Essentials of Thermal System Design and Optimization

The vital concept of optimization has been largely neglected in thermal sciences. Keeping this in mind, Essentials of Thermal System Design and Optimization introduces the general principles involved in system design and optimization as applicable to thermal systems, followed by the methods to implement them. The book features several surprising examples and uses a conversational style to, for the first time, introduce contemporary techniques and concepts, such as genetic algorithms, simulated annealing, ANN, and Bayesian Inference in the context of thermal system optimization. An independent chapter is devoted to inverse problems in thermal systems. Examples and problems in every chapter clarify presented concepts and methods, and supplemental end-of-chapter problems enhance the learning process.

Dr.C.Balaji is currently a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Madras. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering from Guindy Engineering College, Chennai, in 1990 (University Gold Medal) and obtained his M.Tech (1992) and Ph.D. (1995) both from IIT Madras in the area of Heat Transfer. He taught at National Institute of Technology, Trichy, between 1994-1996 and was s Scientist at the National Institute of Ocean Technology, Chennai, between 1996 and 1998. He joined IIT Madras in 1998 as a faculty member. His areas of interest include Heat transfer, Optimization, Satellite Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences. He has more than 100 international journal publications to his credit and has guided 12 Ph.D students so far. He has undertaken sponsored research for a value of Rs. 20 million. He is a Humboldt Fellow and worked at the Hamburg University of Technology, Germany, for one year (2005-2006) for the fellowship. He has several awards to his credit, notable among which are the Young Faculty Recognition Award of IIT Madras (2007) for excellence in teaching and research, the K.N. Seetharamu Award and Medal for excellence in Heat Transfer Research (2008) awarded by the Indian Society for Heat and Mass Transfer and recently the Swarnajayanthi Fellowship award of the Govt. of India for the period 2008-2013.

Introduction to design and system designSystem SimulationCurve fittingOptimization-Basic ideas and formulationLagrange multipliersSearch methodsLinear programming and Dynamic ProgrammingNon-traditional optimization techniquesInverse problems