166 guide, the Materials Selection and Maintenance chapter explains service conditions, degradation mechanisms, containment and inspection planning.
- What does CHE3166 cover on piping, instrumentation and process safety?
- In AskSia Library's CHE3166 guide, the Piping, Instrumentation and Process Safety chapter explains control loops, isolation, hazards, trips and relief protection.
What CHE3166 covers
Follow the detailed design chain from process definition and utilities through materials, controls, rotating equipment, heat transfer and mechanical integrity.
Design Phases and Engineering Drawings
BFD, PFD, P&ID, plant layout and controlled design reviews.Engineering drawings form a controlled information chain. A BFD communicates major transformations, a PFD adds principal equipment and streams, a P&ID defines piping, instruments and protective functions, and layout resolves physical access and arrangement.
- Design phases and discipline interfaces
- BFD purpose and limits
- PFD equipment and stream information
- P&ID piping, control and protection detail
- Plant layout, access and maintenance
- Revision control and independent checking
Utilities, Economics and System Boundaries
System boundaries, utility duties, annual costs and economic screening.System boundaries decide which flows, duties, costs and environmental consequences enter a comparison. Define the physical limit, operating case and time basis before collecting numbers.
- Inside and outside the process boundary
- Mass, energy and utility crossings
- Utility temperature and pressure feasibility
- Annual energy and consumable costs
- Installed cost and simple payback
- Sensitivity and boundary consistency
Materials Selection and Maintenance
Service conditions, degradation mechanisms, containment and inspection planning.A defensible material choice links complete service conditions to credible degradation mechanisms and then to a material, allowance, lining, inhibitor or operating control.
- Service composition, pressure and temperature
- Corrosion, erosion, fatigue and embrittlement
- Material compatibility and fabrication
- Corrosion allowance and condition control
- Mechanism-led inspection planning
- Remaining life, repair and operating change
Piping, Instrumentation and Process Safety
Control loops, isolation, hazards, trips and relief protection.Read a P&ID as cause and effect. For every loop, identify the measured variable, target, manipulated variable and expected process response. For every hazard, separate basic control, alarms, operator action, trips and relief protection.
- Piping and equipment layers
- Measurement and control-loop intent
- Valve action and fail position
- Isolation, vents and drains
- Hazard deviations, causes and consequences
- Alarms, trips and relief functions
Pumps, Hydraulics and Compressors
System curves, operating points, suction margin and rotating-equipment decisions.A centrifugal-pump operating point is the intersection of the pump curve and the installed system curve. Build the system requirement from static and frictional terms, then check the actual operating range, control method and suction margin.
- Pump types and selection
- Pump and system curves
- Static head and frictional loss
- Control by throttling and speed
- NPSH available and required
- Compressors and liquid-system safety
Heat Exchangers and Mechanical Design
Thermal duty, pressure drop, design conditions and mechanical integrity.Heat-exchanger design starts with duty, temperature feasibility and an energy balance, then iterates area, overall coefficient and pressure drop.
- Energy balance and thermal duty
- Temperature driving force
- Overall heat-transfer coefficient
- Area, velocity and pressure-drop iteration
- Design pressure and temperature
- Datasheets, drawings and independent checks
The unit develops process safety, mechanical integrity, equipment selection and process operability through lectures, practice classes and a team design project.
The learning sequence moves from BFDs, PFDs and plant layout into utilities and economics, materials and maintenance, P&IDs and safety, pumps and hydraulics, heat exchangers and mechanical design.
Strong work keeps one design basis across calculations, drawings, datasheets and recommendations.
One design basis across the unit
Begin every problem by stating the service, system boundary, operating case and units. Those four choices determine what belongs in a balance, which utility is feasible, how a material is challenged, where a pump operates and which mechanical load governs.
If the basis changes, trace the change through the PFD, P&ID, datasheet, layout and report rather than updating only the calculation in front of you.
How the topics connect
Engineering drawings communicate design intent at increasing detail. Utilities and economics turn process needs into site services and comparable annual costs.
Material selection protects containment against credible degradation, while maintenance verifies that protection during service. P&IDs encode normal operation and protective action. Pump, hydraulic and compressor checks establish how fluids move through the installed system.
Heat-exchanger and mechanical design then reconcile duty, pressure drop, design conditions, access and integrity.
What a checkable answer contains
A strong answer names the governing relationship, substitutes visible values, carries units, reports the result and explains its consequence. A design selection also identifies the rejected alternatives and the observation that would change the recommendation.
For safety questions, keep one scenario intact from initiating cause through physical consequence, safeguard action and verified safe state. For project work, record revisions so every discipline sees the same current value.
The source materials include tutorials, workshop activities, worked solutions and a staged assignment brief rather than a past final paper.
Use their question types and checking habits without copying their stems. The practice in this guide is original and is designed to make calculations, drawings and engineering judgement mutually consistent.
Worked example · free
Screen a pump-efficiency improvement
- +2Energy saved = (42 − 31) × 6,000 = 66,000 kWh/y.
- +2Cost saved = 66,000 × 0.18 = $11,880/y.
- +2Confirm both duties use the same flow and head before treating the saving as a valid comparison.
Key terms
- Block flow diagram
- A high-level drawing of major process sections and principal material paths.
- Process flow diagram
- A drawing that identifies principal equipment, process streams and operating information.
- Piping and instrumentation diagram
- A detailed representation of piping, valves, instruments, controls and protective functions.
- System boundary
- The declared physical and accounting limit used for balances and comparisons.
- Corrosion allowance
- Additional material thickness provided to accommodate expected metal loss during service.
- Operating point
- The flow and head where a pump curve intersects the installed system curve.
- NPSH available
- The suction-side head margin above liquid vapour pressure supplied by the system.
- Thermal duty
- The required rate of heat transfer set by the process energy balance.
- Design pressure
- The documented pressure basis used for mechanical containment design.
- Independent check
- A review performed by someone other than the originator to verify assumptions, calculations and interfaces.
- System curve
- A relationship between flow rate and the pressure, elevation, velocity and friction head that the installed piping system requires.
- NPSH required
- The minimum suction head specified by a pump vendor to avoid cavitation at a stated operating condition.
- Cause and effect matrix
- A companion document that links initiating signals to the alarms, trips and shutdown actions required from the safety system.
- Peer assessment factor
- A factor derived from team-member assessments and applied to a group mark to moderate each student's individual result.
CHE3166 FAQ
How is the unit assessed?
The published structure is two individual quiz or test components worth 25% each and a team project worth 50%. The project is delivered through three assignments, so keep calculations and controlled documents consistent across submissions. The course introduction identifies the quizzes as individual work and the assignments as group work, with peer metrics used to moderate individual marks on the group tasks.
What does the first test cover?
The introductory unit handout identifies drawings and pumps as the first test scope and places it in Week 8. Practise selecting the right drawing, reading process information and relating pump and system curves. The quiz instructions describe an individual, closed-book, in-person task covering Weeks 1 to 7 lectures, workshops and practicals, with numerical responses entered in the requested units and rounding format.
What does the second test cover?
The unit handout describes the second test as covering all unit content in Week 12. Revision should therefore connect materials, safety, hydraulics, heat transfer and mechanical integrity instead of treating topics separately.
The teaching sequence places drawings and layout first, then utilities, materials, P&IDs, liquid and gas flow, heat exchangers and mechanical design, so use that progression to organise cumulative review.
What should every calculation show?
Show the governing relationship, substituted values, units, intermediate steps and an engineering interpretation. The project brief specifically requires workings to be easy to follow and applies a deduction for missing units. It also directs students to include working equations, steps and plotted graphs in the appendix, while keeping relevant assumptions visible in the main report when a design choice depends on them.
How do I choose between a BFD, PFD and P&ID?
Choose by purpose and audience. Use a BFD for the overall processing picture and major raw-material or product paths, a PFD for process-engineering information about equipment and streams, and a P&ID for piping, instrumentation, control and protection detail. The drawing lectures treat these as progressively more detailed deliverables, so do not crowd one sheet with information that belongs at another design level.
What usually weakens a project recommendation?
Recommendations lose force when their boundary, assumptions or failure mechanism is unstated. Link each selection to the service, calculation, hazard or life-cycle evidence that makes it appropriate.
The project brief also requires a quality-assurance cycle in which a task is completed, independently checked, revised against feedback and checked again, so a recommendation should remain traceable through both its technical basis and its recorded review.
How do the three project submissions build on one another?
Assignment 1 establishes the project plan, process simulation, overall mass and energy balance and PFD. Assignment 2 adds rotating-equipment and heat-exchanger design together with the P&ID.
Assignment 3 develops the mechanical design and pressure vessel work, then requires final revision so calculations, equipment tags, stream numbers, operating conditions, utilities, drawings and datasheets form one internally consistent design package.
How is Quiz 1 different from the project submissions?
Quiz 1 is identified as an individual, closed-book, in-person assessment covering Weeks 1 to 7 lectures, workshops and practicals. Its instructions include selection questions and numerical answers entered with specified units and rounding conventions.
By contrast, the course introduction identifies the three assignments as group assessment, and the assignment brief applies a peer assessment factor to moderate individual marks within that group work.
Questions students ask in each CHE3166 chapter
- Why not put every detail on one drawing?
- Each drawing serves a different audience and decision. Mixing all levels hides the process logic, makes checking harder and increases the chance that important operating or mechanical information is overlooked. Chapter 01 · Design Phases and Engineering Drawings
- Why state the boundary before comparing costs?
- A cost can disappear from one option only because its equipment or utility supply has been moved outside the calculation. An explicit common boundary prevents that false saving. It also keeps supply and treatment costs aligned. Chapter 02 · Utilities, Economics and System Boundaries
- Why is stainless steel not a complete recommendation?
- Resistance depends on composition, concentration, temperature, fabrication and local geometry. A valid recommendation connects the actual service and mechanism to supporting evidence and life-cycle implications. The inspection plan must support that conclusion. Chapter 03 · Materials Selection and Maintenance
- Does an alarm count as automatic protection?
- An alarm detects and communicates a condition. Risk reduction depends on a defined, timely operator action unless a separate automatic trip changes the process. The response time must also be demonstrated. Chapter 04 · Piping, Instrumentation and Process Safety
- Why can a selected pump miss its quoted flow?
- The catalogue curve must intersect the actual system curve. Different elevation, pressure, piping resistance, speed or impeller changes the operating point. The selected equipment and installed piping determine the result. Chapter 05 · Pumps, Hydraulics and Compressors
- Why close the energy balance before estimating area?
- Area sizing depends on the duty and feasible temperature program. Extra area cannot repair an inconsistent energy balance or an impossible temperature approach. Both checks must precede detailed mechanical selection. Chapter 06 · Heat Exchangers and Mechanical Design
How to prepare for the assessments
Revise CHE3166 as one connected design review. For each topic, state the basis, draw the information path, perform the calculation with units, identify interfaces and finish with the engineering consequence. Recompute original practice examples, then audit whether the PFD, P&ID, datasheet and report still agree after each change.
Build a one-page revision sheet around six questions: what is inside the boundary, what document carries the decision, what equation or physical principle governs it, which failure or uncertainty matters, what action follows, and how the result is verified. Before Quiz / Test 1, concentrate on drawing selection, document continuity, pump and system curves, head terms and suction conditions.
Before Quiz / Test 2, add utilities, economics, materials, maintenance, process safety, compressors, heat exchangers and mechanical design, then practise questions that cross topic boundaries. For the project, keep an assumption register and a revision register beside the calculations. Assign an independent checker to each major output and close comments before submission.
Recalculate a sample directly from the values printed in the report, confirm every worked result has a unit, and compare tags and conditions across tables, drawings and appendices. When time is short, prioritise errors that propagate: an incorrect boundary, stream condition, pressure basis or operating point can invalidate several later sections.
Finish revision by explaining one complete plant change aloud from process basis to final document update. If the explanation skips an interface, return to that link rather than memorising another isolated definition.
