Talk:Heat Transfer

Structure
Hm, I have a question on the structure here. Finite Difference Method is a numerical method. I think it is a bit confusing to have such things in many places, especially since Finite Element Method often are needed when doing heat transfer stuff. I would vote for having an appendix which explains the basics of numerical methods and then goes on to talk about the basics of Finite Difference Method etc. Speaking about that, should the book be focused on "pen and paper" or computer calculations? In the courses I'm involved in we tend to do some simple stuff by hand and then they start using computers to get a feeling for more advanced stuff, but there's always a risk with using computers that they go for surface learning (push that button, report to the teacher ;o) rather than deep learning (i.e. computer assignments need to be carefully designed) AND if one focuses on computer stuff in a wikibook, don't we end up in a conflict of interest (or are there apropriate free source software for these things)? Saittam 13 Aug 2005

in my opinion, the book should talk about all kinds of heat transfer techniques and methods used to solve the problem. it is going to be an arduous task to put down a whole book on heat transfer. people who are going to refer to this are mostly going to use it as a reference. the approach has to be the same that is used in classrooms. we'll list the pen and paper methods and the comp methods, with the pen and paper methods preceeding the comp methods. the choice of the method is left to the user.

Computer Stuff
if one focuses on computer stuff in a wikibook, don't we end up in a conflict of interest ...?

I don't understand. Do your concerns also apply to the proprietary software used in the Pro Engineer and Microsoft Excel Programming Recipes wikibooks? What exactly are you concerned might happen? --DavidCary 02:25, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

LMTD
The module currently says ''The efficiency of a counter flow heat exchanger is sometimes characterized by the Log Mean Temperature Difference (LMTD) between the fluids. Lower values of LMTD indicate better heat exchanger performance.''

I don't understand. What if the output of the initially "cold" fluid is exactly the same temperature as the output of the initially "hot" fluid?

Better yet, what if the output of the initially "cold" fluid is hotter than the output of the initially "hot" fluid? (This *can* happen in a highly efficient counter-flow heat exchanger, right?)

Or is the LMTD calculated from something *other* than the output temperatures? --DavidCary 02:25, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes, see Log mean temperature difference.

I don't think this is true at all. The LMTD is what you start with in designing heat exchangers, and the last thing you want is a low LMTD.Chemical Engineer 18:24, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Software
are there apropriate free source software for these things?

Are you saying some people don't already know? :-)

Off the top of my head, I know some related open-source things that already have a wikibook:

Rather than jump directly from hand-calculations to specialized finite-element software, perhaps some intermediate 1D and 2D problems could use a general-purpose spreadsheet (perhaps OpenOffice.org).

Python (scientific python) and Octave are good open-source tools for general 3D numerical calculations.

--DavidCary 02:25, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

Lienhard and Lienhard
Instead of starting this project from scratch maybe someone could approach Lienhard and Lienhard and see if they would be willing to allow their textbook to be used as the foundation for this Wiki entry. I'm not sure how they would feel about letting people modify their copyrighted material, but it might be worth a shot.

Organization
I have added some links that I propose we break up this wikibook into pages, and these seemed logical to me (they're basically the same as the main headers now), if you think they're appropriate then let me know and I'll just move the information that's already here into those pages, if not feel free to revert my linkage adding. Mattb112885 02:17, 25 December 2006 (UTC)

I have broken this book up into chapters, which should be easier to work on.Chemical Engineer 23:01, 13 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Thank you, I intended to do this but I had long since forgotten. It should be much more manageable now Mattb112885 (talk to me) 12:50, 14 October 2007 (UTC)