7R53. Transport Phenomena: Equations and Numerical Solutions. - E Saatdjian (ENSIC-INPL, Vandoeuvre, France). Wiley, W Sussex, UK. 2000. 414 pp. ISBN 0-471-62230-3.
Reviewed by WS Janna (Herff Col of Eng, Univ of Memphis, 201E Eng Admin, Memphis TN 38152).
The author has undertaken the ambitious project of writing a text that presents Transport Phenomena as well as a description of the numerical solution methods that can be used to solve such problems. The text is thus divided into two parts.
The first part (Chs 1–7) is devoted to Transport Phenomena. Conservation equations are written in Chapter 1; these include mass, momentum, and energy conservation equations. Chapter 2 is on incompressible fluid dynamics, beginning with the Bernoulli Equation and continuing with unsteady flows, dimensional analysis, laminar and turbulent flows in a tube, flow over a flat plate, and a corresponding numerical solution formulation.
Chapter 3 covers conduction heat transfer. Some of the topics are steady-state conduction, heat flow through a composite plane or cylindrical wall, fin theory, and unsteady heat conduction. Forced convection is the subject of Chapter 4. Problems considered are laminar flow in a circular tube, flow in an annulus, external flow over a flat plate, and heat exchangers.
Chapter 5 continues with natural convection heat transfer. The areas covered include dimensional analysis for natural convection problems, natural convection in a porous medium, mixed convection, and experimental results obtained for various problems. Chapter 6 is on radiation heat transfer with topics such as black body radiation, view factors, radiation in enclosures, gray bodies, and radiation in absorbing media.
Mass transfer is the subject of Chapter 7. Fick’s Law for a binary mixture is presented, along with molecular diffusion in gases and in liquids, steady-state diffusion problems, falling liquid films, and simultaneous heat and mass transfer, among other topics.
The second part of the book begins with Chapter 8 which describes the finite difference method of representing a differential equation. It presents explicit and implicit formulations and discusses how boundary conditions are treated mathematically. This chapter is relatively short, although it contains many other topics, such as solution methods for parabolic equations and for nonlinear equations. Elliptic equations are found in Chapter 9. Iterative solution methods and relaxation methods are described. One problem considered is natural convection in a porous medium. The finite volume method is the subject of Chapter 10. The method is described as are boundary conditions, unsteady regimes, and staggered grids.
The text also contains nine appendices. These are labeled alphabetically in the text as: (A) Equations in Curvilinear Coordinates; (B) Vector Analysis; (C) An Introduction to Tensor Analysis; (D) Prediction of Transport Properties; (E) Laplace Transforms; (F) Solution of Bessel’s Equation; (G) Radiative Transfer in a Cloud of Particles; (H) Runge Kutta Method; and (I) Integration Using Gaussian Quadrature. Appendix E could be omitted from the text and would not be missed. Following the appendices is an index which appears to be rather complete.
Each chapter concludes with a Bibliography and (except for Chapter 10) Problems. The Bibliography sections contain titles that provide the reader with information about the topics covered in the chapter, rather than an extensive list of related topics. Some of the chapters conclude with a section titled Examples and Problems (rather than just Problems), in which “proof” type exercises are presented. The text contains 53 individual examples and problems.
The text is readable, although it contains an occasional Anglicanism (eg, aeroplane). The text is rather abrupt and in many places does not contain great detail especially in equation derivations. This could mean that the author may have written the text for the reader who is already familiar with Transport Phenomena. There are examples in the text that are written using italicized text, which at times may confuse the reader especially when trying to differentiate the dimension for mass from the unit for meter, or when trying to identify the symbol for absolute viscosity versus the symbol used as an SI prefix. The use of SI units is not strictly correct in a few places. In the examples where calculations are made, it would be helpful if the examples showed where the physical properties of the fluids were obtained.
The empty phrases “one can show that,” and “one can easily show” have no place in any textbook, but both of these appear in Chapter 8. The footnotes, on the other hand, are very interesting. When a particular phenomenon is described and a personage is mentioned, the reader is referred to a footnote that provides information about the individual. These include such commonly recognized names as Daniel Bernoulli, as well as not so well known persons (eg, Niels Abel).
Missing from the text is an all-encompassing example that shows the methodology of solving a problem numerically. Such a problem would start with the differential equation and boundary conditions. The finite difference form of the equation and boundary conditions would be formulated. The equations would be solved and the results would be compared to the exact solution. All the information needed to do this is in the text, if it included such an example, the text would give a much better presentation.
Overall, Transport Phenomena is very good. It is readable and interesting and contains many problems. It would not be a very good text for a beginner in the area of Transport Phenomena, but for someone already familiar with fluid dynamics, heat transfer and mass transfer, the text is a good one. It would make a very good addition to any reference library. The book can be used successfully in the classroom if supplemented with more problems.
