Customer Reviews

Transport Phenomena, Revised 2nd Edition

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

First let me stress, this subject is hard, very hard. This may very well be the toughest subject you take in college. Regarding the book, it has some very strong points, and some very week points.

Pros:
1. There are some good examples
2. Answers to some difficult, multiple part problems are given (under the problems which is quite handy) so that you can complete later parts of a problem if you are not able to solve the early parts.
3. Figures used in text are well defined and labeled very well.
4. Problems are well organized and titled based upon the material they cover.
5. There are few, if any, pictures, figures, or other useless graphics or material that so many textbook writers include, that add virtually nothing to the learning of the subject at hand. This is very nice because it keeps the weight of the textbook relatively low, and does not force you to scan through the 'fluff' to find the pertinent information.

Cons:
1. Unit conversion tables are unconventional, awkward, and are very limited. Some students may have conversions memorized, however, this is not always the case, and for some obscure units, the conversions are not given and must be found elsewhere.
2. Examples are hit or miss. As I said, there are some good examples, however, there are some that are not very useful.
3. Problems can be somewhat cryptic, and not at all straightforward.
4. Sometimes skips key steps in derivations leading to confusing results.
5. Chapter reviews are nonexistent. It would be very nice if there were a list of important equations, definitions, and key concepts at the end of each chapter.

I understand that this is a very tough subject, especially if this is the first time seeing the material. When I took this course at the University of Minnesota, I knew it was going to be difficult, and this book did help me learn the material, however, this book really could be better.

I would recommend this book only if you have completed a course in multivariable calculus (you must understand multivariable calculus very well), linear algebra, a strong background in physics, experience in physical chemistry including thermodynamics. Some experience or coursework in quantum mechanics would also be very useful.

This book progresses quite rapidly through the various topics; usually begining with a one dimentional analysis and then proceding to more general treatment. This more general treatment tends to consist of Tensor analysis which is explained to a working extent in an appendix. However, after these general equations have been derived they are only refefered to by there location out of a comprehensive chart. Furthermore, the student is trained to use intuition in their approach to problem solving.

In general the text is incredibly consistant and well written. The examples and problems grow from a relitively basic level to those that can only be solved with advanced engineering Mathematics. The progression builds on itself in a nice way.

Transport Phenomenon by Bird, Stewart and Lightfoot is one of the most useful chemical engineering textbook ever written. For nearly five decades now, many chemical engineers have lived by what they learned first through this book. The revised edition makes the book current, though 1960 edition is great introduction to the mass, heat and energy and/or momentum transfer problems.

The basis idea of the book is simple: list the equations useful for a system of problems, say in mass transfer; provide set of assumptions used to arrive at those; suggest possible solutions to the differential equations for practical industry conditions; use correlations derived by researchers where real time data is unavailable and lastly, learn how to adapt solutions for different set of conditions. The book attempts to make problem solving into a set of instructions to be followed, and by sticking to the fundamental assumptions and equations allows one to attack a range of problems relevant to fields as diverse as diffusion transport, biochemical processes, condensation problems for atmospheric physics, chemical kinetics, heat conduction, petroleum extraction and flow of fluids relevant to many processing industries.

We often hailed it as the Bible of Chemical Engineering. Every now and then, (nearly a decade after we first read it) I still hear people say: this problem, or something like it, was in BSL, (the acronym awarded to the book after its authors). Be it Transport texts by Deen or Middleman typically used for graduate school courses, or Incompressible Flow by Patton, the recourse to understanding problems first hand through BSL is always rewarding.

The book comes with a number of solved and unsolved problems. There is no short-cut to becoming a good chemical engineer, except by mastering the art and science of attacking problems. By going through the book meticulously right in your first course, (for in most cases, this is the first chemical engineering text encountered), you can ensure that you will do well in your whole education as chemical engineer.

Recommended reference for all chemical engineers.

This is one of the few MUST HAVE books for Chemical Engineers doing process engineering. When I travel (for work) I always take "Transport Phenomena" (aka BSL), The GPA Databook and "Rules of Thumb for Chemical Engineers". When all the simple solutions to a problem have been exhausted, I pull out BSL, find an end-chapter problem similar to my own and work from there.

A Practical Tip: The best thing to do with "Rules of Thumb for Chemical Engineers" is to carefuly remove the binding and put it into a 3-hole notebook (e.g., the GPA databook) and then file all the classic process design articles with the appropriate chapters.

I first used BS&L over 30 years ago for my first Transport classes in Chemical Engineering. It's depth and breadth is such that it was a primary text for four other courses I took later in grad school. I pulled the book out a couple of days ago to review my understanding of heat transfer to help explain it to some youngsters.

To those who complain that it has too much math...take up a new field. Math and science are inextricably linked. Science isn't just your high school teacher babbling about ecology and the "circle of life". This is hard science, the kind that builds nations and brings societies out of disease-infested environments. If you're using this text and can't take the heat, better get out of the kitchen.

The most enduring text ever written for students of chemical engineering, BSL's "Transport Phenomena" leads the way with its study of momentum, energy, and mass transport. The structure and writing of the book make it unparalled in its usefulness to both beginning students of transport phenomena, and intermediate/advanced students looking for treatments of convective and turbulent transport, and mass transfer in reacting systems.

If you want to know transport well, this is the best book out for anyone. These guys weren't playing games when the they wrote this book. This book is serious, but don't use it as your introductory transport book beacues it is too advanced to start with, due to the fact that it is a graduate text. Once you have a grasp for the subject then you definitely need to check it out. Look in any other book and they will have it as a reference. I dont't know why these guys don't write more books.

Many years ago, when I was still in college and needed a part-time job, some people asked me if I could solve heat and mass transfer problems. I said I wasn't sure, so they recommended the first edition of this book. I simply read the book and then asked them about the problems they were working on. They explained their problems in detail and hired me to work on them. And because of this book, I had no trouble solving them. This book opened up a whole new world to me. I've used it as a reference ever since.

Of course, before I read this book, I had learned an enormous amount of pure mathematics and engineering mathematics. As well as fluid mechanics and thermodynamics. I think you need to be confident about your ability to handle the math to get full value from this text.

Most chemical engineers grew up with BSL. For myself, I found out what the graduate students were using. The old red-back version was intimidating. It was hard to use. The calculus was, and is, generally over my head. But... after reading through a few problems, the mathematics seemed familiar, the approach seemed to explain all my questions and the solution was, if not directly applicable, one that I could borrow for a difficult problem.

I remember once working on a product development for Andrew Jergens. My goal was to estimate the production capacity of a stepwise batch process. Others would ultimately use my numbers to estimate the price of the product. I had to get it right! One step involved melting this wax, a synthetic whale wax, over an electric heater. I knew the BTU output but there were several physical constraints. After a few sleepless nights and pawing through the University of Cincinnati library I was stumped. Then, I started looking through BSL.Oui la! There is a problem on de-frosting turkeys ¯ a real life practical application of heat transfer; supposedly, this is how Birdseye came up with the table you see on the outside of turkey wrappings on Thanksgiving.

It did not take me long to see the application. I spent a morning doing lab experiments for my physical properties and the afternoon fitting the measurements to their procedure. The method worked.

The second edition has much better graphics and a good index. The index and table of contents in the first edition made the book unwieldy.

I recently became interested in calculating the heat-up time in a hydrolysis bed. One of the crucial problems was calculating h', the volumetric heat transfer coefficient (BTU/hr-cubic feet-F: h X l). There is an excellent method developed by Shumann in another great book: Kern's "Process Heat Transfer." BSL presents a method for estimating h that can be transformed into h' by:
h' = h X Ac/V, where Ac=cross area; V=volume of bed. With the old version, finding this section of the book was very time consuming. The second edition made it easy.

There is one downside of the 2nd edition. To make it easier to read, the publisher increased its length and width. Unfortunately, as experience has born out, this tends to make a book more prone to shearing along its binding. I intent to wrap this book in heavy plastic to add some reinforcement. I suggest you do likewise.

I will keep you posted as I continue to use this book. I may give my old red-back to some younger engineer ---to knaw on the edges before they ask me for the answer.

If you are interested in buying this must-have transport phenomena intro text, you should try to purchase the latest available version (i.e. printing) of it. According to Wiley, the 8th printing of the Second Revised Edition is out with all typos, detected so far as of 2009-07-01, having been corrected, surfto bit.ly/page623 .The book front cover outside is indeed blue+yellow (instead of red+yellow) and says 'Second Edition' (instead of 'Revised Second Edition'). Please post your printing number in the comments section, along with purchase date - future buyers will appreciate this information detail, thank you!
By the way, a phenomenal introductory transport text, even more modern and uptodate in style and especially didactics and teaching conception plus which heavily integrates the use of the rather popular COMSOL commercial academic visual 3-D simulation software package for simultaneous coupled transport phenomena (formerly an addon for MATLAB called "FEMLAB") in its examples and homework problems is Joel Plawsky's book in its Second Edition (2009) version. Poor learners of transport phenomena should work with Plawsky's only from the very beginning but have this comprehensive introductory treatment in its Revised Second Edition always aside on desk, as reference. Equipped with these 2 intro texts, you will learn and understand with utmost efficiency and satisfaction!
Rated 4 stars due to missing innovative(!) supporting book companion webpage. Lack of free supplemental material or PC files as seen on Plawsky's book webpage.