ME462
Thermal Design

Course Contract

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Instructor:

Thomas Adams thomas.m.adams@rose-hulman.edu Dept: ME Phone: 872-6089 Office: Moench C110

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Text:

There are two required books for the course:

	Kenneth H. Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, The One Minute Manager, Morrow, 1981. (Used copies available for a couple of dollars via Amazon.com!
	Thomas M. Adams, "Economic Optimization of Heat Transfer Systems," Chapter 43 of Heat Transfer Calculations, McGraw Hill, 2005. (Free download available in Other Stuff section.

There is no required thermal design text for this course. However, you should routinely make use of your undergraduate Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Heat Transfer and Systems Design textbooks. Therefore, reading assignments will be made from the most recent editions of required texts for the prerequisite courses ES202 and ME302, including

	Çengel, Y. A., and Turner R. H., Fundamentals of Thermal-Fluid Sciences 3rd Ed., McGraw-Hill, 2008.
	Çengel, Y. A., Heat Transfer, A Practical Approach 3rd Ed., McGraw-Hill, 2007.

Other suggested references include

	Hodge, B. K. and Taylor, R. P., Analysis and Design of Energy Systems 3rd Ed., Prentice Hall, 1999.
	Suryanarayana, N. V. and Arici, Ö., Design and Simulation of Thermal Systems, McGraw-Hill, 2003.
	Kakaç, S. and Li, H., Heat Exchangers, Selection, Rating and Thermal Design 2nd Ed., CRC Press, 2002.
	Any of the various American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. (ASHRAE) handbooks

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Activities and Philosophy:

In this course, as is true with most design courses, the emphasis will be on synthesizing material from your fundamentals courses in order to complete a project of practical import. We will review fundamentals from time to time, but less time will be spent in class on mastering those fundamentals in favor of discussing methodology of problem solving and design. As such, you should expect to have to review occasionally. Furthermore, many assigned tasks, including homework problems, will not be completely defined. Tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty is a necessary trait for design engineers, as all real-world problems abound with both.

This course is organized mainly around design project activities. There is also a strong emphasis on development activities and a smaller evaluation activity component. Development activities will take place all quarter long and provide you an opportunity to actively master the course material. These include homework and active learning exercises. The evaluation activity will consist of a single quiz given during Week 10. The purpose of the quiz is to maintain individual accountability for mastering material within a team-focussed course.

The design project activities will consist primarily of designing, constructing and testing the performance of a fluid thermal systems device. The design projects will help you gain confidence in your ability to tackle an open-ended design problem in the heat transfer/fluid flow area. You will work on the design projects within groups. Each group member is equally responsible for the completion as well as the quality of the project. I will serve as advisors for the design projects. Design reports will be written for your employer, Thermal Gurus, Inc., and should be of sufficient quality and completeness to be shared with any of Thermal Gurus' clients. The final report for your project should be viewed as your last chance to win over the client to your product or design. Furthermore each week design teams should submit a brief one page memo describing their team activity for that week. These are due by the end of the day on Fridays. Be sure to keep copies of everything you have submitted to your supervisor. For more information on the design project, see the Project Information page.

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Expectations:

Reading: Reading assignments will be made daily and should be completed before coming to class. You are strongly encouraged to use the Reading Logs provided to you to do the daily reading, as this makes reading a more active exercise and thereby increases its effectiveness greatly. Furthermore, you are encouraged to review your undergraduate texts to gain a more thorough understanding of the fundamentals of fluid-thermal sciences. I review my undergraduate and graduate texts on almost a daily basis.

Homework Guidelines: Homework problem assignments will be made often. Adherence to the homework format [Page 1] [Page 2] is required. Homework is due at the beginning of the period on the assigned due date. Late homework will not be accepted except for medical reasons or prior arrangements with me. Should you have trouble working a problem, you should at least submit an acceptable partial solution. Occasionally, only one homework will be collected and graded per design team. The person to turn in the homework will be chosen at random.

Getting Help on Homework: If you need help on the homework (and we all do at one time or another), get help from classmates, most notably your group members. In any design class, as well as the workplace, the ability to work well with others is not only encouraged but essential. The only condition placed on working with others is that you acknowledge the help by indicating who helped you and how. Get help from me too. Stop by my office. Take a moment after class to talk with me.

Active Learning Exercises: In-class active learning exercises will be used to facilitate your understanding of the material. During these exercises you will work in small groups on a problem solution. Occasionally, I may ask you to turn in your solution to be graded. Some ALEs will emphasize discovery of new ideas; others will be review.

Attendance: Excused absences should be arranged in advance. If you are absent, you are responsible for obtaining notes and assignments from other students in the class. Institute policy states that students missing eight (8) or more classes in a four credit course are liable to fail the course. The instructors reserve the right to enforce this policy. At the very least, students with exceedingly poor class attendance should expect deductions in their course grades. Such a policy mimics that of a professional work environment in which most students in this class will find themselves in the near future. Do you think the appearance of enthusiasm counts for something in the workplace?

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Grading:

This course is not graded on a curve. Everyone in the class has an equal opportunity to earn an A or an F. Typically, 90% and above is an A, 80% and above is a B, 70% and above is a C. Performance levels below 60% are usually unacceptable and will result in a failing grade. Final grade components are as follows:

Development Activities
Homework and Active Learning Exercises (ALEs)	20%
Evaluation Activities*
Quiz	15%
Design Project
Includes communication (reports and memos), contruction and testing	65%
Total	100%

^*Each student is required to complete a peer evaluation in order to assess his/her commitment to the project as well as the quality of his/her work. Final grades may be adjusted accordingly.

Academic honesty

Any act of academic misconduct is grounds for discipline in accordance with the most recent edition of the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Academic Rules and Procedures. If in doubt, ASK! The most recent information can be found on the web at http://www.rose-hulman.edu/academicpolicies/. A signature on all homework assignments acknowledging that you have not violated the RHIT honor code is required.

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E-mail etiquette

Professors and students have different schedules, especially sleep schedules! And so it is not reasonable to expect an instantaneous reply to an e-mail sent at 2:30 a.m. It is reasonable, however, for all of us to expect each other to check our e-mail regularly. Let us therefore adopt this policy in regards to e-mail communication:

1. We all agree to check our e-mail at least once per business day.
2. When a response to an e-mail is warranted, allow a one business day turn around time for the reply.
3. Please remember that e-mail is a professional form of communication. It is not the same as texting, and you therefore should generally refrain from that type of informality.

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Classroom etiquette

We will do a lot of active learning in class. And so, please come each day with

• a writing instrument,
• paper, and
• a calculation device

Some days you may also want to bring your text and/or computer to class. I will do my best to alert you in advance when these will be helpful to bring.

I hate to sound like a cranky old curmudgeon, but...

• Do not use your computer in class unless we are doing a computer-based active learning exercise. I.e., no e-mail, Facebook, etc. (Why? Because our brains aren't really capable of multitasking.)
• Same goes for smart phones. (How come? It's the multitasking thing again.)
• Do not work on other class assignments in class. (You guessed it! Multitasking. [sic.])
• Do participate, ask questions and help your neighbors. We're all in this together!

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Disclaimer:

The instructor reserves the right to modify course content, schedule, policies, etc. as outlined in this contract.

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Free points:

Click here if you want free points on your quiz!