A workshop grant request is requested for assessing emergent trends in heat transfer engineering, research, and education . The workshop will take place prior to the summer 2013 ASME Summer Heat Transfer Conference, marking the 75th anniversary of the ASME Heat Transfer Division. Broad challenges and future trends will be solicited from the technical community.
The National Heat Transfer Conference will be held this year at the University of Minnesota, where the field of heat transfer has long been a signature program in the Mechanical Engineering program, where faculty have been widely recognized as international leaders in the field. A similar workshop was performed during the 50h anniversary of the heat division, and the PIs believe a similar analysis is necessary to assess current challenges and trends in the field to orient the next wave of young entrepreneurial scientists towards these nationally-relevant heat-transfer problems.
The PIs are requesting the financial support to conduct a pre-conference workshop on emergent trends in heat transfer engineering, research and education. A detailed report on the discussions and recommendations will be written and distributed to both US and international segments of the heat transfer community. A report on the findings of the workshop will be presented in either a session or forum at the 2013 International Mechanical Engineering Conference and Exposition. Concurrent with the workshop and 2013 Summer Heat Transfer Conference, special issues of the Journal of Heat Transfer and the Journal of Thermal Science and Engineering Applications will explore some of the issues to be addressed in workshop through focal articles and review papers.
The workshop will draw from a large cross-section of the community; the PIs propose to draw from the community broadly a vision of the pathways forward in heat transfer engineering, research and education, rather than develop a vision only through the advice of experts. Active participation and dialog will be key to this proposal.
The outcomes of the workshop would inform industry, academia, and government on technology development, educational reform, and broader societal investments. Due to the solicitations from a broad community, a rich set of opinions to accurately and wisely guide the community are likely to be obtained. The results immediately following and during the workshop as well as a final report will be widely disseminated through traditional mechanisms and be made available to the public at large. A clear and logical project plan is provided.
Outcomes Report WORKSHOP ON EMERGENT TRENDS IN HEAT TRANSFER ENGINEERING, RESEARCH AND EDUCATION Held at the 2013 SUMMER HEAT TRANSFER CONFERENCE MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA JULY 14, 2013 And a Panel Session at the 2013 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition San Diego, California Prepared by F. A. Kulacki, PI Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Minnesota Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455 A workshop and two panel sessions were held in 2013 to assess the status and future directions of heat transfer engineering, research and education. Financial support of this activity was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the ASME Heat Transfer Division (HTD). For both organizations, the substantive questions are: What are the challenges in design and manufacturing of heat transfer equipment? What are the compelling scientific questions and barriers to answering them? What levels of fundamental knowledge are needed to achieve cost competitiveness in the commercial sphere? How should engineers who practice in the thermal science and engineering fields be educated for a life time of practice? How can the field respond to the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges? The over arching idea has been to identify emerging trends to address these questions, as well as to provide a framework for future action by both. Thus, there are several levels for application of the results. Data gathered over the course of 18 months in 2012-2013 comes from approximately 780 inputs comprising survey results and community opinion. Statistical and content analysis have been used to categorize and quantify responses. For NSF, the goal has been to provide a community-based reflection on its current directions in research funding and to indicate current interests within the heat transfer community. For the HTD, the data hopefully will lead it to reexamine its programs, conferences, and organizational structure to respond to compelling technical, educational, and professional interests of the heat transfer community. Based on the analysis of inputs received, some broad conclusions can be drawn, Interdisciplinarity is on the increase for the heat transfer engineer and engineering in general. This trend impacts both research and education. Traditional sub-fields of heat transfer engineering and research are expected to endure: manufacturing/materials process, aerospace engineering, determination of thermodynamic properties, gas turbine heat transfer, and fire and combustion. Sub-fields that appear to be emerging are bioengineering, energy systems, transport in the environment, heat transfer under extreme conditions, and computational methods in heat transfer. Both the pre-conference survey and the content analysis of Workshop identified these sub-fields. Heat transfer mechanisms and physical principles for heat transfer at multiple space and time scales appear to be of high interest as an emerging theme for fundamental research. Heat transfer engineering will continue to derive benefits from research and well educated specialists, but no major changes are suggested by the Workshop and panel sessions. Heat transfer education appears framed by the same issues and constraints that have been known and discussed for the past 25 years. A continuing concern is what the data set has labeled as the "academic structure". Many of the topics and issues identified in the Workshop and panel sessions are congruent with those identified in the 1991 and 2007 NSF workshops. This finding is both reassuring and problematic. The directions taken by NSF as a prominent partner in heat transfer research and education over the past 25 years appear to have had a beneficial effect in moving the field toward advances based on theory and fundamental research. Programs for which heat transfer engineering and applied science are relevant generally steer NSF funds toward the NAE Grand Challenges. The results are problematic in the sense that a limited set of compelling topics and issues do not stand out as requiring immediate action by either NSF or the HTD. Nevertheless, the following recommendations are that, The NSF conduct a meta-analysis of its funding patterns in heat transfer and closely related fields for relevance to the NAE Grand Challenges and the data received in the 1991, 2007 and 2013 Workshops. The HTD conduct critical reviews of the results of the workshop at the K-Committee and Executive Committee levels. The objectives of such reviews should be to assess: (i) the effectiveness of its current administrative structure and (ii) the extent to which future programming and activities are to be directed toward the findings of the survey, the Workshop and panel sessions. For heat transfer education, the HTD become an advocate for development and dissemination of intermediate and advanced educational resources related to emerging topics, especially heat transfer at multiple length and time scales.
