ABSTRACT
In the preceding chapter, the modeling of thermal systems was presented, and different types of models were discussed. The main focus was on mathematical modeling, which employs approximations, simplications, and idealizations to obtain a set of mathematical equations that govern a given component, subsystem, or the overall system. Mathematical modeling also brings out the dominant mechanisms and determines the important dimensionless parameters that need to be varied in an experimental or analytical study to characterize the behavior of the given thermal system. Physical modeling, which involves experimentation on a scale model of the system, is used as a means to obtain results that are not easily extracted from mathematical modeling. Curve tting is often used to derive algebraic equations and expressions to represent experimental or numerical results, as well as data on material properties, environmental conditions, nancial trends, and equipment characteristics.
