Industrial thermal engineering

The latest publications in this offer are:

• February 10, 2026

  C3606

  Insulated cladding and rainscreen systems - Definitions and application of Exterior Thermal Insulation solutions in dry construction methods

  Exterior Thermal Insulation (ETI), particularly through cladding systems, is a key solution for enhancing the energy efficiency of buildings. It helps reduce thermal losses while offering acoustic and aesthetic benefits.This article explores the various aspects of implementing ETI, focusing on materials, support design, fixing solutions, and technical requirements for weather resistance. It also addresses regulatory thermal standards and best practices to ensure the system's durability and effectiveness.

• April 10, 2025

  BE9020

  Energy management in buildings

  Current environmental constraints make it imperative to strictly control energy in buildings. This chapter presents the basics needed to understand the issues and phenomena related to the use of energy in buildings. Several technical approaches are then reviewed, so as to concretely explain some solutions contributing to this control, emphasizing the approach inherent in the implementation of each of these solutions. Regulatory aspects (regularly updated) are finally presented, in order to contextualize the techniques presented previously.

• December 18, 2024

  BE9517 Reviewed

  Heat exchangers – Thermal rating and sizing.

  In this article, the principles of the sizing of a heat exchanger together with that of rating an existing heat exchanger are given. Two approaches are described, an analytical one and a numerical approach. In the analytical approach, the two main methods are proposed: the so-called LMTD (Logarithmic Mean Temperature Difference) method more adapted to sizing and, the effectiveness – NTU (Number of Transfer Units) method more adapted to rating. For numerical approach, after some bases about numerical methods, the emphasis is put on examples of utilization showing the given help to the analysis of sizing and possible conception mistakes (distribution, internal geometries, heat transfer intensification…)

• November 10, 2024

  BM4335

  Recovery and valuation of fatal energies in thermal machines

  The conversion of chemical energy into mechanical energy in a thermal machine has been carried out with an overall modest intrinsic conversion efficiency. It is therefore appropriate to favor the partial recovery of waste energy to produce additional usable energy that can be converted into hot and cold heat as well as additional mechanical energy. This makes it possible to improve the energy efficiency of the system by accepting increased complexity and cost. This paper recalls the scientific concepts that govern energy conversion, emphasizes the delicate coupling of cyclic transfers of mass and energy inherent in volumetric thermal machines, and presents technologies for recovering waste energy in combined energy production installations

• August 30, 2023

  BE8731 Reviewed

  Boilers. Combustion systems, water/steam and air/flue gas circuits

  This article provides an overview of the component systems of a boiler with the design criteria of exchangers (pressure parts and others) and air/smoke circuits. It mainly details combustion systems and their specificities as well as the types of water/steam circulation (natural, pump-assited, forced, etc.). It also presents the case of exchangers in pressure parts and provides advice regarding the choice of materials. It ends on the analysis of air/smoke circuits (nature of the circuits, air-heaters, ventilators, etc).

• March 10, 2022

  BE9850

  Technical insulation: Thermal insulation of equipment

  Technical insulation consists, by definition, of insulating equipment in industrial installations or buildings, in order to avoid heat loss. This makes it possible, among other things, to protect these installations against external disturbances such as frost, condensation, but also to conserve thermal energy and therefore limit greenhouse gas emissions. After the description of thermal principles and physical phenomena, this article details the methods for efficiently carrying out thermal insulation of equipment. The different insulating materials and examples of calculations are also presented.

• February 18, 2022

  BE9520 Reviewed

  Transient regime of heat exchangers

  The unsteady operation of exchangers, whatever they may be, is a daily reality met on thermal systems using such equipment. The challenge is a better knowledge of transient behaviors for an adapted control-command.Several approaches appear centered essentially on the physical mechanisms, or on the opposite, on a systemic vision. It comes out the fundamental concept of time constant, supplemented by the notion of delay time (or even phase shift). The utility of the previous set is shown on examples.

• September 28, 2021

  BE9571 Reviewed

  HEAT TRANSFER FLUIDS - PROPERTIES

  The main heat transfer fluids are gases such as nitrogen, helium, air, carbon dioxide and superheated steam. They are characterized by a poor heat carrying and cooling power, but are adaptable to very high temperature. For industrial processes operating at temperatures up to 350 °C, fluids such as mineral or synthetic oil may find wide applications. Halogenated fluids of the PFC or HFE type find uses where dielectric strength and low volatility are applied to cooling in various processes Uses at higher temperature demand heat transfer fluids such as molten salts or liquid metals, whose implementation remains difficult despite their particularly favorable physical properties.

• September 28, 2021

  BE9570 Reviewed

  Heat transfer fluids. Definition and selection criteria

  The role of a heat transfer fluid is to transport heat from a heat source to a heat sink, while maintaining all constraints: technical (reduced heat losses, low fluid transport energy consumption), safety and reduced environmental impact, economic constraints (related to the size of the auxiliary pumping, compression or ventilation but also the size of the heat exchanger providing heat transfer between the coolant and the source and the heat sink). Their selection for a thermal process is the result of a complex process of evaluating various parameters and criteria.

• June 25, 2021

  BE9515 Reviewed

  Heat exchangers ? Definitions and general principles

  The heat exchanger, key instrument for thermal or energy engineers, is a device which allows the temperature of a system or a substance to be controlled when exchanging heat from a medium to another. It is essential in many usual applications: heating, air-conditioning, refrigeration, electronic cooling, in process industries, in energy storage or for mechanical (or electrical) energy production in power plants. In a classical heat exchanger, a hot fluid exchanges a part of its enthalpy to a cold fluid. This type of heat exchanger will serve as a reference in this article to give definitions and parameters required for understanding phenomena and for sizing or rating. Other types of existing heat exchangers will also be mentioned.

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