In heat transfer analysis, thermal diffusivity is the thermal conductivity divided by density and specific heat capacity at constant pressure. It is a measure of the rate of heat transfer inside a material. It has units of m2/s. Thermal diffusivity is usually denoted by lowercase alpha, but a, h, κ (kappa), K, and D are also used.
In the study of heat transfer, Newton's law of cooling is a physical law which states that
The rate of heat loss of a body is directly proportional to the difference in the temperatures between the body and its environment.
Frederick Winslow Taylor was an American mechanical engineer. He was widely known for his methods to improve industrial efficiency. He was one of the first management consultants. In 1909, Taylor summed up his efficiency techniques in his book The Principles of Scientific Management which, in 2001, Fellows of the Academy of Management voted the most influential management book of the twentieth century. His pioneering work in applying engineering principles to the work done on the factory floor was instrumental in the creation and development of the branch of engineering that is now known as industrial engineering. Taylor made his name, and was most proud of his work, in scientific management; however, he made his fortune patenting steel-process improvements. As a result, scientific management is sometimes referred to as Taylorism.
In continuum mechanics, elastic shakedown behavior is one in which plastic deformation takes place during running in, while due to residual stresses or strain hardening the steady state is perfectly elastic.
Adrian Bejan is a Romanian-American professor who has made contributions to modern thermodynamics and developed his constructal law. He is J. A. Jones Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Duke University and author of the books Design in Nature, The Physics of Life, Freedom and Evolution and Time And Beauty. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal.
Multi-stage flash distillation (MSF) is a water desalination process that distills sea water by flashing a portion of the water into steam in multiple stages of what are essentially countercurrent heat exchangers. Current MSF facilities may have as many as 30 stages.
Solar desalination is a desalination technique powered by solar energy. The two common methods are direct (thermal) and indirect (photovoltaic).
A surface condenser is a water-cooled shell and tube heat exchanger installed to condense exhaust steam from a steam turbine in thermal power stations. These condensers are heat exchangers which convert steam from its gaseous to its liquid state at a pressure below atmospheric pressure. Where cooling water is in short supply, an air-cooled condenser is often used. An air-cooled condenser is however, significantly more expensive and cannot achieve as low a steam turbine exhaust pressure as a water-cooled surface condenser.
Applied mechanics is the branch of science concerned with the motion of any substance that can be experienced or perceived by humans without the help of instruments. In short, when mechanics concepts surpass being theoretical and are applied and executed, general mechanics becomes applied mechanics. It is this stark difference that makes applied mechanics an essential understanding for practical everyday life. It has numerous applications in a wide variety of fields and disciplines, including but not limited to structural engineering, astronomy, oceanography, meteorology, hydraulics, mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, nanotechnology, structural design, earthquake engineering, fluid dynamics, planetary sciences, and other life sciences. Connecting research between numerous disciplines, applied mechanics plays an important role in both science and engineering.
George Nicholas Hatsopoulos was a Greek American mechanical engineer noted for his work in thermodynamics and for having founded Thermo Electron.
Joseph Henry Keenan was an American thermodynamicist and mechanical engineer noted for his work in the calculation of steam tables, research in jet-rocket propulsion, and his work in furthering the development in the understanding of the laws of thermodynamics in the mid 20th century.
Viktor Vasilyevich Dilman, also spelled Dil'man is a Russian scientist performing research for USPolyResearch. He is best known for his work in chemical engineering and hydrodynamics including the approximate methods for solving nonlinear differential equations of mass, heat, and momentum transfer; mathematical modeling of chemical reactor processes and catalytic distillation; heat, mass, and momentum transfer in turbulent flow; fluid dynamics in granular beds; surface convection, absorption, and molecular convection.
Mohamed Gad-el-Hak is an engineering scientist. He is currently the Inez Caudill Eminent Professor of biomedical engineering and professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is a technique to separate a solvent from a solution that is more concentrated and also pressurized. A semipermeable membrane allows the solvent to pass to the concentrated solution side by osmosis. The technique can be used to generate power from the salinity gradient energy resulting from the difference in the salt concentration between sea and river water.
Wei ShyyJP is an aerospace engineer who served as the 4th President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) from 2018 to 2022 with his acting presidency starting from 1 February 2018. He also holds a concurrent appointment as Chair Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. He first joined HKUST in August 2010 as Provost.
John Henry Lienhard IV is Professor Emeritus of mechanical engineering and history at The University of Houston. He worked in heat transfer and thermodynamics for many years prior to creating the radio program The Engines of Our Ingenuity. Lienhard is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering.
Membrane distillation (MD) is a thermally driven separation process in which separation is driven by phase change. A hydrophobic membrane presents a barrier for the liquid phase, allowing the vapour phase to pass through the membrane's pores. The driving force of the process is a partial vapour pressure difference commonly triggered by a temperature difference.
Frank Kreith was an American mechanical engineer.
Evelyn Ning-Yi Wang is a mechanical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she is the Ford Professor of Mechanical Engineering, director of the Device Research Laboratory, and chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Topics in her research include heat transfer, ultrahydrophobicity, solar energy and nanostructures.
Mohamed Thameur Chaibi is a Tunisian professor of Rural Engineering at the National Research Institute for Agricultural Engineering.
