Engines: An Introduction

by John L. Lumley

Book Overview

The internal combustion engine that powers the modern automobile has changed very little from its initial design of some eighty years ago. Unlike many high tech advances, engine design still depends on an understanding of basic fluid mechanics and thermodynamics. This text offers a fresh approach to the study of engines, with an emphasis on design and on fluid dynamics. Professor Lumley, a renowned fluid dynamicist, provides a lucid explanation of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521644895
• ISBN13: 9780521644891
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.7" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Best as a textbook, but still interesting otherwise

This slim volume is for engineering students, complete with end-of-chapter problems, but is nonetheless readable, or at least skimmable, from cover to cover for those with an interest in engines. The writing is concise but not dry, with the author recounting his personal experiences with ruined VW engines. It has a sense of history, considering the 3.4L Jaguar engine first used in 1948 sufficiently modern to use as a benchmark to measure the late-Nineties Daihatsu against. Some later sections run to several pages of calculations, so you won't read everything, but you'll still get a good qualitative understanding due to the author's own command of the subject.

Good for beginners, good for advanced users

The book begins very simple so beginners can use it. It is not a book a non-techical can easily read. I was looking for some theory about manifold design and the book gave me a good impression of the available methods. A disadvantage of the book is that it refers to ESP software developed at Stanford university. It is meant for instructural purposes but it is not downloadable from the Stanford university site. Overall I think the book is good due to the up-todate examples.