5 comments about Transport Phenomena Problem Solver (Problem Solvers).

1. This book has zero usability. It is not an adequate source of reference for any course pertaining to transport phenomena. You would have better luck using the internet to help you get past advanced problems with which you struggle, as this book is poorly organized and has little to offer to the student of any course beyond the introductory level.



2. I'm a Ph.D. student in Chemical Engineering. I needed a study guide for my qual. and thought 'how bad could this book be?'... Well... It's BAD~!... Just get yourself a BSL (Bird, Stewart, and Lightfoot) and solve their examples. After all, REA just copied all the examples right out of the BSL.



3. Overall this book appears to be a good reference, however, i did not use it very much while taking the class.



4. It is true that this book has many drawbacks compared to a full-fledged textbook and it does not deliver all it promises to in the foreword, but it is cheaper than BSL and may serve as an overview of the field for the curious beginners who do not want to spend a great deal of money on BSL and are reasonably proficient in physics. Furthermore, we do not know who copied the examples from whom: BSL from REA or REA from BSL.



5. This item was sent to my old adderss even thogh I had sent you my new adderss.

1 comments about Solar Sails: A Novel Approach to Interplanetary Travel.

1. This is a review of Solar Sails: A Novel Approach to Interplanetary Travel, that I have published on my Centauri Dreams weblog. The text follows:
   
   The vast laser-driven sails envisioned by Robert Forward have always fired my imagination. Hundreds of kilometers in diameter, they would rely upon a gigantic Fresnel lens in the outer Solar System to keep the critical laser beam tightly collimated over interstellar distances. Forward conceived of mission designs to stars as far away as Epsilon Eridani, journeys that could be achieved within a human lifetime. He even provided return capability through the use of a multi-part sail. You can read a fictional treatment of this in his novel Rocheworld.
   
   But how do we get from here to there? As of today, we're close enough to having an operational space sail that if we can talk SpaceX into lofting the NanoSail-D duplicate, we could be shaking out our first space sail within months. Assuming we do go operational before too many months (or years!) pass, the question then becomes, what kind of missions are possible between the laser-beamed lightsail of science fictional imagining and the practical workhorse sail that may well open up a space-based infrastructure for our use.
   
   Such questions point to the pleasures of reading a new book on solar sails by three leading experts. Gregory Matloff has been examining the concept for the past thirty years, with seminal papers in the 1980s and continuing work on near-term concepts. His regular consulting at Marshall Space Flight Center keeps him in touch with co-author Les Johnson, NASA's deputy manager of the Advanced Concepts office at Huntsville. The third author is Italian scientist Giovanni Vulpetti, who has spent most of his professional life on questions of interstellar propulsion ranging from antimatter annihilation to sail design, including the Aurora Project, a sail mission to the heliopause that grew out of earlier work at Italian aerospace firm Alenia Spazio and other European venues.
   
   You would be hard pressed, in other words, to find a more knowledgable team to write a book titled Solar Sails: A Novel Approach to Interplanetary Travel (Copernicus, 2008), and it's a pleasure to add that despite the sub-title, questions of interstellar significance receive solid treatment. Getting from here (a technology ready to fly for testing) to there (a genuine interstellar craft deploying sail technology) is a long haul, but near-term concepts for a Solar Polar Imager, putting a payload into a highly inclined orbit around the Sun to study its polar regions, are feasible. And so are missions like Heliostorm, which could use a sail to maintain a position between Earth and the Sun (at roughly 0.70 AU, but with a period of one year) to provide advance warning of solar storms.
   
   We can add longer-term prospects that still fall well within our engineering capabilities, missions for comet rendezvous, Mars sample return and, via a Sundiver maneuver, a probe to the heliopause some 200 AU out. The latter, the authors note, could continue for a few decades more to study the environment at the Sun's gravitational lens some 550 AU from Sol, providing a useful check on Einsteinian general relativity.
   
   All of these concepts and more are discussed here, but it's the longer-term missions (still using solar photons, not beamed lasers) that truly up the ante. I remember talking to Matloff about them during a Huntsville visit some years back, but the book lays them out sequentially, showing us the limits of the technology in terms of true interstellar missions, and pointing us toward the laser and other beaming options that may be necessary if we are to improve travel times significantly.
   
   For in addition to the outer system work we'd like to perform, examining NEO deflection or developing mining strategies for interesting objects, we'd like to get all the way out to the Oort Cloud, where as many as a trillon comets may lurk. A specialized task indeed, as the authors note:
   
   "This is a task for the Oort cloud explorer, perhaps the ultimate sailcraft before a true starship. Imagine a sail 100 nanometers thick, perhaps a kilometer in radius, which is constructed of material capable of withstanding a perihelion pass of about 0.05 AU (about ten solar radii). Such a craft could perform a Sun dive and project its payload toward the stars at velocities in excess of 500 kilometers per second."
   
   All of which gets us to a few thousand AU before the vehicle's operational life ends, but we're still -- at 500 km/sec -- talking about 2000 years to travel the 40 trillion kilometers to the Centauri stars. Can we do better? Matloff worked with Michael Mautner and Eugene Mallove in a series of papers in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society back in the 1980s to examine such questions. An optimized interstellar sail would use a nanometers-thin monolayer of beryllium, aluminum or niobium, all highly reflective and temperature tolerant. It could be mounted partially unfurled behind an asteroid that would serve as a sunshade, then put into a parabolic solar orbit with a close pass by the Sun measured in the millions of kilometers.
   
   The sail, of course, would be unfurled at the right moment to maximize acceleration. The results:
   
   "Analysis revealed that acceleration times measured in hours or days were possible. By the time the ship reaches the orbit of Jupiter, the sail could be furled, since acceleration has fallen to a negligible value. The sail could be used as cosmic ray shielding and later unfurled for deceleration. Flight times to Alpha Centauri, even for massive payloads that could carry human crews, could approximate a millennium. Of course the hyperthin sail sheets required to `tow' such large, multimillion-kilogram payloads would be enormous -- in the vicinity of 100 kilometers."
   
   A thousand years to Centauri -- this is the figure I recall from my Huntsville discussion with Matloff, and it stuck with me as a kind of insurance policy. If we were to learn, for example, that we had for reasons of survival to exit our Solar System, the prospect of getting at least a fraction of humanity to another, although demanding a lengthy, multi-generational voyage, would not be beyond the reach of a technology we could conceive of developing within this century, using the laws of physics as currently understood. All of which confirms what Robert Forward used to say, "Travel to the stars is difficult but not impossible," a real reversal of many pre-Forward opinions.
   
   There is more to be said about laser-beaming and other sail concepts (not to mention sail design, construction, deployment and trajectories), but we'll look at the book's treatment of these in a later post. Consider this simply a heads-up to alert you to a title that needs to be on your shelf if you're seriously interested in the next step as we move beyond rocketry. And move beyond it we must, to explore the advantages of leaving the propellant behind to maximize payload for missions that may one day take us deep into the Solar System and beyond.

3 comments about Secret Projects: Flying Saucer Aircraft.

1. The truth about such aircraft has been obscured but is now finally brought to light. The A.V. Roe company of Canada did build a disc aircraft for the US Air Force. The declassified documents are identified, there are photos of the engine test stand and quotes from the developer, John Frost. The disc aircraft in question should not be confused with the failed Avrocar. Also, the myth is laid to rest that a circular planform is not aerodynamic. The book also mentions the work of Rene Couzinet in France (RC.360 Aerodyne) along with photos of a model. Alfred Loedding is another significant part of the picture. A man who spoke fluent German, he was heavily involved with the evaluation of captured German technology at the end of the Second World War. The UFO incidents of 1947 led General Nathan Twining to ask Loedding to set up an office to investigate UFO sightings in 1948 due to real concern that they might be Soviet aircraft. Loedding called it Project Saucer but the Air Force changed it to Project Sign. There is a photo of a seated Alfred Loedding and a view of his Discplane.
   
   Another surprise was mention of cigar shaped aircraft under study by the Lockheed Skunk Works, with illustrations, designed by Nathan Price. Photos are also shown of a circular, with a wedge cross-section, missile given the code name Pye Wacket, but eventually called the Lenticular Defense Missile.
   
   I have given this book four instead of five stars because the authors stray from the main theme of the book and explore other aircraft shapes that do not appear to be relevant. Another divergence is an attempt to link balloons to sightings of UFOs, which is not entirely successful.
   Long-time UFO researchers who look beyond what may be considered settled ideas about the nature and origins of these aircraft will find much here that shows that there are patented circular wing aircraft, and evidence that the US Air Force had such aircraft built.



2. An excellant book, with many pictures and detailed three-view drawings of a little-known set of aircraft designs. Well worth the price.



3. This book covers the subject extensively, from the beginning of flight to sci-fi crafts. Lots of pictures and interesting information. Recommended for everyone who likes exotic aircrafts.

3 comments about Applied Mathematics in Integrated Navigation Systems, Third Edition (Aiaa Education Series).

1. The book is very precise and gives a lot of mathematical related things that's relevant to Navigation and Guidance. I somehow liked it's approach, mainly because it avoids a lot of descriptory jargons and talks straight in mathematics: the language of scientists and engineers! Before reading the book, a good hold of the mathematics related to linear system theory would be a definite plus, even though the it has an introductory chapter for the related mathematics.



2. The book is very precise and gives a lot of mathematical related things that's relevant to Navigation and Guidance. I somehow liked it's approach, mainly because it avoids a lot of descriptory jargons and talks straight in mathematics: the language of scientists and engineers! Before reading the book, a good hold of the mathematics related to system theory would be a definite plus. However, the book has an introductory chaper for the relevant mathematics too.



3. This book is probably the best one in the field of inertial navigation, but unfortunately, that isn't saying much. It is probably the most comprehensive of the books I have read, but still lacks full explanation and derivation. Like many other books on the subject, the notation used dates from the 60's and needs to be polished up to modern notation (how about bold face vectors and Matrices for starters).
   
   The most confusing part of this book is that the many of the symbols are recycled and/or are inadequately explained. This means extra effort is required to derive or infer what they actually mean. Many of the key Matrix equations (Fig 5.2) should have a breif explanation below them so that the reader doesn't have to spend 30 minutes going through the text to determine symbol meanings. Additionally, the difference between perturbation and alternative form are inadequately explained, forcing the reader to find IEEE papers for better description.
   
   As mentioned, this book is probably the most comprehensive on the subject and can almost stand alone (emphasis on almost). Someday somebody will publish the ultimate Intertial navigiation text!

4 comments about P-47 Thunderbolt at War (At War).

1. This book tells the story of the mighty "Thunderbolt" the way it deserves to be told, with lots of dramatic description, harrowing tales, and relevant, well-written technical and historical background. It's definitely the best P-47 book I've read.
   
   Graff has a knack for uncovering and presenting the vivid details and backstories that made the P-47 unique. Beginning with company creator Alexander de Seversky (a rebellious, one-legged, exiled Russian war hero, no less) and designer Alexander Kartveli (former circus trapeze artist and math teacher), he relates how the US Army's seemingly unattainable wish list for a new fighter resulted in a plane that became the choice of 17 out of America's 21 top-scoring fighter aces.
   
   Jaw-dropping pilots' recollections are interwoven throughout, graphically illustrating just how tough and powerful this beast of a plane was. There is a four page interview with retired Col. Steve N. Pisanos, who became an ace while he flew the P-47 with the 4th Fighter Group. Since Pisanos also flew the Spitfire and the P-51, his account of the "seven ton monster" in battle is especially insightful.
   
   At 128 pages, the book does a surprisingly thorough job of covering the P-47 in combat as fighter, escort, and fighter-bomber in Europe, Africa and the Pacific. Graff sticks to topic, and each anecdote makes a point. Unique among P-47 books is an engaging account of the factory workers who produced the plane.
   
   If you're looking for a good tech manual, this isn't it, although there is a 16 page "nuts and bolts" chapter. Essential characteristics are clearly detailed, accompanied by graphics, and related to the plane's performance in battle.
   
   Every page has at least one image, and many have two or three. There is a good variety of color and black and white photographs, drawings, posters, and cartoons. The images are mostly from private collections, the National Archives, and the Museum of Flight, where the author is a curator. Far from being just stuck in (as is way too common in aviation writing), they add to the text nicely, making the book all the more entertaining and informative.



2. I just finished reading this fine book about the P-47. It was written by an author who truly respected the abilities of this large and powerful fighter plane. The author gives background information about the pedigree of the P-47 with interesting narrative about Alexander de Seversky and Alexander Kartveli, the men who produced the design and the plane, men born in the same area in Russia and emigrated to the US. The P-47 ancestors included a variety of Seversky aircraft leading to the P-35. This company became Republic and produced the P-43 and the the P-47. Most of the rest of the book deals about the building of the P-47 followed by its introduction into the military and its use in the ETO and the Pacific as well as it use during World War II by France, Brazil and Mexico (as well as Britain and USSR). Mention was made of post-WWII use by France, Yugoslavia and many Latin American countries This was a book that I couldn't put down. It was well written, well illustrated and very enjoyable reading.
   
   There have been other valuable sources of information on the P-47. Warren Bodie's 1994 book is the "gold standard" and is more academic, much more encyclopedic, and better illustrated. This does not detract from Cory Graff's book which although less complete, is more enjoyable reading for the readers generally interested in World War II and aviation.
   
   William Hess (1994) and Roger Freeman (1978) have interesting and well illustrated books. Squadron is coming out with a P-47 in Action publication which will probably be great for those interested in the identification of the different P-47 models and colors.
   
   Again, I found "P-47 Thunderbolt at War" enjoyable to read and recommend it highly.



3. 'Jug' fans will want to add Cory Graff's P-47 book to their World War II bookshelves. There are a number of Thunderbolt books out there - Warren Bodie's is the very best - but Graff's comprehensive, well-illustrated summary is hard to beat in terms of an introduction to Republic's heavyweight fighter.
   
   To be honest, if you've already read a lot of books on the P-47, there's not much new in P-47 THUNDERBOLT AT WAR in terms of text or photos. However the main selling point of the book is that it brings together all aspects of the P-47's career - development, stateside production, WWII service in all theaters and postwar use - under one cover and illustrates that with a wealth of photographs. Although most of the photographs in the book have been seen previously, Graff's book brings them together to the tune of over 110 black & white and 50 color shots. Add to that mix an interview with 4th FG ace Steve Pisanos and you're getting great value for a price tag of $19.95!
   
   Recommended.



4. P-47 Thunderbolt at War is a very classy addition to the Thunderbolt literature. Cory Graff exceeds expectations for a book of this length, packing its pages with useful information and outstanding images. The photos were especially fascinating; I was happy to see many shots from Martin Aviation Museum stalwart Stan Piet among Graff's choices.
   
   I learned much about the details of the Jug's manufacture and its design heritage. A big plus for me was the coverage Graff gave to the Thunderbolt's overlooked use in the Pacific and CBI theaters. I corresponded a bit with the late Smithsonian columnist and author Edwards Park, who flew both the P-39 and the P-47 in the New Guinea area. He was greatly impressed with the ruggedness of his new P-47, and reported seeing a colleague flying low over the ocean accidentally dip his prop into the waves. Out of the resulting tremendous splash hurtled a P-47, battered but still flying.
   
   Graff's book is a welcome complement on my shelf to the older P-47 works by Freeman and Bodie. I denied it a fifth star only because it left me wanting more; "Thunderbolt at War" could have easily been twice the length.

5 comments about Gee Bee (Enthusiast Color Series).

1. This book cuts to the things that matter and show you how they did it! It's a must have if you love the Gee Bee.



2. This book will tell you how the dream of building an authentic GB replica came true.It has great pictures of both the construction phase and flying/airshow status.



3. I have the rare privilage to work with Delmar on a daily basis on aircraft. I have as well been blessed to fly with him on several occasions. He is as calm and cool in the cockpit as he is in the book. He has a video version of the book as well, and both complement each other so well that one will want to read the book, and see the video.
   
   As for the book, it is an easy read, it is a story of a dream that anyone who has ever flown or wanted to fly will identify with. It's a romantic story of a by gone era when flying was the cutting edge of science, and the world made hero's of individuals with names like Lindburg, Doolittle, and Amelia Earheart. Delmar as a man has earned his niche in aviation history and folklore by not only dreaming about the golden era of aviation racing; he has built his dream and lived it. This is the type of man he is. The book inspired me to live my dreams too, and with his encouragement I will soon do that. Thank you Delmar, for being my friend, and for sharing your dreams with the world at large.
   
   This is a book well worth reading, and for having. I keep mine on the living room coffee table for all to see. How I would love to be talented enough to fly the beast .....



4. Take an exciting trip back via the replication of The Gee Bee. Relive the nail biting expectations of the Gee Bee design and the myths that were dispelled in the modern version of this 1930's air racing phenomenon. Enjoy the next best way to fly the Gee Bee, short of being in the cockpit.



5. A very informative book about a very special group of airplanes. Clearly building the replica plane (and debunking a few myths about the original) was a labor of love for the authors, and it shows.

3 comments about Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM).

1. I have worked in the maintenance business for 37 years. This is the first book I have read that addresses the age old problem of PM's on equipment in a clear cut and easy manner. In the industry we end up either performingpreventivemaintenance too often or not enough and often times not on
   critical components. This book is a must read for anyone that is developing a PM program or looking to enhance their present program. By performing preventive maintenance on the RIGHT equipment and at the RIGHT time companies can realize greater efficiency and profits.



2. I am a Reliability Engineering Coordinator at a chemicals plant. I have worked in Design and Manufacturing, Smelting, and Mining. I started my career as a junior design engineer, rising to a senior reliability engineer, and finally a Reliability Engineering Coordinator.
   
   At previous employers I performed RCM exercises with great results, but this required enormous amounts of personal energy and time. In my current role I have already started using the language in this book to build greater support for the RCM processes amongst management, operations, engineering, and the critical frontline tradesmen and operators. The response has been nothing short of amazing.
   
   The RCM processes described by Neil are not only powerful at aiding people in the understanding of true RCM, but the simplicity allows for quick progression through an RCM project. This book is a must read for any organization considering RCM.
   I have recommended this book to my peers at my current employer and past employers and I would recommend it to any other maintenance and reliability professional.



3. RCM or Reliability Centered Maintenance is a great method for determining the right maintenance work to ensure asset function. It changed maintenance thinking from "fix it" to "maintain function" and avoid breakdown to begin with. It has been almost 30 years since Nowlan and Heap's original report on Reliability Centered Maintenance and yet - confusion and mystery still abound. Many RCM projects fail to realize the improvements that are desired at the outset.
   
   The new book by Neil Bloom peals away the layers of fog the suround RCM and provides a clear way forward for anyone interested in improving reliability. Even small and midsize plants and facilities can take the information provided by "RCM - Implementation Made Simple" and begin to perform Reliability Centered Maintenance to improve plant performance.
   
   I manage a community of over 55,000 maintenance and reliability professionals and I am recommending the each and every person read this book! Seasoned RCM experts along with people who are brand new to the concept will find things they can put to immediate use.
   
   Thanks Neil for empowering the maintenance and reliability community and for giving us a tool we can all use as a way forward for improved maintenance and reliability.

4 comments about Mechanics: Statics & Dynamics Problem Solver (Problem Solvers).

1. This and the 1995 similar book by Fogel are full of a wealth of worked out problems and should be a must for physics and engineering students. Many of the problems resemble non-worked-out problems in textbooks, so students can learn methods applicable to their own school texts. Sometimes problems of the same category are scattered in different chapters, so be sure to consult the index under many variations of the same theme and different words in the same topic. The usual cautions about putting the essence of the problems on flash cards need to be made (not more than 2 ordinary handwritten lines on front and back of a 3x5 card, etc.), and the student should not use this book before learning exactly what the theorems and definitions say (also to be put on flash cards and learned before doing the problems), since there is almost no way to remember or even recognize the profusion of problems for an examination without some organization, condensation, summarization, and learning of the basic ideas behind them.



2. This is an excellent book replete with simple engineering
   diagrams depicting distributed loads, the analysis of shear,
   centroids, inertia, particle kinetics, Newtonian gravitation,
   rigid body kinetics, torque , forced vibration and other
   engineering topics . The presentation is clear with many
   diagrams and numerical examples depicting the most advanced
   concepts.

   This book covers the Newtonian laws, specialized distributed
   loads/beams, concepts of inertia, elastic and inelastic
   collisions, torque, rigid body kinetics, angular momentum,
   matrix algebraic applications and advanced topics in vibration
   analysis. The presentation is replete with simple diagrams
   and easy-to-read explanations. For instance, in forced
   vibrations, the author begins with the simple equations of
   motion, differentiation of these equations and a step-by-step
   presentation until the roots have been derived. At the end, he
   presents graphs depicting in phase and out-of-phase motion.
   This step-by-step analysis helps students understand the theory
   behind the formula presentations. This is helpful for the
   EIT exam because candidates require an analytic and intuitive
   knowledge of this subject matter.




3. When you have a lousy text (like the Bedford & Fowler series), and no other help is available, you may be able to find a hint on solving your problem by consulting this.



4. It wasn't helpful at all.....the problems were far different from what I encountered in class./...

3 comments about Tomcat!: The Grumman F-14 Story.

1. When Grumman's Bob Kress designed the F-14 he created a legend. This book describes it from genesis to today, covering every significant development and deployment. The book is remarkable not only because of the authoritative detail but because Gillcrist is so candid. He's sometimes biased and doesn't mind admitting it--but he always back up a controversial opinion with facts. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in air warfare and naval aviation. The pictures are terrific, though only 'blanket' credited when unofficial. But you'll see the great work of 'Heater' Heatley--nuff said!



2. The book is a magnificent celebration of the birth, life and early demise of the F-14. Well written and filled with outstanding photographs this is the definitive F-14 book. The only problem is that the supply appears to be limited.
   
   Forty years ago I sat in class reading the case study on General Dynamics and the TFX, McNamara's one plane fits all solution to military procurement. Fortunately for our country seval Navy admirals sacrificed their careers to prevent that disaster from being imposed on the nation. Grumman stepped into the breach and delivered the F-14 which evolved to become one of the premier fighters and ground attack aircraft.
   
   My personal belief is that when the history of the 2000-2015 period is written, perhaps 30 or 40 years into the future, military historians will look back on the forced retirement of the F-14d's and follow on models as one of the tragic mistakes that cost the nation dearly. The premature retirement of the F-14d and the failure to follow on with a next generation fighter to carry the improved Phoenix missile increases the risk that the history of the next two decades night be written by the others, as is the privledge of the victor.



3. ...written histories of the F-14 Tomcat. You can tell from the narration that the author was intimately familiar with the aircraft and knew the aircraft well, rather than coming across as some book-learned egghead that still refers to the Tomcat's mission as 'Fleet Air Defense'. Fleet Air Defense is Maritime Air Superiority.
   Anyways, great book and very informative. The best account yet of the F-14/F-15 flyoff for the Shah.

2 comments about Industrial Boilers and Heat Recovery Steam Generators: Design, Applications, and Calculations (Mechanical Engineering (Marcell Dekker)).

1. I purchased this book because of Mr. Ganapathy's fame in the subject area and the attractive title of the book. My primary interest is in waste heat boiler design in petroleum refining applications. My comments here pertains to this area only.
   
   The book gives a very brief survey of various types of boilers and HRSG's and their operations. The chapter on "Heat Transfer Equipment Design and Performance" offers simple published correlations to estimate parameters in boiler and HRSG designs. They are good for rough performance check but I will not use them in actual designs. In fact, I doubted Mr. Ganopathy uses these simple correlations in his own designs.
   
   Mr. Ganapathy, despite his extensive experience in the subject area, did not spend much ink on critical design issues such as the danger of thermal induced dryout and differential thermal expansion of different components and design methodologies to avoid them.
   
   This is a good book for someone who wishes to gain a basic understanding of boilers and HRSG's. It has little value for those who are in the business of actual designing such equipments.



2. It's not at all clear who this book is written for. It's probably not very useful to those not familiar with the specialized jargon of the boiler industry. It's certainly of no value to anyone outside the U.S., where modern units are used. The treatments of thermodynamic cycles demonstrate a lack of deep understanding and even interest. Perhaps the best that can be said for it is that the numerous solved problems on heat transfer may be of value to engineers needing similar problems solved in English units, but the treatments may not be easy to apply to slightly different situations. It's really time to just start boycotting books and articles that are not in SI units. -F. David Doty, PhD.