Customer Reviews

Biological and Bioenvironmental Heat and Mass Transfer (Food Science and Technology)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book provides a concise and complete overview of heat and mass transfer at an undergraduate level. It first introduces the reader to the general problem-solving approach for transport processes. It then covers the major mechanisms of heat transfer in the next several chapters. After a brief discussion on chemical kinetics, it covers the major mechanisms of mass transfer, drawing analogies to the heat transfer topics already described. Along the way it demonstrates some valuable problem-solving techniques, such as making smart approximations and non-dimensionalizations, using charts, etc. The book covers a lot in only 300 pages and most of the explanations are clear. However there are a few topics, particularly those in the mass transfer section, that could use more detail.

The book assumes that the reader has some familiarity with momentum transfer, but this is not absolutely essential. Spending a few hours reading about fluid mechanics on Wikipedia, for example, should provide more than enough background. The math is at an appropriate level for an undergraduate. The book shows how to use separation-of-variables to solve PDEs and provides an introduction to similarity transformations, but it avoids vector notation and any discussion of tensors. The governing equations are written out explicitly in component form.

The book is mainly targeted towards biological or environmental engineering students. As a result it includes some topics not usually found in standard transport books. Examples include flow through porous media, transpiration in plants, and microwaving of food. Nevertheless it does spend some time on heat transfer fins and other traditional engineering topics. Regardless of the particular application, I appreciate that the book remains focused on the basic set of physical processes underlying all transport phenomena. The problem-solving procedure introduced in the beginning is systematically followed for every example. Topics which detract from this big picture view, such as transport correlations, are described only to the extent that is necessary, instead of in excruciating detail as they are in many other texts.

I would highly recommend this book for any instructor looking for a suitable undergraduate biological transport phenomena text.