A. INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this section is to summarize all the classifications discussed in Section 88, Section 89, Section 90, Section 91, Section 92, and Section 93, and to provide a detailed overview of these classifications in an easy to grasp format. More details about these classifications one can find in Shah and Sekulić (2003) and Shah and Sekulić (1998), as well as in other sections of this handbook edition.

B. CLASSIFICATION ACCORDING TO FLUID-TO-HEAT-TRANSFER SURFACE THERMAL ENERGY TRANSFER MECHANISM

Heat exchangers are, from the point of view of the heat transfer mechanism, dominantly convective heat transfer devices. This means that the enthalpy change of fluids involved is facilitated primarily through the convective mechanisms (from the fluids to the separating wall and vice versa). This convection may be accompanied by a phase change and/or combined with a radiation heat transfer. Figure 1 summarizes these possibilities.

Figure 1 Classification according to heat transfer mechanism.