Fundamentals of Dimensional Analysis

Book excerpt: This is the first book which systematically describes an integral approach on dimensional analysis. The amount of textbooks on dimensional analysis is huge, however most of the books start with the definition of the relevant variables. When the variables are given to the reader without prior knowledge on each problem it has serious consequences: the usefulness of dimensional analysis is not appreciated, is not possible to understand the real challenges of this subject and the result, which is a general relationship with dimensionless groups is useless. This book closes the hole in previous books because in addition to describe step by step how to reach the general relationship with dimensionless groups, which creates solid basis of different metallurgical problems to understand the role of the relevant variables. It provides a full description on how to obtain the experimental data and applies the experimental data to transform the general relationship in a particular solution. Once the reader learns how to design the experimental work and uses that information to define the particular solution, it is possible to asses if the selection of variables was adequate or not. The book is useful for both undergraduate and graduate students.