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Teaching Cycle Optimization in Introductory Thermodynamics Courses Nicole DeJong

San Jose State University

Introduction

In our competitive economic market, design optimization is crucial. In the area of thermodynamics, optimization is becoming more and more important as consumers and the government become increasingly concerned with energy usage and operating cost. Unfortunately, most students in the thermal sciences are taught little about optimization of thermal cycles and devices. In thermodynamics courses, students are typically given simple thermal cycles to analyze to introduce them to both the cycles and thermodynamic principles. In some curricula cycle design and optimization are not included at all, whereas in others these topics are included only in elective courses in thermal system design. A few schools include the topics in courses required of all mechanical engineering students. As a result, many students may never be involved in either cycle design or optimization. For those who do take an advanced course covering these topics, an early introduction will make the transition from purely analysis to design easier. Thus, thermodynamic cycle design and optimization should be introduced as soon as possible. This paper discusses design projects that allow these topics to be included in already crowded introductory thermodynamics courses.

In any design project, certain constraints must be satisfied. For example, an air conditioning system must remove X Watts of heat from a room. However, once systems have been developed that meets those constraints, how can one choose between those designs? Several optimization possibilities include minimizing first or operating cost, maximizing work output, or maximizing thermal efficiency or second law efficiency. The projects discussed here involve optimizing second law efficiency or operating cost. Maximizing second law efficiency gives the students a better idea of how good their designs are than does maximizing thermal efficiency; second law efficiency is the ratio of the thermal efficiency to the maximum possible thermal efficiency, so an ideal cycle will have a second law efficiency of one. More information on second law efficiency can be found in Bejan1 or many thermodynamics textbooks. However, if second law efficiency and the related topic of exergy are not included in a course, the projects discussed here can just as easily involve the maximization of thermal efficiency or work output. The projects also could be expanded as desired to include first cost elements or a detailed economic analysis.

Optimization of cycles using hand calculations is very time consuming. Many properties must be looked up in charts and calculations repeated frequently. Especially as cycles become more complicated, these calculations become burdensome. However, the use of computer software to perform calculations makes this process much faster. Several different software programs can be

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright ©2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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DeJong Okaniti, N. (2002, June), Teaching Cycle Optimization In Introductory Thermodynamics Courses Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10493