While courses in materials processing cover modeling, they usually treat one particular class of materials, that is, polymers, metals, or ceramics. This text offers a new approach, presenting an integrated treatment of metallic and nonmetallic materials. The authors show that a common base of knowledge—specifically, the fundamentals of heat transfer and fluid mechanics—provides a unifying theme for these seemingly disparate areas. They emphasize understanding basic physical phenomena and knowing how to include them in a model. Students will learn how to use scaling analysis as a general tool for simplifying models and for obtaining rapid estimates of results. The book also includes selected numerical methods, a wealth of practical, realistic examples, and homework exercises.