You have to fulfill your duties in the group. Otherwise, you might get a much lower grade compared to your group members.
This is an open problem and open-ended project. The group decides on which problem to solve and what topics to pick, then the group will work together to do research and analysis.
The topic is investigating systems about energy transformation, energy storage, and energy transport, particularly thermodynamic cycles, such as innovative power systems, innovative heat pump or refrigeration systems, Steam power plant, Nuclear power plant, Jet engines, Solar power systems, and so on.
The group needs to submit a report per group in the end about your research. This report needs to be technical competent.
To be technical competent, simply copy specifics of any systems into your report is not recommended. You need to do research and find out why the system was designed the way it is. What are the pros and cons? It there a better way to improve certain part? Using the first law and the second law of thermodynamics, perform calculations to evaluate, support or re-exam the system.
In you report, please include the following parts:
- Introduction: describe your problems here.
- Your choice of thermodynamics system: describe the system here. What typical mechanical components
are included in this system? Include a schematic, and describe it in detail.
- Thermodynamics analysis: do thermodynamic calculations about energy (first law), efficiency, and
entropy production to support your choice.
- Alternatives: introduce one more similar system which could possibly satisfy the needs. Pros and cons of
both.
- Improvements: no system is perfect. List possible improvements you observe after the fully
thermodynamics analysis. Make sure to expand and justify your improvements.
- Economics effect: how much does it cost to get it set up? How much does it cost to maintain? 7. Conclusion: conclude your findings here.
- Citations: list all the resources you referred to in this report.
Here, what should be done and included in each part will be discussed with an example. For example, if the group decided to implement a HVAC system for the new smart houses. After read your report, the reader should be confident to follow your instruction to pick the right HVAC system for their smart houses.
Introduction: Research needs to done for the smart houses first. What’s special about these houses? Why needs smart houses? How that affects the choice of design of the HVAC system? What are typic specs about these smart houses (the size, location and so on)?
HV AC system: Describe HV AC system here. Include a thermodynamic schematic of the HV AC system. You are required to create the schematic by yourself. Talk about each component in the system. Pick a model from the market that you want to start with. For example, I find an electrical heating and central air conditioner system will be a good choice. List the pros and cons of the model.
Thermodynamics analysis: Reiterate your problems here. You are recommended to go through the textbook problems and you might find similar problems to your system here. For this example, the smart house is in Texas where electronic bills in the summer are high. Then, you may set up your problem with a typical 3000 sq.ft house, maintain a indoor temperature of 24 oC while the out door temperature is 38 oC. Perform a first law calculation to demonstrate what the energy rate the system needs to pump out from indoor to outdoor to keep the temperature as 24 oC. Perform a calculation of the efficiency to exam the efficiency of the system. Also, calculate entropy generation for one or two components to identify the places for improvements.
Alternatives: There are other HVAC systems that might satisfy the needs of the smart houses. A gas furnace one might also be a good choice. Introduction about the gas furnace one and pros and cons of this model will be included in this part. At the end of this part, you should compare these two and conclude why the first choice is your recommendation for the smart house. You might need to perform efficiency calculations and use a quantitative number to demonstrate why the system you picked works better.
Improvements: talk about possible improvements based on the cons listed previously. Talk about possible improvements based on the entropy generation calculation.
Economics effect: List the price for the system (if you can not find the total price for all, find the price for each component, delivery and installation fee, then add them together). Also, research the local gas or electric fee, calculate the monthly bills.
Conclusions: touch base with every part mentioned above and reassure why the system is chosen and what is the significance of the thermodynamics analysis.
Citations: list all citations here. And in the report, a corresponding citation number should be included wherever there are cited content.
In the end, please include a cover page for the report. On the cover page, please include group number and group name, report title, group members. Also, please attach a table indicating the responsibilities of each member. Please write in detail what each member did for this project.
Sample Solution