Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Laboratory Portable Experimental Apparatus for Demonstrating Heat Recovery Concepts

A portable wastewater heat recovery system experimental apparatus was designed, developed and constructed for an undergraduate mechanical engineering laboratory at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, USA. The purpose of the experimental apparatus is to demonstrate heat transfer principles and heat recovery concepts. In this article, the author presents an experimental set-up that will help the undergraduate mechanical engineering students in understanding basic heat transfer processes by utilising real life applications, such as a heat recovery system. This heat recovery system is a preheating unit for incoming cold water from residential and commercial (such as restaurants and hotels) hot water systems. It is designed to recover some of the heat of the wastewater flowing into the sewage system. This project was completed with the assistance of an Undergraduate Senior Project Grant from the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)

Heat transfer and fluid flow over microscale backward and forward facing step: A review

Research on convective heat transfer in the microscale backward-facing step (MBFS) and microscale forward-facing step (MFFS) has been extensively conducted in the past decade. This review summarizes numerous researches on the three topics; the first section focuses on studying the effect of the geometry on the fluid flow and heat transfer behavior. The second and the third sections concentrate on the effect of the inclination angle and the flow regime on the fluid flow and heat transfer enhancement. The purpose of this article is to get a clear view and detailed summary of the influence of several parameters such as the geometrical specifications, type of fluids and boundary conditions. The enhancement in the Nusselt number is the main target of such research where correlation equations were developed in numerical and experimental studies are reported

Design and Development of Experimental Setup of Hybrid PV/Thermal Collector

A portable Hybrid Photovoltaic/Thermal (PV/T) solar collector experimental apparatus was designed and developed. The purpose of this instructional experimental apparatus is to demonstrate solar energy applications. In this article, the authors present an experimental apparatus that will help undergraduate mechanical engineering students in understanding the basic heat transfer processes, and thermodynamics concepts and principles. This is achieved by utilising real life applications, such as using Hybrid Photovoltaic/Thermal solar collector to convert solar energy to both electrical and thermal energy. The article presents the details of the design and construction of the experimental apparatus, as well as testing procedures and sample results

Designing and Teaching Multidisciplinary Project-Based Courses to Satisfy the ABET 2000 Engineering Criteria

One important educational outcome required of any engineering programme, as per ABET 2000 Criteria 3, is the ability of engineering graduates to function in multidisciplinary teams. In order to address this requirement, the curriculum committees of the engineering programmes at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW), Fort Wayne, USA, have designed several multidisciplinary project-based courses. These courses involve computer, electrical and mechanical engineering students. Five multidisciplinary project-based courses, which are distributed over the freshman, sophomore and senior years, have been developed and implemented. In these courses, real world multidisciplinary design experiences are used to prepare IPFW graduates to enter today’s workforce. In this article, the authors present a brief description of these courses along with the authors’ experiences in the development and teaching of the five multidisciplinary project-based courses

Impact on Empathy Development of Engineering Undergraduate Students in a Community-Engagement Design Course

Empathy is increasingly recognized as a critical skill and disposition for engineering practice. Empathy enhances the ability to understand and connect with the thoughts and feelings of others, which helps engineers design concepts and products that are both innovative and aligned to actual user needs and desires. With increased competition and need to innovate in this global economy, there is a growing need for more empathic engineers and an increasing need for more research in the area to prepare future empathic engineers. Previous research indicates community-engagement as a pedagogical approach that provides a context for empathic development. Understanding how empathy changes through a community-engaged design experience can inform the development of a wide range of design and community-engagement experiences. Therefore, this dissertation sought a deeper understanding of the impact of community-engaged design learning on empathic growth and the factors that contribute to that growth for engineering undergraduate students. The study employed a sequential explanatory mixed methods design focused on the empathic development of students enrolled in a community-engaged design course. In the first phase, empathic development was assessed using pre- and post-data collection of empathy and community partner interaction surveys. In the second qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with students to build on the results from the quantitative phase and provide insights into the empathic development and import of community relationships identified therein. This study defined empathy as a tripartite phenomenon comprised of the (1) affective dimension emphasizing feelings of concern for another, (2) cognitive dimension emphasizing knowing what another is feeling, and (3) behavioral dimension emphasizing the act of responding based on the cognitive and affective experience. The results highlighted students engaging in how they empathized by showing concern/sympathy—affective dimension—and took the perspective of users –cognitive dimension—in order to understand and make informed design decisions for their projects –behavioral dimension. The quantitative phase did not find any statistically significant practical changes for the overall population. However, based on interviews of students who increased in all three constructs—empathic concern, perspective taking, and interpersonal self-efficacy, which served as proxies for the affective, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions of empathy, empathy manifested and developed due to different factors. These factors included impactful experiences, leadership positions, long-term participation and diverse team members. The results also highlighted prior experiences and overestimating as factors that students attributed for their high pre-test scores in interpersonal self-efficacy

Turbulent Mixed Convection Flow Over a Forward-facing Step: The Effect of Step Heights

Measurements of heat transfer and fluid flow of turbulent mixed convection boundary-layer air flow over an isothermal two-dimensional, vertical forward-facing step are reported. The upstream and downstream walls and the step itself were heated to a uniform and constant temperature. Air velocity and temperature distributions and their turbulent fluctuations are measured simultaneously by using, respectively, a two-component laser-Doppler velocimeter (LDV) and a cold wire anemometer. The present study examines the effect of forward-facing step heights on turbulent mixed convection flow along a vertical flat plate. The experiment was carried out for step heights of 0, 11, and 22 mm, at a free stream air velocity, u∞, of 0.55 m⋅s−1, and a temperature difference, ΔT, of 30 °C between the heated walls and the free stream air (corresponding to a local Grashof number Grxi=6.45×1010). It was found that the turbulence intensity of the streamwise and transverse velocity fluctuations and the intensity of temperature fluctuations downstream of the step increase as the step height increases. Also, it was found that both the reattachment length and the heat transfer rate from the downstream heated wall increase with increasing step height

Integrating Design and Design of Experiment in Mechanical Engineering Courses and Laboratories

Two important educational outcomes required of any engineering program, as per ABET 2000 Criteria 3, are the ability of engineering graduates to: 1) design a component, a system or a process to meet the desired needs within realistic constraints; and 2) design and conduct experiments, as well as analyze and interpret data. To achieve these requirements, engineering design and the design of experiments need to be integral parts of several mechanical engineering courses and laboratories throughout the curriculum. This paper presents examples of engineering design experience in the thermal science area, as well as the use of the design–build–test concept in developing experiments in a heat transfer laboratory