What do we mean by transport phenomena.doc

What do we mean by transport phenomena? Since the discipline of transport phenomena deals with certain laws of nature, some people classify it as a branch of engineering. For this reason the engineer, who is concerned with the economical design and operation of plants and equipment, quite properly should ask how transport phenomena will be of value in practice. There are two general types of answers to those questions. The first requires one to recognize that heat, mass, and momentum transport occur in many kinds of engineering equipment, e.g., heat exchangers, compressors, nuclear and chemical reactors, humidifiers, air coolers, driers, fractionaters, and absorbers. These transport processes are also involved in the human body as well as in the complex processes whereby pollutants react and diffuse in the atmosphere. It is important that engineers have an understanding of the physical laws governing these transport processes if they are to understand what is taking place in engineering equipment and to make wise decisions with regard to its economical operation. 既然传递现象这一学科涉及到（deal with）自然界的某些定律，因此，有人将它划分为工程学的一分支。因为这种原因，那些关心工厂和设备的经济性设计和操作的工程师，应该要好好的问一问：在实践中传递现象怎样才能有价值。回答该问题有两种普遍的答案。其一，需要我们意识到热量、质量和动量传递发生于多种工程设备中，如热交换器、压缩机、核反应堆、化学反应器、增湿器、空气冷凝器、干燥器、分馏器以及吸收器。这些传递过程也发生于人体和一些复杂的过程中，借此污染物发生反应，扩散于大气中。如果工程们要去理解工厂设计中发生什么以及关于其经济性操作作出英明的决策，那么理解支配这些传递过程的物理定律是至关重要的。 The second answer is that engineers need to be able to use their understanding of natural laws to design process equipment in which these processes are occurring. To do so they must be able to predict rates of heat, mass, or momentum transport. For example, consider a simple heat exchanger, i.e. a pipe used to heat a fluid by maintaining its wall at a higher temperature than that of the fluid flowing through it. The rate at which heat passes from the wall of the pipe to the fluid depends upon a parameter called the heat-transfer coefficient, which in turn depends on pipe size, fluid flow rate, fluid properties, etc.