Book excerpt: The second edition of a comprehensive textbook that introduces turbomachinery and gas turbines through design methods and examples. This comprehensive textbook is unique in its design-focused approach to turbomachinery and gas turbines. It offers students and practicing engineers methods for configuring these machines to perform with the highest possible efficiency. Examples and problems are based on the actual design of turbomachinery and turbines. After an introductory chapter that outlines the goals of the book and provides definitions of terms and parts, the book offers a brief review of the basic principles of thermodynamics and efficiency definitions. The rest of the book is devoted to the analysis and design of real turbomachinery configurations and gas turbines, based on a consistent application of thermodynamic theory and a more empirical treatment of fluid dynamics that relies on the extensive use of design charts. Topics include turbine power cycles, diffusion and diffusers, the analysis and design of three-dimensional free-stream flow, and combustion systems and combustion calculations. The second edition updates every chapter, adding material on subjects that include flow correlations, energy transfer in turbomachines, and three-dimensional design. A solutions manual is available for instructors. This new MIT Press edition makes a popular text available again, with corrections and some updates, to a wide audience of students, professors, and professionals.