Umm Al-Qura University

College of Engineering & Islamic Architecture

Mechanical Engineering Department

ME8044311-3
Design of Thermal Systems

Kamel Guedri, Ph.D.

Professor
Umm Al-Qura
University
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Course Information
Lecture: Sunday: 10:00 AM – 11:50 AM
Instructor: Prof. Kamel Guedri
Office Hours: Sun+Mon: 08:00 AM – 10:00 AM
H1091 First Floor, ME
Phone: 0563884798
Email: kmguedri@uqu.edu.sa

Textbook (recommended):
Design and Optimization of
Thermal Systems, 2ed.
by Yogesh Jaluria

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 Course Objectives

1. The first law of thermodynamics.

2. Calculation of heat loss.
3. Design of piping systems.
4. Pump selection.
5. Calculating conductive, convective, and radiative heat
transfer in engineering systems
6. Design of heat exchangers.
7. Second law of thermodynamics.
8. Gas and vapor power cycles.
9. Optimization of multicomponent thermofluid systems.
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Topics covered
1. Introduction to Engineering Design
2. Basic Consideration in Design
3. Thermodynamics Review
4. Heat Transfer Review
5. Heat exchangers.
6. Piping systems and pump selection.
7. Heat transfer in engineering systems.
8. Gas power, vapor power and refrigeration cycles.
9. Cogeneration and waste heat recovery.
10. Heating, ventilation and air conditioning system
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 Course Grading
• Course Grading: Labs 10%
Quizzes 10%
Group Design Report 20%
Mid Exam 20%
Final Exam 40%

• Labs will be assigned in the heat transfer and fluid laboratories. Late Lab report
will be accepted for reduced credit until an assignment is returned. Credit for late
Lab report will be reduced by 20% for each day (regardless of full or partial day)
past the due date.
• One group design project [proposal and report (15%), and oral presentation (5%)
of 20 minutes] for design/analysis/experiment of thermal, fluid, and energy systems.
For the group project, you may work in a group of up to four people (to be assigned)
and choose your own design project with help from instructor by the end of January,
if needed.
• Quizzes, Midterm and Final Exams will be administered during normal class
periods. Exams will be close notes. 3

About Me
EDUCATION:
University of Monastir, Monastir, Tunisia B.S. 2001
University of Monastir, Monastir, Tunisia M.S. 2002
University of Lyon, Lyon, France Ph.D. 2008
APPOINTMENTS:
2023- Professor, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, KSA.
2018-2023- Associate Professor, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, KSA.
2012-2018 Assistant Professor, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, KSA.
2008-2012 Assistant Professor, University of Monastir, Monastir, Tunisia.
2002-2008 Research Assistant, University of Lyon, Lyon, France
2002-2008 Lecturer, University of Monastir, Monastir, Tunisia
RESEARCH INTERESTS
• Nanofluids, Nanomaterials
• Storage of Energy
• Biomass
• Renewable energies
• Power Generation, Energy Conversion
• Fire safety engineering
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 Engineering Design
• Engineering Design
o Engineering design is a creative process by which new, different, or
improved methods, devices, and techniques are developed to

▪ Solve new and existing problems, and

▪ Produce new and higher quality products at minimal cost, while

satisfying increasing concerns regarding environmental

concerns and safety.

▪ Ex.) smart phones, electric vehicles, drones, autonomous vehicles

Introduction to Engineering Design

• Analysis vs. Design
o Analysis of engineering problems uses information derived from
basic engineering areas such as statics, dynamics,
thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer.
▪ All inputs are usually given and the results are generally unique and well
defined.
▪ Analysis is used to study the behavior of a given system, choose the
appropriate variables for the desired effects, and evaluate various
designs, leading to satisfactory and optimized systems.
▪ Such problems may be termed as closed-ended.
▪ Ex.) fully-developed laminar flow in a circular. 1-D conduction in a plate

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 Engineering Design
• Analysis vs. Design
o Design process is open-ended.
▪ The inputs may also be vague or incomplete, making it
necessary to seek additional information or to employ
approximations and assumptions.
▪ There is considerable interaction between various
disciplines, particularly between technical areas and
those concerned with cost, safety, and the environment.
▪ Results are not well known or well defined at the onset. A
unique solution is generally not obtained and one may
have to choose from a range of acceptable solutions.
▪ A perfect solution may not exist and it may be necessary
to relax some of the requirements to obtain an acceptable
solution. Therefore, trade- offs form a necessary part of
design.
▪ Analysis usually forms the basis for the design process. 7

Engineering Design
• Analysis vs. Design
o Design process is a creative process by which new, different, or
improved methods, devices, and techniques are developed.
o The design will determine the specifications of system hardware
and the range of operating conditions to satisfy need or opportunity.
▪ Ex.) Electronic cooling (Fig. 1.2), casting process (Fig. 1.3)

Figure 1.2 Electronic cooling. Figure 1.3 Casting process.

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 Engineering Design
• Synthesis for Design
o Synthesis is a key element in the design process, since
components and corresponding analyses are brought together to
yield the characteristics of the overall system.
o Results from different areas have to be linked and synthesized in
order to include all of the important concerns that arise in a
practical system.
▪ Heat transfer sometimes greatly affects the strength of materials and
manufacturing aspects. Material selection is a very important factor in
obtaining an acceptable system considering the cost, properties, and
characteristics of various materials.
▪ Information from different types of models, including experimental and
numerical results, and from existing systems are incorporated into the
design process.
▪ Additional considerations, such as safety, legal, regulatory, and
environmental aspects, are also synthesized in order to obtain a
satisfactory design.

Engineering Design
• Synthesis for Design
o Typical Design Procedure

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Engineering Design
• Design vs. Selection
o Design involves creating with a basic concept, modeling and
evaluating different designs, and obtaining a final design that
meets the given requirements and constraints.
o Selection involves determining the specifications of the
components based on the requirements for the given task,
and choosing the item available with different ratings or
features during the synthesis of the various parts.
▪ Standard items (e.g. valves, control sensors, heaters, flow
meters, and storage tanks) are usually selected from
catalogs of available equipment rather than designed.
o Design is directed at creating a new process or system,
whereas selection is concerned with choosing the right item
for a given job.

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Design as Part of Engineering Enterprise

• Need or Opportunity
o Defining a need or opportunity is always the first step in an
engineering undertaking because it provides the impetus to
develop a product.
o Need refers to a specific requirement and implies that a suitable
item is not available and must be developed for the desired
purpose. It may involve developing a new system or modifying and
improving existing ones.
▪ Hard disk, CD-ROM, and memory sticks were developed because of
consumers’ need for larger data storage capacity. Anti-lock brakes, air
bags, electronic fuel injection, and streamlined body of automobiles in
response to safety and efficiency needs.
o Opportunity is the recognition of a chance to develop a better
product than existing ones or less expensive.
▪ The video cassette recorder, fiber-optics cable, compact disc player,
microwave oven, and the Apple iPod and iPhone were developed with
new opportunities and markets.

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 Design as Part of Engineering Enterprise
• Evaluation and Market Analysis
o An important consideration in the development of a new concept is
its evaluation for economic viability, since profit is usually the main
concern in engineering undertakings.
▪ Even though there is a secure market (consumer), it is necessary to
determine how big the market is, what price range it will bear, and what
the possible expenses involved in taking the concept to completion are.
▪ Necessary information (price, consumption level, desired
characteristics) needs to be gathered through surveys, mail, telephone
or individual contact, interactions with product outlets and sales
organizations, and inputs from consumer groups.
o Market analysis is required to determine the anticipated volume of
sales and the effect of the price on the sales.
▪ As the price increases, the volume of sales is expected to decrease.
Figure 1.6 Variation of volume of sales with price. The curves are
Sales volume

separated by differences in the expenditure involved in marketing,

advertising, and sales. The profit is smaller if the expense in advertising
is increased. However, it is expected that the total volume will increase
due to better advertising, making the overall venture more profitable.
University of Missouri Price MAE 4320/7320 13

Design as Part of Engineering Enterprise

• Evaluation and Market Analysis (cont.)

o As the price continues to increase, the sales volume will generally
decrease, partly because of less frequent replacement, resulting
from improved quality, and partly due to loss in sales to less
expensive versions. Very selective models may have a small
volume of sales but a large profit per unit.
▪ Consider the development of a new gas water heater for residential use.
The cost increases as the capacity of the tank is increased. Similarly, a
faster response to an increased demand for hot water, though desirable,
would require larger heaters, leading to higher costs. Better safety and
durability features will also raise the price.
o The evaluation of the enterprise must include all expenses that are
expected to be incurred.
▪ Designing, developing (from initial concept to the prototype),
manufacturing the system
▪ Labor and capital investment needed for equipment and supplies
▪ Sales, advertising, and marketing

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 Design as Part of Engineering Enterprise

• Feasibility and Chances of Success

o It is important to determine if a particular enterprise is feasible early
in the project by evaluating the chances of success using inputs
from research, development, and design.
o Measure of success
▪ The basis for evaluating success must be defined first.
▪ The return on investment is the criterion used by most
engineering companies to determine if an undertaking is
successful. The dividends paid to investors or the value in the
stock market are also important measures of success of an
enterprise.
▪ Sometimes, other considerations are more important than profit
for a given undertaking. Environmental requirements due to
government regulations may be a crucial factor. The desire to
reduce the dependence on imported oil has similarly led to work
on synthetic fuels and nonconventional energy sources. Safety
aspects may be used as criteria to evaluate success,
particularly in nuclear reactors. 15

Design as Part of Engineering Enterprise

• Feasibility and Chances of Success (cont.)
o Chances of success
▪ The probability of success must be considered over the entire duration
of the project and may be expressed in terms of the probability of
achieving the chosen measure of success.
➢ Suppose the rate of return r is taken as the criterion of success. The
probability P of achieving a return between r1 and r2 using the probability
function f (r) is given by

➢ The probability distribution is often a normal distribution curve given by

❑At the very beginning of the enterprise , the probability curve is expected to be
spread out, indicating the large amoun t of uncertainty. The maximum value is
small, suggesting a small probability of the return rate lying within a given range.
❑As time elapses and various concerns are resolved, the uncertainty decreases
and the spread (standard deviation σ = 68%) reduces, while fmax increases.

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 Design as Part of Engineering Enterprise

• Feasibility and Chances of Success (cont.)

o Feasibility
▪ If the return rate on the investment is too small, or if the
chances for success are not satisfactory, the enterprise
may be terminated.
▪ However, even if the project is economically viable, it
may not be possible technically because of constraints
with respect to available materials, design, or
fabrication of the system.
▪ The enterprise may also be infeasible because of lack of
investment capital, industrial site and facilities, labor,
transportation, waste disposal facilities, etc.
▪ It may be judged to be impractical because of safety,
environmental, and other regulations.

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Design as Part of Engineering Enterprise

• Engineering Design
o An engineering design of the system is initiated if all of
these indicators are acceptable.
o The design will determine the specifications of system
hardware and the range of operating conditions to satisfy
the perceived need or opportunity.
o Thus, design involves a consideration of the technical details

of the basic concept and creation of a new or improved

process or system for the specified task.

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 Design as Part of Engineering Enterprise

• Research and Development

o The main distinguishing feature of the R&D effort is the generally
long-range interest of the various activities undertaken.
o The R&D group also keeps track of the latest progress being made
in research establishments around the world in academia, industry,
and national and industrial laboratories. Efforts are made to store
and have easy access to the literature emerging from such
research efforts.
o The R&D group may be the initiator of a given engineering
enterprise by recognizing the opportunity presented by new
materials or processes.
o A close interaction and collaboration between the engineering
design team and the R&D group is generally essential to the
success of the undertaking.
▪ The development of semi-conductor devices and fiber-optic cables are
examples of concepts that were initiated by the R&D division of AT&T.

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Design as Part of Engineering Enterprise

• Need for Optimization
o It is no longer sufficient to develop a workable system that

performs the desired task while staying within the constraints

imposed by safety, environmental, economic, and other such
considerations.
o Due to the growing worldwide competition and need to
increase efficiency, it has become essential to optimize the
process in order to maximize or minimize a chosen variable.
o This variable is generally known as the objective function
and may be related to quantities such as profit, cost, product
quality, power output, and system attributes (weight, size,
efficiency, and reliability) 20
 Design as Part of Engineering Enterprise
• Need for Optimization (cont.)
Ex.) Refrigerator may be designed for a desired rate of heat removal
at different temperatures by a thermostat control.
▪ A vapor compression system consists of compressor, condenser,
evaporator, and valve, which may be designed or selected for a wide
range of specifications and characteristics. The inside geometry,
dimensions, and materials, as well as the outside materials and
appearance, are also important variables.
▪ All these designs may be termed as acceptable or workable because
they satisfy the given requirements and constraints. However, it is
necessary to seek an optimal design that will, for instance, consume the
least amount of energy per unit cooling effect. This measure is closely
linked with the overall efficiency of the system.
▪ In addition, by reducing the energy consumed for removing a unit of
thermal energy, the operating expense of the system is reduced. As we
well know, the energy rating of the system, which is an indicator of the
energy consumed for achieving a unit of the desired task such as
cooling or heating, is an important selling point for such systems.

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Design as Part of Engineering Enterprise

• Fabrication, Testing, and Production

o The final stages in an engineering enterprise, before proceeding to
advertising, promotion, and sales, are the fabrication and testing of
a prototype of the designed system and production of the system in
the desired quantities for sale.

o The tests on the prototype are used to confirm and establish the

design specifications, to ensure that the desired task is being

performed satisfactorily, to validate and improve the mathematical
model of the system, to establish safety levels, and to obtain the
system characteristics. The prototype is also used for
improvements in the design based on actual tests and
measurements.
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 Design as Part of Engineering Enterprise

• Flow chart of design as

part of an engineering
enterprise

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Thermal Systems
• Basic Terminologies
o A system consists of multiple units that interact with each other.
▪ A piece of equipment (HX, blower, pump); a larger arrangement
with many such equipment (a blast furnace, automobile, or a
cooling tower); or a complete establishment (a power plant, steel
plant, or manufacturing assembly line)
o Subsystems are complete parts into which a system may be
subdivided for convenience and which may be treated separately.
▪ These subdivisions, or subsystems, consist of individual parts
that interact with each other and, generally, the treatment for a
subsystem is quite similar to that for a system.
o Components are independent units in which the interaction
between the constituents is either absent or unimportant with
respect to its application.
▪ Heaters, thermostats, valves, and extrusion dies are
considered components, and are often selected from
available supplies or fabricated according to
specifications.
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 Thermal Systems
• Basic Terminologies (cont.)
o A process refers to the technique or methodology of achieving a
desired goal.
▪ Generally, a process is used to indicate the conditions undergone by a
given item, such as the temperature and pressure to which a material
undergoing thermal processing is subjected.
▪ For instance, manufacturing processes such as casting, extrusion, hot
rolling, and welding refer to the basic procedure and concept involved
without specifying the relevant hardware.
o Thermal systems involve a consideration of thermal sciences (heat
transfer, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and mass transfer) to a
significant extent in their analysis and characterization.
▪ Therefore, even though a computer is an electronic system, if one’s
interest lies in its cooling system in order to restrict the component
temperature levels, for example, it becomes a thermal system for this
particular consideration. The focus in thermal systems is on the
transport of energy, particularly thermal energy, and fluid flow and mass
transport.

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Thermal Systems
• Analysis
o The analysis of thermal systems is often complicated because of
the complex nature of fluid flow and of heat and mass transfer
mechanisms that govern these systems.
o As a result, typical thermal systems have to be approximated,
simplified, and idealized in order to make it possible to analyze
them and thus obtain the inputs needed for design.
o Following are some of the characteristics that are commonly
encountered in thermal systems and processes:
1. Time-dependent 7. Turbulent flow
2. Multidimensional 8. Change in phase and material structure
3. Nonlinear mechanisms 9. Energy losses and irreversibility
4. Complex geometries 10. Variable material properties
5. Complicated boundary conditions 11. Influence of ambient conditions
6. Coupled transport phenomena 12. Variety of energy sources

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 Thermal Systems
• Analysis (cont.)
o The simplest problems are those that assume steady-state
conditions, with or without flow, while also assuming uniform
conditions in each part of the system.

o If the time-dependent behavior of the system is sought, for a study

of the dynamic characteristics of the system, the resulting
governing equations are ordinary differential equations in time, if
the assumption of uniform conditions within each part is still
employed.

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Thermal Systems
• Types and Examples
o Manufacturing and Materials Processing Systems
▪ casting, crystal growing, heat treatment, metal forming, drying, soldering
and welding, laser and gas cutting, plastic extrusion and injection
molding, powder metallurgy, optical fiber drawing, ceramics, and glass
processing. Also included are food processing systems as well as
common household appliances such as ovens and cooking ranges
o Energy Systems
▪ power plants, solar energy utilization (concentrating solar power),
geothermal energy systems, energy storage, solar ponds, and
conventional and nonconventional energy conversion systems
(photovoltaic, thermoelectric, piezoelectric)
o Cooling Systems for Electronic Equipment
▪ air cooling, liquid immersion, heat pipes, heat sinks, heat removal by
boiling, and microscale systems
o Environmental and Safety Systems
▪ cooling towers, incinerators, waste disposal, water treatment plants,
smoke and temperature control systems, and fire extinguishing systems
 Thermal Systems
• Types and Examples
o Aerospace Systems
▪ gas turbines, rockets, combustors, and cooling systems
o Transportation Systems
▪ ICE such as spark ignition and diesel engines; steam engines; fuel cells;
and modern automobile, airplane, and train engines
o Air Conditioning, Refrigeration, and Heating Systems
▪ vapor compression and vapor absorption cooling systems, heat pumps,
ice and food freezing plants, gas, oil, and water heating systems, and
refrigerators
o Fluid Flow Systems and Equipment
▪ pipe flows, hydraulics, hydrodynamics, fluidics, turbines, pumps,
compressors, fans, and blowers
o Heat Transfer Equipment
▪ heat exchangers, condensers, boilers, furnaces, ovens, hot water baths,
and heaters
o Other Systems
▪ chemical reactors and systems
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