I-Corps L: Hands-on Modules for Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer, A Market Transition

通过美国国家科学基金会创新团队学习计划(i-Corps L)，该项目将开发各种方法，以与教科书相当的价格扩大桌面流体力学和传热学实验的规模和影响。工程教育需要现实的实践学习体验，在整个课程中都有。然而，目前可用于课堂使用的设备主要限于机器人和电子设备，尽管许多其他工程学分支将从类似的创新中受益匪浅。目前，在化学、机械和土木工程领域，设备体积大、成本高，只能在大学最后两到三个学期的实验室环境中进行实践体验。该项目将通过提供每套成本约为100至200美元的微型热液系统来解决这一问题。有了这样的系统，就可以在标准教室的整个工程课程中进行现实的、动手的学习。除了对教学的改进外，在课程的早期阶段进行接触将有助于工程专业的招聘和留住。项目团队目前开发的设备包括文丘里流量计、管壳式换热器、双管式换热器和与精装教科书大小大致相同的水力损失装置。这些代表了机械、化学和土木工程中感兴趣的设备和工艺。在教室里，这种设备允许学生在一个紧凑的设备中将理论概念和相关性与物理现实联系起来，他们可以操纵、观察、获取数据，甚至可以带回家进行家庭作业练习。这些设备是常见的较大规模的工业或试点实验室设备的小型化，从而加强了学习。讲师将不必使用其他不太相关的动手例子，例如咖啡杯的冷却。学生可以进行实验并分析工业中使用的实际设备的微型表示数据。这个i-Corps for Learning项目将有助于促进这种设备的广泛使用，不仅是在传统项目中，而且在资源有限的项目中，以及在远程教育和大规模在线课堂应用中。

Through the NSF Innovation Corps for Learning Program (I-Corps L), this project will develop ways to increase the scale and impact of desk-top fluid mechanics and heat transfer experiments at a price comparable to that of a textbook. Engineering education requires realistic hands-on learning experiences, available throughout the curriculum. However, the equipment currently available for classroom use is limited primarily to robotics and electronics, though many other branches of engineering would benefit immensely from similar innovations. Currently, in the fields of chemical, mechanical and civil engineering the large size and high cost of equipment allows for hands-on experiences only in a laboratory setting scheduled for the final two to three semesters of college. This project will address this problem by making available miniaturized thermal fluids systems with a cost of approximately one to two hundred dollars per set. Having such systems available enables realistic, hands-on learning throughout an engineering curriculum in the standard classroom. Besides improvements to instruction, exposure at an earlier stage in the curriculum will enhance recruitment and retention within engineering majors.The currently available equipment developed by the project team includes venturi meters, shell and tube heat exchangers, double pipe heat exchangers, and a hydraulic loss apparatus all approximately the same size as a hardbound textbook. These represent equipment and processes of interest in mechanical, chemical and civil engineering. In the classroom, this equipment allows students to link theoretical concepts and correlations to physical reality in a compact device they can manipulate,observe, take data and even take home for homework exercises. Learning is enhanced by the equipment being miniaturizations of common larger scale industrial or pilot scale laboratory equipment. The instructor will not have to use examples from other not-so-relevant hands-on examples, such as cooling of a coffee cup. Students can conduct experiments and analyze data from miniature representations of actual equipment utilized in industry. This I-Corps for Learning project will help to promote broad usage of such equipment, not only in conventional programs, but also those with limited resources, and in distance education and massive on-line classroom applications.