Prof. S.P. Venkateshan obtained his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1977. After spending three years at Yale University, he joined Indian Institute of Technology Madras in 1982. He has been teaching subjects related to Thermal Engineering to both UG and PG students for the past 32 years. He has published extensively and has more than 100 publications to his credit. The areas of his interest are: a) Interaction of natural convection with radiation, b) Numerical and experimental heat transfer, c) Heat transfer in space applications d) Radiation heat transfer in participating media and e) Instrumentation. Prof. Venkateshan has been a consultant to ISRO, DRDO, and BHEL in India and NASA in the US. He has three patents to his credit in the area of instrumentation. He has also guided about 30 scholars towards the Ph.D. and a similar number of scholars towards the M.S. (by Research) degree at IIT Madras. The present book had its beginnings in the notes prepared for the course on Heat Transfer taught by him for several years at IIT Madras.
The book covers various topics of heat transfer. It explains and analyzes several techniques and modes of heat transfer such as conduction in stationary media, convection in moving media and also by radiation. It is primarily a text book useful for undergraduate and postgraduate students. The book should also interest practicing engineers who wish to refresh their knowledge in the field. The book presents the various topics in a systematic way starting from first principles. The topics are developed to a fairly advanced level towards the end of each chapter. Several worked examples illustrate the engineering applications of the basic modeling tools developed in the text. The exercises at the end of the book are arranged chapter wise and challenge the reader to tackle typical real-life problems in heat transfer. This book will be of potential use for students of mechanical engineering, chemical engineering and metallurgy in most engineering colleges.
