A Student Centered Senior Capstone Project In Heat Exchanger Design

Abstract

The objective of the project was to design and construct a demonstration unit which included three different types of heat exchangers - a double pipe heat exchanger capable of both parallel and counterflow operation, a shell-and-tube heat exchanger, and a cross-flow heat exchanger. The heat exchangers, along with sufficient instrumentation to measure fluid temperatures and flow rates, were mounted on a portable cart so that the unit could be used in various locations in the laboratories. The project gave the students a meaningful design experience which made use of knowledge gained in previous lecture courses in heat transfer, fluid mechanics, and instrumentation. It gave the students practical construction experience. It provided the students with substantial experience in working as a team. Although the instructor was available to help the students over stumbling blocks, the effort was team-centered, with team members making the major decisions and assisting and learning from each other. And, as a result of the project, a major experiment was added to the mechanical engineering laboratories. In addition to providing details of the heat exchanger design, the paper describes non-technical aspects such as: organization and scheduling; interactions between faculty, students, and lab technicians; equipment procurement; division of work among the students; and the students’ abilities and motivation. The paper discusses problems which were encountered in this and other capstone projects supervised by the author. It includes suggestions for avoiding, or at least minimizing, such problems in future similar activities. The information should be very useful to faculty in planning and directing capstone design courses, regardless of topic.