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Handbook of Cryogenic Engineering
J. G. Weisend, Ed.
Taylor and Francis, Philadelphia, PA, 504pp., $125, indexed
Cryogenic engineering, the production, maintenance, and utilization of low temperatures, has grown at an astonishing rate since World War 11. Applications for this technology are found in air separation plants, in magnetic resonance imaging systems, in the production of liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuels, in the development of high magnetic fields, and natural gas processing, to name a few.
The first chapter of this handbook, which was written by international experts from academia, industry, and national laboratories, includes extensive physical property data for helium, nitrogen, oxygen, and argon. In Chapter 2, the properties of a variety of magnetic materials, polymers, composites, etc. at cryogenic temperatures are presented. The section on polymer properties is particularly exhaustive and includes information on damping, deformation, fatigue and fracture behavior, dielectric permittivity, thermal vibration, and radiation damage. Static and dynamic friction data at cryogenic temperatures are covered, and experimental methods delineating complex tribology scenarios are outlined as well.
Chapter 3, which discusses aspects of heat transfer that are especially important in cryogenics, is divided into sections on conduction, convection, and radiation. Thermal conductivity integrals and thermal contact conductance are the focus of part one, and correlations for forced convection are featured briefly in the section on convection where the prediction of critical heat...