The Heat Exchanger Design Handbook (HEDH) had its origins in the 1970s when, under the chairmanship of Professor Ernst Schlilnder, a group of us began to discuss the possibility of a handbook dealing with all aspects of heat exchanger design and operation including the basic design methodology, the associated heat transfer and fluid flow technology and the physical data required for design. This led to the adoption of a structure consisting of 5 parts: Part 1: Heat exchanger theory and generic application technology; Part 2: Fluid mechanics and heat transfer; Part 3: Thermal and hydraulic design of heat exchangers; Part 4: Mechanical design of heat exchangers; Part 5: Physical properties.

The first (loose-leaf) edition of HEDH was published in 1983 and contained about 1500 pages of new material structured as indicated above; the reception from reviewers and users was very positive and this encouraged the publishers to publish a series of five supplements of additional material for inclusion in the loose-leaf binders. This process added around 500 pages to the material.

In order to achieve a more systematic updating, a quarterly update journal Heat Exchanger Design Update (HEDU) was started in 1994 which carried new material. Material arising from HEDU has brought the total number of pages in HEDH to around 5000. Though the option for HEDH in a loose-leaf form has continued to be maintained until the present time, this form has now essentially been superseded by the availability of a web edition (HEDH Online) which can be updated more readily. No further updates in paper form will be published, except as part of new hardback editions. There is a strong argument for having such easily accessible Hardback Editions on one's office shelf, even when access is also available to the web edition.

This present set of five volumes (HEDH hardback 2008) containing the five respective parts of HEDH is the latest in a series of such editions which started in 1990 and continued in 1998 and 2002. Between the previous (2002) hardback edition and the present (2008) offering, around 1200 new and replacement pages have been added, representing around 25% of the total.