User:Jnewman12/Evaluate an Article

Evaluate an article
This is where you will complete your article evaluation. Please use the template below to evaluate your selected article.


 * Name of article: Péclet number
 * I chose to evaluate this article because the concept of the Péclet number was recently introduced in CE 219. As we have discussed in class, the Péclet number is useful for determining the relative effects of advection and diffusion on pollutant transport. This dimensionless number is therefore an important concept for modelling mass transport in fluid systems.

Lead

 * Lead evaluation
 * The Lead provides a clear and concise description of the Péclet number and how it pertains to transport phenomena. However, the article lacks sections that can be briefly described in the article's Lead. Because the article has no sections, it is difficult to distinguish where the introductory material that would normally be found in a Lead ends and where the heart of the article's content begins.

Content

 * Content evaluation
 * The article's content is relevant to the topic. The content describes applications of the Péclet number to both mass and heat transfer as well as some of its real-world engineering implications. The article also includes very brief history on the namesake of the Péclet number and some alternative names. While the content is concise and accurate, the article can be improved by including additional information on how the Péclet number is used in engineering practice. For example, it is unclear what the authors mean when they say that large Péclet numbers tend to make flow variables 'one-way' properties. The Péclet number is a somewhat abstract concept that needs to be better illustrated for the everyday reader of this article.

Tone and Balance

 * Tone and balance evaluation
 * The article presents an unbiased description of the Péclet number that does not favor any single viewpoint over another. The article's authors merely present the mathematical notation relevant to the Péclet number and discuss its application in engineering without making judgements.

Sources and References

 * Sources and references evaluation
 * While brief, the article lacks sufficient citations for the amount of information presented here. One reference, a heat transfer and fluid flow textbook, is cited only one time throughout the whole article, while the other reference is just a theory promoted by one notable person on the field of fluid mechanics. There are no doubt countless more textbooks and peer-reviewed articles that deal with the subject of the Péclet number that would provide additional references for this article. Including these other references may even bulk up the content of the brief article. The lack of sufficient references is a clear shortcoming of this otherwise well-written article.

Organization

 * Organization evaluation
 * The article is concise and easy to read. Aside from the occasional grammatical error, the authors did a good job of clearly explaining a nontrivial topic in a way that non-engineers would understand. However, for more technically advanced readers, the article may lack sufficient depth for their purposes. I think this article could be improved by including subsections that present a more technical discussion of the Péclet number in addition to the surface-level discussion currently in the article. These sections might include the history of the Péclet number, the mathematical derivation of the concept, and specific applications of the Péclet number in mass and heat transfer.

Images and Media

 * Images and media evaluation
 * There are no images in this article, although I am not sure if images would be appropriate for this topic. If the authors were to include images in this article, they may consider images showing mass transport (as it related to the Péclet number) or graphs of concentration profiles illustrating the differences between a large and small Péclet number.

Checking the talk page

 * Talk page evaluation
 * There have been interesting discussions about this article regarding its definition of Péclet number. Originally, the article only introduced the Péclet number as a concept in heat transfer, but has since been edited to discuss its relevance for mass transfer as well. There has also been much discussion about stating that Péclet numbers in engineering applications are typically very large. Some users have pointed out that the term "very large" is meaningless without discussing orders of magnitude, while others have stated that for unitless numbers "very large" implies greater than one. I agree with the former camp that it is more meaningful to assign orders of magnitude if you are going to make a claim about large Péclet numbers. In class we discussed how the meaning of a Péclet number for a given system changes for various orders of magnitude, which is a useful distinction.
 * This article is rated as Start-Class. I agree with this rating because the article, while clear in the information it currently presents, lacks sufficient depth and context. I think both of these issues could be improved by including information from more sources. It should not be difficult to find more information on the Péclet number from fluid mechanics and heat transfer textbooks. This article is a part of WikiProjects Physics.
 * This article is rated as Start-Class. I agree with this rating because the article, while clear in the information it currently presents, lacks sufficient depth and context. I think both of these issues could be improved by including information from more sources. It should not be difficult to find more information on the Péclet number from fluid mechanics and heat transfer textbooks. This article is a part of WikiProjects Physics.

Overall impressions

 * Overall evaluation
 * The article has a good foundation, but needs significant work to bulk up the content. The article shines in conciseness and clarity despite the difficult subject matter. The most glaring weaknesses of the article include the lack of depth, lack of sections, and insufficient references. From our discussions of the Péclet number in class, I know there is more on the subject that can be presented in this article. I appreciate that the authors were not trying to over-complicate this article, but I think that more technical readers would appreciate a more developed discussion of the Péclet number.