Combustion Engineering

This reference provides detailed coverage of all the major combustion technologies and fuels. It presents fundamental combustion concepts with a strong emphasis on their use in design, including supporting data and practical formuals. A qualitative discussion of advanced modeling methods is also included.

Dr. Kenneth Ragland is an emeritus professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Throughout his career, he taught courses in thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, combustion, and air pollution control. His early research was on solid fuel ram jet combustion, and gaseous and heterogeneous detonations. His research at UW–Madison focused on solid fuel combustion of coal and biomass as single particles, combustion in shallow and deep fixed beds, fluidized bed combustion, and combustion emissions. He served as chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering from July 1995 until his retirement in July 1999. In retirement his research has focused on the development of systems for planting, harvesting, and combusting biomass crops for energy. Currently, he is the vice president of Energy Performance Systems, Inc.

Dr. Kenneth "Mark" Bryden joined the faculty of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Iowa State University in 1998 after receiving his doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Prior to his studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he worked fourteen years in a wide range of engineering positions at Westinghouse Electric Corporation. This included eight years in power plant operations and six years in power plant engineering. More than ten of these years were spent in engineering management. Mark has an active research and teaching program in the areas of energy, combustion, and appropriate technology. He is particularly interested in biomass combustion and small cookstoves for the developing world. He is president of Engineers for Technical and Humanitarian Opportunities for Service (ETHOS) and is the program director for the Simulation, Modeling and Decision Science Program at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory. He teaches classes in combustion, sustainability, energy systems, and design for the developing world. He is the recipient of numerous teaching and research awards, including three R&D 100 awards within the past five years.