Development of a teaching tool: the Texaco energy systems laboratory at Penn State (original) (raw)
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2002 Annual Conference Proceedings
Introduced in Spring 1999 into the MSOE's three-quarter Thermodynamics sequence, The Expert System for Thermodynamics (TEST™ software by Subrata Bhattacharjee) 1 has become a great asset and an excellent tool in enhancing students' learning of Thermodynamics fundamentals. The presenter, Dr. Kumpaty encouraged the institution-wide use of the software by obtaining a site license and has personally tested its use in classroom, design projects and laboratory for the last three years. All mechanical engineering (ME) and mechanical engineering technology (MET) students run a 100-kW steam power plant in the laboratory at various partloads and full load in groups of 10 and conduct thorough, first and second law analyses on the plant employing the user-friendly software. They are also assigned 3 to 4 design projects in the Thermodynamics sequence, the treatment of which has become easier with the parametric studies accommodated superbly by the TEST™ software. The overall experience with this integrated teaching has been very rewarding to both faculty and students. The details of the experience, a sample problem, a sample project, laboratory activities and the effective utilization of the software/courseware are presented.
1999
This paper describes two parallel efforts that attempt to implement a new approach to the teaching of thermal fluids engineering. In one setting, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the subject matter is integrated into a single year-long subject at the introductory level. In the second setting, at Victoria (British Columbia, Canada), the design-oriented approach is used in the traditional separated presentation at a more advanced level where the material is focused on heat transfer. In both cases, the subject concludes with a design project that subject matter in the context of a real application. It students are much more engaged, develop a greater sense and are much more capable of analyzing complex problems synthesizes the is concluded that the of accomplishment, (SAH) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
Design, Build, and Activation Experience in an Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Program
2003 GSW Proceedings
Mechanical engineering students at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), when participating in the Thermal Fluids Laboratory course (ME 4802), perform for the first half of the semester a total of eleven laboratory experiments involving fluid statics and dynamics, thermodynamics, and heat transfer. Conjunct with this first half of the semester, each student team submits their formal proposal regarding tasks to be performed during the second half of the semester. Each proposal is to address tasks required for the design, construction, and proof test of a device or system involving thermal fluids processes. Each proposal has to provide a concise description of the design process inclusive of a design specification, detailed task descriptions, individual student assignments, and a detailed cost breakdown. The second half of the semester, however, is totally devoted to achieving their proposed goals as formally approved by the instructor. Each design must demonstrate conformance to the design specification as proposed and be formally documented and orally presented to the College of Engineering. This paper describes a number of design projects such as those involving cooling towers, heat pipes, convection test systems, cross and counter flow heat exchangers, a solar powered car, a furnace camera cooling system, flow network automation and control system, engine thermal coatings, an engine test stand, and testers for thermal contact conductance and fluid viscosity.
2004 Annual Conference Proceedings
Energy Conversion courses for the past 100 years have primarily focused on the fundamental concepts of machine theory and the conversion between mechanical and electrical energy. Based on these concepts an undergraduate energy conversion course would typically cover topics in DC motors and AC synchronous and asynchronous motors. The trend in the last 10 years has been to reduce the amount of time spent on the fundamentals of DC and AC machines and to incorporate DC and AC electric drives into the course content. To support this trend, South Dakota State University has incorporated major revisions to the Energy Conversion Course which now includes topics in electric drives. With these changes, a new energy conversion and electric drives (ECED) laboratory has been designed and implemented, providing students a laboratory for which they actually operate systems that make use of these technologies, while conducting the laboratory exercises. The uniqueness of this laboratory is twofold: 1) The laboratory is completely automated, using (a) Human Machine Interface (HMI) and a power processing system (PPS) for safe distribution of resources (power sources and loads) student Power Workbenches (PWBs), and (b) Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) hardware/software to monitor and control Automatic Load Bank (ALBs), 2) the entire laboratory, including the HMI, PPS, PWBs, ALBs and SCADA system, were designed, constructed and tested by 13 undergraduate students and one graduate electrical engineering student over a period of four years. The new laboratory, commissioned in September of 2002, has worked flawlessly for three full semesters, and has been a showcase for prospective incoming electrical engineering students. This paper describes the general philosophy and design of the laboratory, the functionality and operational use of the laboratory, an overview of how students were integrated into the overall laboratory design and development phases, and finally, perspectives from students who are taking the modified version of the Energy Conversion course and its associated laboratory course.
Thermal Science Capstone Projects in Mechanical Engineering
2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
It is perceived that the majority of capstone projects for senior mechanical engineering students usually deals with designs that do not include issues related to thermal sciences; i.e., thermodynamics, heat transfer and fluid mechanics. This may lead students to falsely think that the thermal sciences are usually not critical in practical designs since the capstone course is supposed to mimic actual engineering designs in the industry. The thinking that thermal issues are incidental is dangerous since vital industries-oil, electronics, power generation and conversion and cryogenics, to name but a few-rely heavily on thermal design. Actually one of the biggest current challenges is energy-its sources and conservation, which feeds into any kind of sustainable design. Lack of thermal projects in capstone courses also may prevent interested students from making thermal sciences their focal area and future career. The relatively low number of thermal science projects in capstone courses may be due to the fact that the instructors assigned to teach these courses are specialists in other areas of mechanical engineering. This paper explores these issues through surveying capstone projects in a number of universities. It probes capstone-teaching faculty and reflects on their attitudes toward thermal-science projects. The paper attempts to determine if there is a lack of thermalscience projects in capstone courses and if so what the reasons are. A third purpose of the paper was to probe the feelings of non-thermal faculty teaching capstone towards thermal projects, and whether or under what conditions they would be willing to offer more thermal design projects in the future. The paper also poses a few general questions regarding the role of thermal sciences in capstone design and suggests a strategic way for implementing more thermal science capstone projects.
The Virtual Energy Laboratory (VEL): A Didactic Graphical Simulator for Thermal System Design
Volume 3: Heat Transfer; Electric Power; Industrial and Cogeneration, 1999
A teachin g tool for thermal s ystem design has been developed for use in standard personal computers. This tool, called the Virtual Energy Lab (VEL), is designed to facilitate the inte gration of energy conversion and transfer devices into s ystems that meet specified heatin g, cooling and power loads. The VEL has a modular confi guration, allowin g the desi gner to choose from a number of oarripcatents to meet given design objectives. The output of some components can be used as inputs to others, and the user can exercise creativit y in combining them. As the thermal s ystem is assembled on the graphical interface, the relevant e quations are selected automaticall y and solved as required by the particular design. The models for each VEL component are either based on basic performance equations for generic equipment or on performance charts of actual devices. The thermod ynamic irreversibility is the figure of merit used for assessin g each desi gn. NOMENCLATURE Fluid heat capacity, kl/hr-K Heat capacity ratio Specific heat at constant pressure, Ic1/k g-K Specific enthalpy, kJ/kg Specific enthalpy of vaporization, klikg Irreversibility generation rate, kl/hr Mass flow rate, kg/hr Number of transfer units, dimensionless Pressure, IcPa Gas constant, kJ/Ic g-K Entropy, kl/K Entropy generation rate. kJ/kr-K Specific entropy, kJ/kg-K Temperature, K Humidity Ratio, kg of steam/k g of dry air, dimensionless Volume or mole fraction of gas constituent Difference Thermal effectiveness, q .t.] /thin , dimensionless Subscripts 2 a ext HX Fluid inlet conditions Fluid outlet conditions Air Extraction Gas Heat exchan ger Constituent Reference atmospheric conditions Water vapor Water
2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
A gas turbine is an internal combustion engine that converts natural gas or other liquid fuels to mechanical energy, to drive generators or to provide the energy in water desalination or in petrochemical plants. Jet engines are gas turbines optimized to produce thrust from the exhaust gases. The design of jet engines involves all of the fields of mechanical engineering, but thermodynamics, heat transfer and vibrations are of particular importance to the engine design. In this paper, we present the work done by a group of senior mechanical engineering students as part of their MEEN 404 experiment design course project. Students were asked to slightly modify an open-source simplified jet engine CAD model for 3D printability, build and test the 3D printed functional model in different compressor and turbine configurations. For that, the students had to go through the entire design process, from functions through requirements, through alternative designs to be able to integrate the newly modified parts into their testbed. They had to equip the system with all the necessary sensors and instrumentation to control and monitor the engine while conducting many tests to study the cost, efficiency, and performance over a range of parameter values and environmental conditions such as the number of blades, blade angle of attack, and outlet nozzle size. This project was a good tool to promote student's engagement and development, advance their critical thinking, and improve their problem solving and leadership skills. The project was also of a great help to students in understanding many mechanical engineering topics covered in other classes, especially after being complemented by a workshop hosted by General Electric (GE) at Qatar Science and Technology Park, where students received a hands-on training session on regular maintenance work carried out on aircraft engines.
Development of a Problem-Based and Design-Driven Thermodynamics Course
2002
This paper describes a Problem Based Learning (PBL) environment for a first course in Thermodynamics. Students are challenged through a strong emphasis on design projects that expand the boundary of their thermodynamics knowledge through the integration of fluid mechanics and heat transfer fundamentals. Design projects range from determining the blower size of an automotive HVAC system, to adept selection of nozzle diameter for a jet engine at a specified speed. These design projects are used as the platform for students to solidify their knowledge of thermal fluid systems. The authors provide their personal journey in developing a problem-based and design-driven thermodynamics course that show promise for the design integration throughout the Energy Systems Thread. An outcomes-based survey conducted on student achievement of educational outcomes is also presented.