TABLE OF CONTENTS This concluding part of the handbook goes beyond thermal analysis and design and integrates design-related economic analysis. This is important because designing heat-transfer systems almost always involves tradeoffs, most notably in the form of performance versus cost.
Two chapters follow, both by U.S. academics. The first chapter gives a brief introduction to simple engineering economics and outlines its use in optimizing a heat-transfer system. A specific example is used for illustration the economics of purchasing a new compressor/water-cooled condenser unit for an existing air-conditioning system. The second chapter presents a set of calculations that deals with a specific problem which oven should a delicatessen purchase to cook turkeys in?
Thomas M. Adams
Mechanical Engineering Department
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Terre Haute, Indiana
Designing heat-transfer systems almost always involves tradeoffs, most notably in the form of performance versus cost. Increasing the surface area of a fin array, for example, will tend to increase the heat-transfer rate from it. Increasing the surface area of the fin array, however, also increases its expense, and as the fin array becomes increasingly large, the resulting expense may become prohibitive. The surface area of a fin array above which any increase in area no longer justifies the increase in cost represents one example of an economic optimum.
Adding a fin array to a surface increases the convective heat transfer from the surface by increasing the effective...
