Introduction to Thermal and Fluids Engineering

by Deborah A. Kaminski and Michael K. Jensen

This innovative book uses unifying themes so that the boundaries between thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluid mechanics become transparent. It begins with an introduction to the numerous engineering applications that may require the integration of principles and tools from these disciplines. The authors then present an in-depth examination of the three disciplines, providing readers with the necessary background to solve various engineering problems. The remaining chapters delve into the topics in more detail and rigor. Numerous practical engineering applications are mentioned throughout to illustrate where and when certain equations, concepts, and topics are needed. A comprehensive introduction to thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer, this title: Develops governing equations and approaches in sufficient detail, showing how the equations are based on fundamental conservation laws and other basic concepts. Explains the physics of processes and phenomena with language and examples that have been seen and used in everyday life. Integrates the presentation of the three subjects with common notation, examples, and problems. Demonstrates how to solve any problem in a systematic, logical manner. Presents material appropriate for an introductory level course on thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluid mechanics.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471268739
• ISBN13: 9780471268734
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 800 Pages
• Weight: 3.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 8.2" x 10.3"

Customer Reviews

not bad

Not too bad of a textbook. It's the only thermo class that I need so it's pretty basic. I recommend having a basic fluid mechanics class to understand a few of the concepts in this book, but it's not critical.

Handy Textbook

I studied chemical engineering as an undergraduate over 15 years ago. I am working on a masters degree in thermal fluids engineering. This text was used for a review/ramp course that covered some thermodynamics, some fluid mechanics and some heat transfer. The concept of teaching these subjects in an integrated course with an integrated textbook is new (to me at least). If you don't like this integrated pedagogy, you will likely find many faults with the book. When solving real world engineering problems, I find the most useful skill is to combine knowledge from multiple disciplines and integrate them. A lot of my undergraduate curriculum went into heavy derivations and details that have not been very useful in my career as an engineer. However, learning the key concepts from each subject, and then combining to solve interdisciplinary problems is very valuable to me. The trade-offs for this text and for this integrated approach is the sacrifice of detail and rigor. The sections on thermodynamics were spot-on for the key concepts that mechanical engineers would need, but would be totally inadequate for chemical engineers (no mention of fugacity or activity, no development of equations of state, no coverage of chemical potential, etc.) The sections on fluid mechanics were practical and handy for actually solving flow in conduits and external flow problems; they also provided good physical descriptions of the phenonmena, but they were clearly lacking in rigor in development and derivation. Also, no coverage of dimensional analysis and similarity, turbomachinary nor compressible flow were included. That would be appalling to a fluids expert, but still enough of the general concepts were conveyed to facilitate learning those other areas from other sources. The heat transfer sections were very good at convering a lot of subjects with minimal pages. In the few chapters on HT, I can find almost all of the steady state conduction, transient conduction, convection, correlations for Nusselt numbers, and radiation that are covered in a 900 page text dedicated to HT alone. All in all this is a very efficient text. I found this textbook to be very good at it's intended purpose. However, for more complete coverage of any of the three topics dedicated textbooks would be needed. Depending on your needs and your curriculum this book could be ideal or just frustrating. By the way, I found it very handy to have all the appendices that contain the thermophysical properites for solids, liquids and gases in one book. I use the tables quite frequently for other classes and work related calculations.

very pleased

was very pleased with this purchase, the book arrived on time and was in great condition. will definitely order through this seller again