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Design and Simulation of Thermal Systems

N. V. Suryanarayana, Michigan Tech University
Oner Arici, Michigan Tech University

Preface

In the late 1970s and early 1980s the emphasis on design began to increase. At that time, design usually meant mechanical design. However, some faculty in the thermal sciences, we among them, felt that there was a place for thermal component and system design in mechanical engineering curricula. As a result, one of us developed and taught a course, "Design in Thermal Systems," in 1986. Since then, we have taught the course many times. In 1986, there were only two books on thermal design and we taught the course with those books as references supplemented by notes. However, we were not quite satisfied with the combination of books and notes. A few years back we felt that there was a need for a book with emphasis on the synthesis of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer, the application of a set of guidelines for design, an introduction to ethics, and report writing. We also felt that it should be almost a standalone book. Design and Simulation of Thermal Systems is the result.

We would like to explain the rationale for the inclusion of some of the chapters and the arrangement of the book. The book starts with an introduction to design and design methodology in Part 1. We felt that the students should be aware of some of the ethical issues that impact on design before embarking on the design and, therefore, the section on ethics has been included in Part 1. It enumerates many of the ethical issues a practicing engineer may face. The chapter also includes the codes of ethics of several professional societies.

Part 2 is a review of the three disciplines. Our experience has been that most students do not retain the texts used in earlier courses and need to review those materials. Also, it would be difficult to give references to many of the results, such as friction factors and convective heat transfer correlations, as different texts are used in different schools. The review not only helps the students to recapitulate what they have learned earlier but will also help them in their design projects. The chapters contain most of the materials that are needed for using the book.

Part 3 is the most important one as the application of the suggested guidelines for design are illustrated in it. Chapter 8 starts with the descriptions of some of the more common systems. It is followed by some examples of design of components and illustrates the use of the principles enunciated in Chapter 2. System design is demonstrated in Chapter 9. The design of systems is limited to the selection of components for the systems and not the complete design of each component. Chapter 10, on simulation, includes some of the techniques employed in determining the operation of components and systems under different operating conditions. We have given some of the details of the mathematical techniques that are used, to the extent needed. Our emphasis has been more on the application of the principles rather than on the details of the mathematical techniques.

Part 4 is a review of engineering economics. Presentation of results, usually the last item in the design, either written, oral, or both is discussed in Part 5. Most of the materials are the result of the collaboration of one of the authors in a National Science Foundation sponsored project, Writing in Design.

There are a large number of tables and figures in Appendix A of Part 6 in line with our aim of making the book self-contained. Tables of properties of a large number of substances of engineering significance, transport properties of a number of fluids, and thermophysical and transport properties of a large number of substances, and other information useful in thermal sciences, have also been included. Our hope is that the extensive data in the appendix will be useful to the students in their future careers as practicing engineers.

For computations, we have extensively used EES and to produce many of the tables of thermodynamic transport properties. We strongly recommend its use. A brief write-up on the program is given in Appendix B.

We hope the book will be found to be appropriate for a capstone course in design. We have proofread the materials several times and yet we are aware that there are bound to be some errors. We would appreciate if they are brought to our attention. We will be grateful for suggestions for improving the book. They may be communicated to either of the authors. Their email addresses are:

nvsuryan@yahoo.com

arici@mtu.edu

Finally, many persons have helped in bringing out this text and our thanks go to all of them. The authors would like to start with their wives, Pramila Suryanarayana and Nesrin Arıcı, who have patiently suffered endless hours of our being locked in our studies.

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Florida State Institute of Technology

Kettering University

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Arizona State University

Georgia Institute of Technology

Mr. Jonathan Plant, chief editor, has been very supportive of this effort, Ms. Regina Brooks helped us greatly in transforming the manuscript to a book. Mr. Sheherazal, graduate student at Michigan Technological University, has been very helpful in producing many of the tables of thermodynamic properties of substances in Appendix A. We have received support from the Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics Department of Michigan Technological University and our thanks go to Professor W. W. Predebon, Chair of the Department.

N. V. Suryanarayana
Öner Arıcı

2003 McGraw-Hill Higher Education
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