Thermal engineering

Thermal engineering designs systems that generate, transfer, store, or use heat. It applies thermodynamics and heat-transfer principles to control temperature and convert energy.

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Thermodynamics: The study of heat, work, temperature, and energy transformations in physical systems. Its laws set the limits and balances used to design thermal systems.
Heat exchanger: A device that transfers heat between fluids while keeping them physically separate. Heat exchangers recover, reject, or deliver heat in many engineered systems.
Temperature: A physical quantity that characterizes a system's thermal state and determines the direction of heat flow. Temperature limits, targets, and gradients anchor thermal specifications.
Energy efficiency: The ratio of useful energy or output to total energy input in a process or device. Thermal designs often trade efficiency against cost, size, and operating conditions.
Energy conservation: The physical principle that energy is neither created nor destroyed, but changes form or moves between systems. It requires accounting for every input, output, and stored quantity in thermal designs.
Heat transfer: The movement of thermal energy through conduction, convection, and radiation. These three modes govern how equipment gains, loses, and routes heat.
Refrigeration: The controlled removal of heat from a space or substance to maintain a lower temperature. Thermal engineers design refrigeration cycles, equipment, and cooling loads.
Heat capacity: The amount of energy required to raise a body's temperature by one degree. It predicts how much energy equipment and materials absorb during heating or cooling.
Exergy: The maximum useful work obtainable as a system comes into equilibrium with its environment. Exergy analysis distinguishes useful energy from losses caused by irreversibility.
Greenhouse gas emissions: Gases released into the atmosphere that absorb and emit infrared radiation, contributing to climate change. Heat generation and power conversion can produce emissions depending on their energy sources.