Development of a Real-World Thermodynamics Course Project

This paper will outline the development of a real-world based project in a thermodynamics course in a mechanical engineering program at a large university. In the first few iterations of the project, students worked in teams to analyze a combined power cycle. While this project gave students additional experience with thermodynamic calculations and required them to apply knowledge learned in class to new situations (vapor and gas power cycles were covered separately in lecture, but combined cycles were not explicitly discussed), the project was not strong in assessing ABET Student Outcome 2, "an ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors." The instructor has worked to improve the project to better meet this student outcome and provide more thorough real-world context for the students. The university has an on-campus simple-cycle power plant that provides peak-shaving power for a local power company. Inspired by prior work presented at ASEE conferences, the project in this thermodynamics course was altered to assign students the task of convert the simple-cycle plant into a combined-cycle plant. Students in Spring 2023 completed a basic version of this project. In Fall 2023, students will start the project by touring the on-campus power plant and talking with technicians about the scope of the proposed design. The project will include formative assessments to help students learn more about the design process before completing summative assessments of a final report and presentation.