Energy conservation is an important goal of today's designers of air-conditioning, refrigeration, and power systems equipment. The transfer of heat with phase changes is the principal function of such equipment, and heat transfer augmentation of such processes has the potential of offering more efficient use of energy. There are numerous means of augmentation, such as finning, use of vortex promoters, special surface materials, and high acceleration fields. Of course, the subsequent increase in heat transfer efficiency that is obtained from such devices must be evaluated with respect to higher initial production and equipment costs and requirements of installed system pressure loss and pumping power.

Heat transfer augmentation is usually discussed in terms of steady-state situations. However, many systems do not run continuously but function periodically as the load dictates. Therefore, it is important to also address the problem of transient or periodic heat transfer augmentation and the dynamic behavior of such processes.

This paper primarily discusses the use of high acceleration fields for steady-state and transient heat transfer augmentation with an introductory discussion on the purposes of heat transfer augmentation.