Customer Reviews

Design of Thermal Systems

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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I was taught from edition one of this book back in the early 70's. Once the second edition came out I jumped at it and was not disappointed. The third edition came out in 1989 and I got it at once. Now I hope Professor Stoecker is still working on a fourth edition so that I can also get it.

This is the best book I have ever seen to help someone understand the in's and out's of design; any design, from system concept to system completion. I can't say enough about this book.

The optimization subjects are as simple to understand as came be made with excellent explanations.

Subjects covered are economics, equation fitting, modeling systems, system simulations, lagrange multiplers, search methods, dynamic programming, geometric programming, modeling of thermal properties, steady state simulation, dynamic behavior of thermal systems, calculus methods of optimization, probabilistic approaches to design and more.

Included in the appendices are a list of comprehensive problems and a computer program for generalized system simulation.

You can't go wrong with this one.

Steve Wiser

I was looking for a book about the practical side of designing thermal systems (heat exchanger design, fluid flow, etc) that goes into more detail than your standard thermodynamics and fluid dynamics book. The primary focus of this book is optimization theory. The title is misleading to me. It should be titled something like "Optimization Theory applied to Thermal Systems".

Excellent introductory text on the various mathematical methods used to optimize thermal systems. Example problems with solutions in each chapter quickly reinforce the concepts discussed. Answers to most of the problems are a beneficial aid in helping the student arrive at the correct solution rather than stumbling down a blind alley.

There could be more depth in the discussion of thermal systems and design concepts but overall the tradeoff between optimization methods and design concepts is good.