The project will be a group project, which means you have to work as a team with your group partners. You can select your own partners or stay with the assigned group. A nominal group size will be three, but definitely no more than 4 persons in a group. First, all group members have to agree upon the subject that you want to work together. The decision should be made within the next two weeks and a one-page written proposal (using Microsoft WORD) briefly outlining the chosen project will be due September 20. The proposed project has to be relevant to subjects that will be covered in EML 3015C. You are free to select your own project if the instructor approves it. The proposed project will be accomplished in two phases: the first phase in this semester while the second phase will be continued and finished in the following semester. The first phase work will be a "design-on-paper" project, which means that you do not have to physically build the project. However, the project has to be a "complete" thermal system accompanied with comprehensive design, analysis and performance calculation. Several sample projects are proposed for your reference. The second phase of the project requires the actual building of a thermal device based on the design of your phase one project. For examples, you can choose to build the pump and piping system in the solar heating swimming pool project; or you can design, test and build the solar irradiation simulation lamp system for the solar panel testing facility project. Hopefully, by having different groups working on different modules, we can build several functional thermal systems. I will coordinate the integration of the modular units into a complete system.

For the second phase project, there will be a maximum budget limit of $50 (plus minus) per group.   If you need to spend more than the maximum limit, you will need to get prior approval from the instructor. A detailed design plan, including equipment and budget list, for the second phase project will be due at the end of the semester along with the final report of the phase one project. It is my intention that we will start to build the project immediately after the beginning of the second semester. Usually it takes more than a month or two to process, purchase and receive the necessary equipment, therefore, it is advisable to start the process as soon as possible, preferably during this semester.

At the end of this semester, November 29 and December 6, a 12-minute final presentation will be scheduled for each group to present your group project to the whole class. The presentation will account for 3% of the course grade. Each group is required to submit "ONE" final report, which accounts for 7% of the final grade. Final report will be due December 6, immediately after the final presentation. The projects will be graded based on their originality, feasibility, objective definition and technical understanding/presentation of the problem.

Each group will be require to give a 12 minute presentation about their design project. It will be a group presentation. You can decide whether the presentation will be given by representatives or by the whole team. However, all partners from the group will share the same grade. It is everyone’s responsibility to make sure that your team members can work together. It is important to distribute equally the workload among all members.

Sample Projects:

Phase 1:

Design of a solar heating system to heat a swimming pool or provide hot water supply

• Solar panel selection/solar influx calculation
• Heat exchanger and piping system
• Links: Swimming pool heater, Solar water heater

Re-design of A/C system for the new engineering building

• Heat and cooling load calculation
• A/C size determination
• Links: HVAC-1, HVAC-2, Building Engineering, softwares

Design an indoor testing facility for solar collector panels

• Lamp system to simulate solar irradiation
• Pump and piping system to generate recirculating water flow through solar panel
• Instrumentation to measure temperature, solar irradiation, flow rate, pressure in order to determine the performance of the solar panel
• Links: want to search manufacturers, go to Thomas Register

Phase 2:

• Solar energy driven Stirling engine

• Thermo-electrical cooling portable cooler

• Design and build system module from phase one project

• Build thermal/fluid experiment/demonstration unit

• Build wind turbine model