Heat Transfer in Industrial Combustion

7R51. Heat Transfer in Industrial Combustion. - CE Baukal Jr (R&D Test Center, John Zink Co LLC, Tulsa OK). CRC Press, Boca Raton FL. 2000. 545 pp. ISBN 0-8493-1699-5. $89.95Reviewed by Lea-Der Chen (Dept of Mech Eng, Univ of Iowa, 2129EB, Iowa City IA 52242).This book, as stated in Preface, is intended to “fill a gap in the literature for books on heat transfer in industrial combustion, written for the practicing engineers.” This reviewer would like to congratulate the author for a well-written and a comprehensive book on industrial combustion. This book covers the three modes of heat transfer and their relevance to industrial combustion. It also covers the modeling strategies, including the thermodynamic equilibrium approximation, for example, using the robust NASA equilibrium code; correlations for heat calculation; and CFD-base multidimensional modeling. In addition, this book gives a comprehensive introduction of the experimental techniques that are important to combustion measurements. With the comprehensive review of the literature and the clear presentation of fundamentals of mass, momentum, and heat transport in combustion flames, this book should find its place as a valuable reference to practitioners in the field of combustion. As a university professor, this reviewer also finds that this book would be very useful when teaching my combustion and propulsion class (a senior-level technical elective or first-year graduate-level course). Examples from the book such as submerged burners and flame impingements will be used to illustrate the breadth and complexities of the field. There are 12 chapters, five appendices, and two indices in the book. These chapters are, in numerical order: introduction, some fundamentals of combustion, heat transfer modes, heat sources and sinks, computer modeling, experimental techniques, flame impingement, heat transfer from burners, heat transfer in furnaces, lower temperature applications, higher temperature applications, and advanced combustion systems. The Appendices are reference sources for further information on: common conversions; methods of expressing mixture ratios for CH4, C3H8, and H2; properties for CH4, C3H8, and H2 flames; fluid dynamics equations; and material properties. The book concludes with an author index and a detailed subject index. Each chapter begins with a summary of a literature review and is followed by in-depth discussion of the chapter’s subject matter. The book gives a clear link of fundamental principles to industrial combustion. At the same time, it also gives readers a working level of calculation that can be used to estimate heat transfer performance. Should the author plan a second edition of the book, perhaps it could be expanded into a handbook for heat transfer calculation for industrial combustion. In doing so, this reviewer also would like to suggest that Chapter 5 (Computer Modeling) be expanded to give more examples that can further illustrate the utilities and limitations of commercial CFD codes for heat transfer calculation of the industrial combustion examples. This reviewer recommends Heat Transfer in Industrial Combustion to his peers as well as to the libraries of institutions for higher learning.