Customer Reviews

Schaum's Outline of Heat Transfer

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

 

 

This book does a good job of covering all of the relevant concepts of heat transfer. I would give this 4 or 5 star rating, however the author makes mistakes in solving his own practice problems, but whats worse is the author can not even use values from his own tables correctly (for example in problem 4.3 the author uses a cp=473, when clearly in the table it is stated as cp=0.473). Errors like this are unacceptable, especially when many problems reference other problem. I have tried to reach the publisher to help correct these errors, but they have yet to get back to me.

Used this as a supplementary text to try and bring in an alternative perspective to the material for my Thermals & Fluids class. I didn't actually use it during the time I was taking the class but after I skimmed through the text and it had more in the way of content then my actual textbook for the course had. I would recommend this to people who either want it to help them when learning the material or for professionals who just need a casual reference text for when they are working.

One aspect of the book I found very useful is the compilation of empirical correlations for the Nusselt number, making this book an ideal **supplement** to a more theoretically oriented textbook. For upper level undergraduate and the first year graduate students in an engineering major, my recommendation in this regard would be "Fundamental Principles of Heat Transfer" by Stephen Whitaker.

This is not a book which correctly solves problems in a heat transfer course. Much less "fully" solving problems. My biggest letdown in this book is in the manner the authors solved some of the problems in the book. Specifically problems dealing with the Biot modulus for a carbon steel sphere. It incorrectly lists the formula to solve for this type of object. It also does not show how to solve for the Biot modulus using the graphs provided. This book also incorrectly lists a method to solve for the amount of time needed to cool a heated sphere. Studying these incorrect methods caused my exam to drop a letter grade. I do not recommend this book to anyone trying to grasp the concepts in a heat transfer course. I suggest to save your money for something else that may help.

I found the Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of Heat Transfer, 2nd Ed. a helpful addition to my small collection of radiation heat transfer references. It has a unique worked example of the direct conversion from an Oppenheim radiosity network (RC analogy) to a radiation exchange factor (script-F) network.

I cannot comment on the conduction or convection sections because I have not yet used them.

The book is very helpful for insight into how to handle various heat transfer geometries, such as flat plate, cylinders, sphere, etc. I found no glaring technical or typographical errors in the book. However, the section on heat exchangers could have been much better developed. Specifically, on the relationship of UA, mass flow rate, specific heat capacity, and the terminal differential temperature ratio. For those interested, I offer the following derivations:

For counterflow Hx's:
(T1-T2)/(T3-T4)=e^(UA*(M2Cp2-M1Cp1)/(M1Cp1*M2Cp2))

For parallel flow Hx's:
(T1-T4)/(T3-T2)=e^(UA*(M2Cp2+M1Cp1)/(M1Cp1*M2Cp2))

Where: T1 is the inlet temperature of the high temperature fluid, T2 is the exit temperature of the low temperature fluid, T3 is the exit temperature of the high temperature fluid, T4 is the inlet temperature of the low temperature fluid. UA is the product of the overall heat transfer coefficient and the heat transfer area, typically fixed in the heat exchanger design/construction. M1 and M2 are the mass flow rates of the the high temp (M1) and low temp (M2) fluids. Cp1 and Cp2 are the specific heat capacities of the high temperature and low temperature fluids, respectively. Of course, "e" is the base natural logarithm, 2.71828...

Although, the idealized case, these formulae, which I could not gleen from this outline, will help greatly in the evaluation of terminal temperatures for a given heat exchanger given the design attributes of U, A, Cp, mass flow rates and sink and source temperatures.

Delivery of the product took a long time to the point of giving up. In fact I had to go to a local bookstore and purchase the same book so I could get to do what I need to do. I gave away the book I received to another person that needed one. The product however was in very good shape.

It is what I expected. Heat Transfer all in one reference.