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Development of Heat Transfer Laboratory Experiments Utilizing Student Design Teams

Robert F. Harder, Ph.D.

Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Engineering George Fox University Newberg, OR 97132

Abstract

Teams of students designed and developed experiments for a new four-credit course in heat transfer at George Fox University as a part of their initial laboratory experience. Over the past three years, students have developed eight experiments that cover a broad range of conduction, convection and radiation phenomena. The new heat transfer course consists of three hours of lecture and one three-hour laboratory per week. Teams which consisted of two students each designed and developed laboratory experiments for this new course at a fraction the cost that it would have taken to purchase similar experiments from an outside vendor. In the process, the students gained useful insights into thermal design methodology and developed a greater appreciation for the fundamentals of heat transfer, than would have been realized by simply performing “canned” experiments. Student design teams prepared a full laboratory handout as well as an operations manual as a part of their laboratory experiment design projects. Teams were given a fixed budget and were required to submit a cost analysis with their final report. Oral and written presentations were required for each of the student teams, along with the satisfactory demonstration of their working experiment. Laboratory experiment details and the design process followed by each student team will be outlined for several of the experiments developed, including: heat conduction in a tapered rod, natural convection in a vertical flat plate, forced air turbulent convection inside a heated tube, overall heat transfer coefficient in a double pipe heat exchanger, film condensation heat transfer coefficient and combined radiation and natural convection of a horizontal cylinder. Rubrics were used to evaluate the student design process, as well as written and oral presentations.

Background and Motivation

George Fox University (GFU) is a liberal arts institution which began a 3:2 dual degree engineering program in 1988. As a result of its successful operation, in the year 2000 GFU began implementing a four year engineering major, which required the development of 21 new engineering courses and hiring three additional faculty members. Currently over 80 students are pursuing a BS degree in engineering with concentrations in either electrical or mechanical engineering at George Fox. Students in the mechanical concentration take five courses dedicated to the thermal sciences, including: Thermodynamics I and II, Fluid Mechanics, Heat Transfer, and a senior elective in Combustion, Emissions and Air Pollution. Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright ASEÉ 2005, American Society for Engineering Education

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Harder, R. (2005, June), Development Of Heat Transfer Laboratory Experiments Utilizing Student Design Teams Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--14874