The contest for the 12^th Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference is open to all conference participants, provided at least one co-author is from industry. To encourage student participation, a team that includes at least one student as a co-author will have a 5% bonus added to their final score.

A process heat transfer enhancement method is primarily valued by how much it increases the heat transfer rate relative to the additional pumping power required to move the fluid through the system. Performance evaluations typically concern duty, Nusselt number, effectiveness, friction factor, and pumping power. A clearly defined performance evaluation criteria or thermal performance factor characterizes the benefit-to-cost ratio.

Late Professors Art Bergles and Ralph Webb categorized enhancement methods as passive or active (see table below), and compound enhancements may involve two or more techniques working in tandem.

Challenge: Prepare a technical report documenting the attributes (both positive and negative) and operating range of a process heat transfer enhancement device with some novelty in configuration or application. Use careful analysis, simulation, and/or experimental results to convince skeptics of the device’s value in the process industry. Discuss structural attributes for durability and commercial viability.

Evaluation and awards: A panel of international process heat exchanger experts from industry will evaluate the merits of each submission. The evaluation rubric is 25% description, performance impact, and novelty, 40% thermal-hydraulic analysis, 10% mechanical integrity, 10% commercial feasibility, and 15% documentation clarity.

Three submissions will be awarded cash prizes: first place, US$1500; second place, US$1000; and third place, US$500.