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Design of Thermal Systems: A Lost Course

Abstract

In a typical mechanical engineering curriculum, Design of Thermal System course is the culminating course for thermal fluid stem where synthesis of junior and senior level classes is presented with respect to real-world engineering systems such as a coal-fired power plant. The course covers design process, equipment selection, economic consideration, mathematical modeling, and numerical simulations of energy systems. Even though the course is generally a required course for many engineering programs, the author found that many curricula have either stopped offering the course or included some aspects of the course in some junior level courses. At Lamar University the faculty member who used to teach the class was recently retired and the author took up the challenges of teaching the course for the first time in the Fall 2006 semester. This paper discusses the relevancy and necessity of the course for undergraduate students based on the experience of the author in developing the course materials as well as implementing and conducting the course. The discussion covers course content, materials, resources, and students’ opinion and responses on the content and usefulness of the course as it is presented to them.

Introduction

In a typical mechanical engineering curriculum, there are two concentration stems, energy and design, that the students can specialize in. In each stem, there are one or more design courses that culminate in synthesizing junior level engineering science courses to develop and instill design skills in students. Design of Thermal Systems is such a course in the energy stem at Lamar University. MEEN 4313 Thermal Systems Design is the senior level core course that deals with different aspects of designing and simulating thermal and energy systems. The course is designed in order to demonstrate how knowledge from junior level classes such as thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, engineering economics, and numerical analysis can be used to design and simulate energy systems. This is also the course to assess the thermal system design capabilities of students with regards to Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) outcomes. The faculty member who used to teach the class was recently retired and the author took up the challenges of teaching the course for the first time in the Fall 2006 semester. This paper describes the author’s own experiences in the implementation and delivery of the course in details.

Course Description

MEEN 4313 Design of Thermal Systems course is a required course for mechanical engineering seniors and is offered every fall semester. The prerequisites for the course are the

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Aung, K. (2007, June), Design Of Thermal Systems: A Lost Course Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--1733