Integration of Optical Diagnostic Techniques into the Teaching of the Thermal and Fluid Sciences Laboratory Course
This program is partially supported by the the National Science Foundation's Division of Undergraduate Education through grant DUE# 9750785
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FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
- Affiliation
- Florida A& M University
- A historically black university
- 97-98 College of the Year by Time Magazine Princeton Review
- Florida State University
- Research I University by Carnegie Foundation
- Five Departments: Chemical, Civil, Electrical, Industrial and Mechanical Engineering
- Established 1982, current enrollment 2000+
- Minority Enrollment: 60+%
Mechanical Engineering Department
- Enrollment:
- Undergraduate: 350+, minority 63%
- Graduate: 70+, over half are Ph.D. students
- Faculty: 19 full time and 1 adjunct faculty members
- Major Fields:
- Thermal and Fluid Sciences
- Mechanics and Materials
- Dynamics and Control
- Current education innovations:
- Curriculum Integration
- Developing distance learning, on-line degree program
Project Objectives
- Mechanical Engineering Curriculum Integration
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- Emphasis on the inherent connection of engineering disciplines
- Project-oriented, “Just in Time” teaching and learning
- Enhancing Thermal-Fluid Sciences laboratory
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- “Seeing is Believing”, visualization-based laboratory establishment
- Student-centered “Learning by Teaching” concept
- Prepare students for their senior design project development
Integrated Curriculum for Thermal and Fluid Sciences
Thermo Fluids I & II
- Integrate the traditional undergraduate thermal and fluid courses (Thermodynamics, Applied Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer) into one two-semester course sequence (Thermo Fluids I & II).
- Treated as one two-semester class.
- Thermal & Fluid lab. is co-requisite for the second class
- Weekly schedule: Three one-hour lectures plus one three-hour workshop.
- Workshop is reserved for project work, hands-on demonstration, and in-depth discussion of difficult-to-comprehended subjects
- Project oriented and “just-in-time” teaching
Other Improvements
- Web-based teaching to complement the regular lecture
- Provide a dynamic road map for smooth transitions between different subjects
- Strengthen technical electives
- Students are required to take 4 instead of 2 technical electives as compared to the old curriculum
- In-depth coverage of advanced thermal fluids topics such as propulsion, thermal-fluid design, Cryogenics, etc.
- Improvements on senior design project
- Increased to 2 semesters
- Emphasis on total design concept
Thermal-Fluid Sciences Laboratory
- Provide hands-on Laboratory experience.
- 3 hour laboratory work each week
- Small group format (3 or 4 in a group)
- Introduce instrumentation and experimental techniques and reinforce fundamentals of thermal and fluid principles
- one-hour lecture twice per week
- Improve oral and written communication skills
- Full-length and short-form reports
- In-class presentation (twice for each group)
- Prepare students for their senior design projects and provide demonstration courseware support for the thermal-fluid course sequence.
Visualization-Based Techniques
- “Seeing is Believing” - Idea for the teaching of thermal and fluid sciences since thermal and fluid media are usually invisible. Better physical understanding can be achieved if the fluid flow can be “visualized”.
- Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV)
- Digital video and imaging processing technology
- Quantitative information can be obtained. More than a demonstration tool.
- Laser Speckle Displacement (LSD) Technique
Principle and Setup of PIV system
Advantages of the System
- Instantaneous whole-field velocity data
- In-class demonstration: excellent visualization tool
- Full scale laboratory. More efficient lab. Practice; no more time-consuming point-by-point measurements.
- Both qualitative and quantitative
- Visual appeal for attention gathering
- Capability to provide accurate data for in-depth analysis.
- Digital video/image processing system is versatile
- Can be used in other classes. Ex. dynamics and vibration
- Introduction of advanced technology to undergraduate students
Disadvantages
- Difficult to develop and master
- Required knowledge of laser, optics, digital image processing
- Solution: Turn-key systems are available and are relatively easy to use.
- Expensive
- Price is coming down as the digital technology is maturing. It is becoming affordable ($10,000+ in addition to the illumination source)
- High power laser system is required
- Laser goggles and special safety rules are required
- Not always necessary and can be replaced with lower power lasers or a flash lamp system
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- Turbulent wake of the flow past a circular cylinder
- Generic flow configuration for studying boundary layer separation, wake flow, and vortex shedding.
- Cross disciplinary subject: vortex induced vibrations.
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- Droplet injection process of an inkjet printer
- Commonly used commercial product.
- Aerodynamic drag, projectile motion, boiling heat transfer.
- Supersonic jet flow
- Compressible flow, shock formation, aerodynamic noises.
Laboratory Procedures
- Publish web-based laboratory manual on the Internet
- All students are required to browse through the lab. page before each experiment. Scheduled pre-lab quizzes.
- Digitized on-line experimental sequence creates a virtual laboratory experience.
- Real laboratory experience
- Instructor/TA play supervising role only.
- Sample data calculation and all relevant discussion available on the web.
- Students can review all information at their own pace
- On-line chat room for post-lab. discussion
- Frequently-Asked-Question (FAQ) section gathering information for all difficult comprehended concepts.
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- Each student group will be responsible to prepare one experiment for the class
- Operation and documentation
- Presentation to the whole class during lecture section
- Serve as instructor assistants during laboratory section (supervised by instructor or TA)
- Contribute to the modification of the laboratory, especially to the FAQ section.
- Student-centered learning process
- Teaching group obtain deeper understanding
- Other students pay more attention to the teaching
- Lab. will be improved and become more student-friendly over years
Evaluation and Dissemination
- Full implementation of the program will be completed by spring 2000
- PIV and LSD systems are fully functional
- A new computer-interfaced towing tank facility is built
- Learning by teaching will begin fall 1999
- Student evaluation
- Received positive feedback from students
- Current dissemination efforts
- 1999 ASEE Annual Conference: sessions 1526 & 2526
- SUCCEED CDROM Dissemination Project
- www.eng.fsu.edu/~shih/eml4304/cylinder/cylinder.htm and www.eng.fsu.edu/~shih/succeed/flow-vis.htm
Future Plan
- Expand the visualization program to other classes
- preliminary tests have been applied to the dynamics systems I & II courses.
- Internal/external workshops
- Via SUCCEED faculty development program
- Whole-field temperature and pressure measurements
- NSF or other funding resources
- Full web-based virtual pre-lab. preparation and post-lab. processing capability
- Asynchronous learning/Distance learning program
Summary
- Visualization-based techniques enhance the teaching of the thermal and fluid science laboratory course.
- They provide both quantitative and qualitative information: ideal as demonstration courseware and full scale hands-on laboratory.
- Introduce advanced technology, such as the digital image processing, to undergraduate students, stimulating their interests in participation.
- Web-assisted laboratory delivery is helpful to the overall learning experience.