Entropy Based Design and Analysis of Fluids Engineering Systems

Entropy is key to performance in engineering technologies. This book provides an overview of this design tool and its applications in such areas as microfluidics and microdevices. It develops computational and experimental methods for finding regions of high entropy production rates.

From engineering fluid mechanics to power systems, information coding theory and other fields, entropy is key to maximizing performance in engineering systems. It serves a vital role in achieving the upper limits of efficiency of industrial processes and quality of manufactured products. Entropy based design (EBD) can shed new light on various flow processes, ranging from optimized flow configurations in an aircraft engine to highly ordered crystal structures in a turbine blade.

Entropy Based Design of Fluid Engineering Systems provides an overview of EBD as an emerging technology with applications to aerospace, microfluidics, heat transfer, and other disciplines. The text extends past analytical methods of Entropy Generation Minimization to numerical simulations involving more complex configurations and experimental measurement techniques.

The book begins with an extensive development of basic concepts, including the mathematical properties of entropy and exergy, as well as statistical and numerical formulations of the second law. It then goes on to describe topics related to incompressible flows and the Second Law in microfluidic systems. The authors develop computational and experimental methods for identifying problem regions within a system through the local rates of entropy production. With these techniques, designers can use EBD to focus on particular regions where design modifications can be made to improve system performance. Numerous case studies illustrate the concepts in each chapter, and cover an array of applications including supersonic flows, condensation and turbulence.

A one-of-a-kind reference, Entropy Based Design of Fluid Engineering Systems outlines new advances showing how local irreversibilities can be detected in complex configurations so that engineering devices can be re-designed locally to improve overall performance.