Page 7 - Mechanical Engineers' Handbook (Volume 4)

Preface

The fourth volume of the Third Edition of the Mechanical Engineers’ Handbook comprises
32 chapters. The volume begins with a chapter on thermophysical properties of fluids, then
covers fundamentals of fluid mechanics, thermodynamics (including a chapter on exergy and
entropy generation minimization), heat transfer, combustion, and furnaces. Additional heat
transfer topics in this volume include heat exchangers, heat pipes, air heating, and electronic
equipment cooling. This volume includes chapters on both conventional energy sources–
gaseous and liquid fuels, coal, and nuclear—and alternative energy sources—solar, geother-
mal, and fuel cells (in a chapter entirely new to the handbook). There are six chapters on
power machinery: one on fans, blowers, compressors, and pumps; one each on gas, wind (in
a chapter entirely new to the handbook), and steam turbines; one on internal combustion
engines; and one on fluid power. Refrigeration and cryogenics are covered in two chapters.
Four chapters deal with environmental issues: energy auditing, indoor environmental control,
and air and water pollution control technologies. A chapter on thermal systems optimization
rounds out this volume of the handbook.
The contributors to this volume include engineers working in industry in the United
States and Canada, as well as in U.S. government agencies, and business owners, consultants,
and academics from all around the United States. Three contributors, Reuben Olsen, Carroll
Cone, and Leonard Wenzel, whose chapters first appeared in previous editions, are deceased.
Their distinguished work survives.

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