Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer

Citation

Bergman, T. L., Lavine, A. S., Incropera, F. P., & DeWitt, D. P. (2018). Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer (8th ed.). Wiley.

Chapter Summary

The book has fourteen chapters and seven lettered appendices, followed by conversion factors and physical constants, in about 990 pages. The appendices include thermophysical properties, mathematical relations, the Gauss-Seidel method, the convection transfer equations, turbulent boundary layer equations and an integral laminar boundary layer solution. The publisher describes a presentation built around four learning objectives: to internalise the terminology and physical principles of heat transfer; to identify the transport phenomena relevant to any process involving heat transfer; to use the inputs needed to compute heat transfer rates and temperatures; and to develop models of real processes and draw conclusions about design or performance. It also stresses a systematic problem-solving methodology, many examples across engineering fields, and marking of problems suited to computational software. This edition gives additional emphasis to fundamental concepts and to energy and the environment.

Chapter 1: Introduction

The chapter defines heat transfer as thermal energy in transit due to a spatial temperature difference and introduces the three modes: conduction, convection and radiation. It links heat transfer to the first law of thermodynamics and to the second law and the efficiency of heat engines, covers units and dimensions, and sets out a methodology for analysing problems. It closes with a section on the relevance of heat transfer, which uses the flow of energy in the United States, and the large share lost as heat, to motivate the subject.

Chapters 2–5: Introduction to Conduction; One-Dimensional, Steady-State Conduction; Two-Dimensional, Steady-State Conduction; Transient Conduction

Chapter 2 gives the conduction rate equation, thermal properties of matter and the heat diffusion equation with boundary and initial conditions. Chapter 3 treats the plane wall, composite walls, contact resistance, radial systems, conduction with energy generation and extended surfaces (fins), and ends with applications including the bioheat equation, thermoelectric power generation and nanoscale conduction. Chapter 4 covers separation of variables, the conduction shape factor and finite-difference methods. Chapter 5 begins with the lumped capacitance method and goes on to the plane wall and radial systems with convection, the semi-infinite solid, periodic heating and finite-difference methods.

Chapters 6–9: Introduction to Convection; External Flow; Internal Flow; Free Convection

Chapter 6 introduces velocity, thermal and concentration boundary layers, the boundary layer equations and similarity, and analogies between momentum, heat and mass transfer. Chapters 7 and 8 apply these to flow over bodies and flow in tubes, and Chapter 8 includes heat transfer enhancement and forced convection in small channels. Chapter 9 turns to buoyancy-driven flow, including enclosures and combined free and forced convection. Chapters 8 and 9 each end with a section on convection mass transfer.

Chapters 10–11: Boiling and Condensation; Heat Exchangers

Chapter 10 covers boiling modes, pool and forced-convection boiling, and film and dropwise condensation. Chapter 11 presents heat exchanger types, the overall heat transfer coefficient, the log mean temperature difference method, the effectiveness-NTU method, and design and performance calculations.

Chapters 12–13: Radiation: Processes and Properties; Radiation Exchange Between Surfaces

Chapter 12 covers blackbody radiation, emission from real surfaces, absorption, reflection and transmission, Kirchhoff's law, the gray surface and environmental radiation. Chapter 13 treats exchange between surfaces, multimode heat transfer and radiation with participating media.

Chapter 14: Diffusion Mass Transfer

The final chapter develops mass transfer by diffusion: Fick's law, mass transfer in nonstationary media, species conservation, interface conditions, homogeneous chemical reactions and transient diffusion.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–5: Conduction

• Modes of heat transfer: conduction, convection and radiation, each with its own rate equation.
• Thermal resistance: a circuit-style way of treating steady conduction through composite walls and radial systems.
• Fins: extended surfaces that increase heat transfer.
• Lumped capacitance method: a simplified model for transient conduction.

Chapters 6–11: Convection, phase change and exchangers

• Boundary layers: the thin velocity, thermal and concentration layers that govern convection.
• Correlations: empirical relations for external, internal and free convection.
• Boiling and condensation: heat transfer with phase change.
• Heat exchanger analysis: the log mean temperature difference and effectiveness-NTU methods.

Chapters 12–14: Radiation and mass transfer

• Blackbody radiation and gray surfaces: the basis for radiative property models.
• Radiation exchange: heat exchange between surfaces.
• Diffusion mass transfer: Fick's law and species conservation.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A fixed problem-solving approach. The publisher highlights a rigorous, systematic methodology, and Chapter 1 itself includes a section on analysing heat transfer problems, so the method is taught explicitly from the start.
• Conduction, convection, radiation and mass transfer in one volume. Heat exchangers, boiling and condensation, and mass transfer are all included, and mass transfer is introduced alongside convection from Chapter 6 on.
• Breadth of applications. The chapter on one-dimensional conduction ends with bioheat, thermoelectric power and nanoscale conduction, and the relevance section frames the subject through energy use and the environment.
• Support for computation. The publisher notes that problems suited to computational software are identified.

Limitations

• Length. At about 990 pages, the book is more than a single course can cover, so readers must choose chapters and sections.
• Prerequisite. The opening chapter explicitly builds on a prior study of thermodynamics, extending it to the rates of energy transfer, so readers without that background will find the start harder.
• Mass transfer is spread out. Mass-transfer material appears in Chapters 6, 8 and 9 as well as in Chapter 14, so a course on heat transfer alone has to pick out the sections to omit.

Where It Fits in the Course

Within this heat transfer course, Bergman and colleagues write the comprehensive undergraduate text. A Heat Transfer Textbook and Nellis and Klein's Introduction to Engineering Heat Transfer are introductory alternatives, the latter pairing derivations with computational tools; Heat and Mass Transfer: Fundamentals and Applications and Kreith and Manglik's Principles of Heat Transfer are engineering texts of the same kind and make useful second opinions. Ghiaasiaan's Convective Heat and Mass Transfer is the graduate-level treatment of convection that extends Chapters 6 to 9 here.

How to Use This Book

The book is aimed at engineering students who have studied thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and calculus through ordinary differential equations.

For a first course, read Chapter 1 carefully, since it sets the three modes, the energy balance and the methodology. Chapters 2 and 3 are the core of conduction; Chapter 5 follows if transient problems are needed. Chapters 6 to 9 form the convection core, with Chapter 11 on heat exchangers and Chapters 12 and 13 on radiation completing a standard course. Chapter 4 (with its numerical methods), Chapter 10 on boiling and condensation, and Chapter 14 on mass transfer can be chosen according to the course. Use the appendices, especially Appendix A on thermophysical properties, constantly while solving problems, and follow the methodology in Chapter 1 for every worked solution.