Customer Reviews

Introduction to Transport Phenomena

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

 

 

I'm a professional chemical engineer who studied under Dr. Thomson 25+ years ago. Transport Phenomena by Bird Stewart & Lightfoot was the standard then. Chemical engineering students had a heck of a time relating to the material. As a subject, transport phenomena is a lot of math applied to practical problems. Fledgling chemical engineers have tended to need a primer that is more grounded in practical matters.

Introduction to Transport Phenomena provides a matter of fact, grounded (as grounded, I suppose, as theoretical chemical engineering can be) approach that the student and the old fud looking for a refresher alike can use. A word of caution for the person looking for the one book to answer all Transport Phenomena woes: This subject is taught throughout academia, regardless of the specific text, by providing several examples that are intended to show the reader the correct approach and 'tricks' for a particular set of problems. Although Introduction to Transport Phenomena by Dr. Thomson is a great primer, and Transport Phenomena by Bird Stewart & Lightfoot is the "Bible," I suggest that one maintains a 'living library' of reference material that helps understanding in this subject area. I'm currently saving for Transport Phenomena: Equations and Numerical Solutions by Esteban Saatdjiian, to round out my reference materials on the subject.

In conclusion, Introduction to Transport Phenomena by William Thomson is a very well written, easy to follow primer that provides the reader with excellent guidance and understandable reasoning for the approach to solving most transport phenomena problems. This book will readily show the correct approach in solving the vast majority of transport phenomena problems the chemical engineer tends to need solved in industry.

Side note: All books have typos and a few missed errors. Dr. Thomson is a professor at Washington State University. I found the errata for Introduction to Transport Phenomena there.

As a student chemical engineer I found the book somewhat helpful, but not really. My teacher taught the same material but in a different way and his way seemed much simpler than the books. I returned the book at the end of the semester because none of my classes 'needed' the book. Surprise! I now need the book and amazon apparently takes 1 to 3 months to ship this book...aka I'll get the book at the end of the semester.

I have had Dr. Thomson as an instructor and have used his book for three separate classes. I find the book difficult to follow at times. The end of chapter problems are confusing and seldom can be completed by following the material covered in the text. The book, which is not on its first edition, is filled with "minor errors" (for example, constants and/or exponents in presented equations are incorrect). On the plus side, the unit conversions in the appendices are very useful.