I-Corps L: Hands-on Modules for Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer, A Market Transition

Washington State University, Pullman WA

Investigators

Abstract

Through the NSF Innovation Corps for Learning Program (I-Corps L), this project will develop ways to increase the scale and impact of desk-top fluid mechanics and heat transfer experiments at a price comparable to that of a textbook. Engineering education requires realistic hands-on learning experiences, available throughout the curriculum. However, the equipment currently available for classroom use is limited primarily to robotics and electronics, though many other branches of engineering would benefit immensely from similar innovations. Currently, in the fields of chemical, mechanical and civil engineering the large size and high cost of equipment allows for hands-on experiences only in a laboratory setting scheduled for the final two to three semesters of college. This project will address this problem by making available miniaturized thermal fluids systems with a cost of approximately one to two hundred dollars per set. Having such systems available enables realistic, hands-on learning throughout an engineering curriculum in the standard classroom. Besides improvements to instruction, exposure at an earlier stage in the curriculum will enhance recruitment and retention within engineering majors. The currently available equipment developed by the project team includes venturi meters, shell and tube heat exchangers, double pipe heat exchangers, and a hydraulic loss apparatus all approximately the same size as a hardbound textbook. These represent equipment and processes of interest in mechanical, chemical and civil engineering. In the classroom, this equipment allows students to link theoretical concepts and correlations to physical reality in a compact device they can manipulate,observe, take data and even take home for homework exercises. Learning is enhanced by the equipment being miniaturizations of common larger scale industrial or pilot scale laboratory equipment. The instructor will not have to use examples from other not-so-relevant hands-on examples, such as cooling of a coffee cup. Students can conduct experiments and analyze data from miniature representations of actual equipment utilized in industry. This I-Corps for Learning project will help to promote broad usage of such equipment, not only in conventional programs, but also those with limited resources, and in distance education and massive on-line classroom applications.