ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an introduction to heat transfer and engineering thermodynamics. The science of thermodynamics deals with energy interaction between a system and its surroundings. These interactions are called heat transfer and work. Thermodynamics deals with the amount of heat transfer between two equilibrium states and makes no reference to how long the process will take. However, in heat transfer, we are often interested in rate of heat transfer. Heat transfer processes set limits to the performance of environmental components and systems. The content of this chapter is intended to extend the thermodynamics analysis by describing the different modes of heat transfer. It also provides basic tools to enable the readers to estimate the magnitude of heat transfer rates and rate of entropy destruction in realistic environmental applications, such as solar energy systems.
