Second-Law Analysis in Heat Transfer and Thermal Design

This chapter discusses second-law analysis in heat transfer and entropy generation minimization in thermal design. It describes the derivation of the Gouy–Stodola theorem, the basis for entropy generation minimization in the conceptual design of heat transfer equipment. Appropriate analytical tools, such as the entropy generation number N s are devised for the task of estimating the destruction of available work in the processes involving heat transfer. However, the entropy generation number concept is considerably more general since it can be used to quantitatively describe the degree of irreversibility of engineering components and processes that do not draw their irreversibility solely from heat transfer. The examples considered in this article ranged from the irreversibility associated with some of the most fundamental convective heat transfer processes, to the minimum irreversibility design of one-dimensional insulations such as the main counterflow heat exchanger of a helium liquefaction plant.