Compact Heat Exchangers

1Basic Heat Transfer

1.1 Importance of Heat Transfer

The subject of heat transfer is of fundamental importance in many branches of engineering. A mechanical engineer may be interested in knowing the mechanisms of heat transfer involved in the operation of equipment, such as boilers, condensers, air preheaters and economizers, and in thermal power plants, in order to improve performance. Refrigeration and air‐conditioning systems also involve heat‐exchanging devices, which need careful design. Electrical engineers are keen to avoid material damage due to hot spots, developed by improper heat transfer design in electric motors, generators and transformers. An electronic engineer is interested in knowing the most efficient methods of heat dissipation from chips and other semiconductor devices so that they can operate within safe operating temperatures. A computer hardware engineer wants to know the cooling requirements of circuit boards, as the miniaturization of computing devices is advancing rapidly. Chemical engineers are interested in heat transfer processes in various chemical reactions. A metallurgical engineer may need to know the rate of heat transfer required for a particular heat treatment process, such as the rate of cooling in a casting process, as this has a profound influence on the quality of the final product. Aeronautical engineers are interested in knowing the heat transfer rate in electronic equipment that uses compact heat exchangers for minimizing weight, ...