Project 1 Recap

Project Summary (i.e. Extended Abstract)Start your report with an "executive summary" which is for someone who wants a quick but complete overview of the project.

• Include a brief description of the problem, the objectives of the design, the final design and the design methodology.

• Be quantitative -- Use numbers but do not refer to any figures or tables...this should be a self contained section. (i.e., you should be able to rip this section off of the report and send it to someone and it should still make sense. From reading just this section the reader should have a good idea of the key points of the “design solution”)

• The length of this section should be 1-1.5 pages of 1.5 spaced text• Often this is the only part of the report read by the decision

makers ... so it must be Complete, Concise, and Well Written.

Design Description:

• Include a detailed description of your final design• Include (for example) schematics, phase diagrams, tables

of key parameters, fluid properties, discussion of advantages, economic factors etc.• Don't describe the design process (i..e. don’t tell me

how you decided on this design – just explain the design.• Don’t include equations in this section.• The length of this section should be 4-6 pages of 1.5

spaced text

Analysis

•This section should explain the methods and procedures used to arrive at the design (i.e. the process). •State all assumptions, and idealizations. Note their effects on the applicability of the analysis / design. (e.g., did you consider transients?)•Where possible use mathematical models based on thermodynamic, fluid mechanical, or heat transfer etc. principles showing the essence of the physical situation. Show and explain all the equations used in the analysis including their accuracy and their applicability within their range of use, particularly if empirical correlations are used for some elements of your design. •Compare alternative design results, justify your design decisions. •Include relevant figures and tables•The length of this section should be 5-10 pages of 1.5 spaced text

Your comments….

The Project was Challenging   

• The hardest part of the project was figuring out were to start. Working with a group to solve an engineering was new and was difficult at first.

• The project seemed very difficult at first with so many unknowns, but after a few days with it, it did not seem impossible by any means. It became very straight forward once we found limitations and narrowed down possible solutions.

• Given the length of time its been since I have worked on a refrigeration cycle, so at first the project was extremely difficult. As the two weeks went on, I became more comfortable working with cycles, and felt a lot better about them.

• Solving the thermodynamic of it was challenging, a lot of it was trying to remember the material and apply it for the first time on a project.

• The actual problem at hand was not that difficult; however it was hard to write the design report, compile the project notebook, and prepare for the presentation all at the same time.

• This project was challenging for me because I was not sure what was expected of me as team leader. I guess when you are put in this situation the best thing is to create your own expectations and set a good standard. It took a long time for us to get a solution, but we learned a lot about the cycle on the way.

The prerequisite courses (thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics) adequately prepared me to carry out this design. Please comment

•The perquisites for this class were very helpful without them the team and I would have not shot. •There was nothing in this project that I hadn't seen before. Other than the term 'process gas' it was all familiar material, and even so the concept of the process gas was nothing new. It was just the term that threw me off at first. •They have prepared me for this project, although it was very difficult to remember all of the information I had learned in the past.•We learned what a vapor-compression cycle was in thermodynamics and we got to apply it in this project. Design an actual system that works •I took thermo my Sophomore year, and I had trouble remembering some concepts, but once I reviewed the textbook, the concepts came back to me fairly quickly. I feel like we should do more design work like this in thermo II to better prepare us for this class. Every assignment in thermo I + II was centered on theoretical textbook problems, and I feel like a design project at the end would be helpful and fun at the same time. •We covered this cycle heavily in Thermo II with Professor Wicks. I felt prepared in terms of the cycle.

The initial homework assignment helped me get started on the project.

The homework assignment was very helpful and prepared me very well heading into the group project. Its was a good review and warm up. (I wish we would just cover it in class instead of it being a take home quiz.)Although I was confused about the process gas in the homework problem, solving a refrigeration system ahead of time was good review for the project.It did not really help too much. I feel that even had I not done the homework, I would have been able to know where to look up the information in the book and start from there. I think that since the material seem new (since I have not seen it in a long time) that the homework (with no review in class) was just very difficult and time consuming.The take-home quiz was key. We all looked at it before trying to solve the given problem and come up with a refrigerant that worked. Helped us, solve the cycleThe HW assignment directly pertained to this project. It really forced me to review cycles before the project, which saved some time when we met as a group, because we were all fairly familiar with how to solve the problem.The initial homework assignment was clutch in getting my mind prepared for the project. If we hadn't had the assignment I would have shown up for our first meeting much less prepared than I already was. The assignment helped hit home all the basics involved with the refrigeration cycle.

 The lectures on teamwork and engineering economics helped me carry out this project 

•The quiz was helpful to learn the econ stuff. I've been on multiple teams practically year round for my whole life so the information regarding team work was not new to me but the engineering specifics was new and was also helpful•The econ lectures made calculations quite easy for this project. The lectures on teamwork were also helpful but the actual experience of working with the group seemed even more valuable.•The lectures on economics slightly helped, but I think that the group teaming lectures could have been better time spent doing something else.•For this project, the lectures on teamwork was mostly for team leader and how to be an effective one. The engineering economics, really helped because the final decision came down to LOWEST cost and we had to look at Present worth and annual cost and decide on a final system design for this project •Honestly, I really do not like the lectures on engineering economics. They are dry and boring, plus it is very difficult for me to visualize economics (that is why I'm an engineer). I think you should lecture more on thermal/fluids, instead, because most of the economics stuff we could read/learn on our own. The economics stuff is fairly straight forward plug-and-chug type problems. I did enjoy the teamwork lecture, especially the team exercise at the end.•I can see how both of these will be important for my future as an economist and as a team leader and the lecture helped me with some things in the second half of the project.

 I enjoyed working on this project. Please comment on why or why not.

•Was not very interesting, required way more work than was necessary.•Our team got along well, making meetings enjoyable. The task was not unachievable which eliminated the potential for stress.•I think that the project was fun to work on. It was cool being able to do it from start to finish, and get the satisfaction of seeing the finished product.•I enjoyed it because I got an idea of how or why vapor-compression refrigeration cycles work and are designed the way they are. Besides just solving them in class (thermodynamics), this project gave me an idea on how to design one and what factors go into certain decisions, in terms of pressure, mass flow rate and component sizes. •I enjoy working on group projects, however I feel like it was too much work. I felt that it was unnecessary to do the design report, project notebook, and presentation all for one project. I think it would be better if we only had to do one of the three, that way we could focus more on the actual design aspects of the project. If this were the only class I was taking then the workload would be appropriate, but that is not the case. •I enjoyed working on this project because we saved very little for the last minute in any case. My team met 4-5 times a week for 1.5-3 hours and split up the work well. We planned in advance to get our work completed like the design report and practice oral presentations. We were done the night before the presentations by 10:30/11:00 PM. I learned a lot about being a team leader-something I hadn't really been involved with much before.

I learned a lot on this project. Please comment on why or why not.

•Both quizzes were sufficient enough to learn the material that was coved in the project. I did feel as though I learned how to attack a optimization problem with a reasonable amount of variables•After doing this project I have a better idea of things to fix for the next time. Intense group projects like this teach you a lot about yourself very quickly.•This project did teach me a lot about refrigeration cycles. Most of it I have already know and just forgotten, but it was really good for requiring us to recall the forgotten knowledge. Along with this, the project gave us good team experience, and without even trying, a couple days into the project, we all fell into our respective roles very well. Which helped the team dynamic develop positively.•I learned about how to apply concepts from the classroom in the real world. I learned about how to make "money-smart" decisions on this project. The best value for the lowest price. •I learned a lot more about cycles just by doing this project, then in thermo I and II. By actually designing a system, it forces everyone to fully understand the concepts, as opposed to doing tons of textbook problems.•I learned a lot about designing fluid systems in this project. I have designed a lot of mechanical systems before, but never a fluid system. I learned that there are a million things you can optimize and they all make a huge difference and affect something else. The big thing I learned was how to deal with a team and that working with a timeline makes a huge difference in the end.

The "team" roles were appropriate (i.e economist, analyst). Please comment on why or why not.

•Yes, the project was kind of built around those rolls•Team roles were appropriate but for this project the economist did not have particularly difficult calculations so I spent time analyzing the system as well.•I think that the team roles were appropriate in the project. There was not really much else that could have been different. Perhaps instead of having an economist and analyst, there could have been two analyst/economist. I would have to say that most people in the project did a little of everything because we were in a small group. For this project, there were no conflicts at all. We worked well as a group and that leads me to believe that the roles were appropriate. No one complained about anything•With a group of three, we pretty much worked together on all of the analysis, but the economist had to work on the economics part too. So in the end, the economist probably had the most work and hardest job. If the economist solely worked on his part, then I think the workload would have been split up more evenly.•The team roles were appropriate for team leader and economist as these two had specific tasks. The job as analyst was split evenly between the three members. We each spent the majority of our time working on the cycle itself. Perhaps this will change when the group gets larger.

How much time (in hours) did you spend on this project (TOTAL FOR PROJECT NOT PER WEEK)?

•~40•Roughly 30 hours spent on solo work and meetings combined.•From Monday 4/1 to Friday 4/6 our group spent anywhere from 2-5 hours on the project per day. I only mention these particular dates because that was the bulk of the project. The total time spent on the project would probably be in the range of 20-30 hours.•We met as a group a total of 12 times, some short, some long, we worked individually as well. A total of about 35-40 hours were spent on this project. •I spent around 23 HOURS TOTAL, which is way too much time considering we are taking other classes, and we have other things going on in our lives. I strongly believe this was way too much work, especially if you want everything to be of professional quality. I am a firm believer in quality over quantity. We should either have an extra week to work on these projects or we should only have to do a report as opposed to a presentation or vice versa.•25-30 I think. We met 8-10 times total for a total of 1.5-3 hours each time. We did some work, especially writing , outside of the meetings.

What improvements would you suggest for this project?

•Doing either a project or a presentation(we have other classes) I understand that your trying to prepare us for our career but lets not do it all in one day. Also reducing the length of the peer evaluation form•I think that for the first project, the level of difficulty was appropriate. It took a few days and a number of hours to work it out but it was definitely solvable. At first I was a bit unclear about how to split up the work for the project. I didn’t know whether to stick strictly to my role as the economist or to also help with the analysis of the refrigeration cycle.•I think that for the first project having a larger group might have beneficial because we are all getting adjusted to the type of course, as well as trying to remember all of the information. With more people we could have a larger collective of information that people remembered, perhaps yielding a better project result.•Maybe not include refrigerant has to be environmentally friendly and see which group actually takes that into account when coming up with a final system design?•LESS WORK or MORE TIME. Either way we felt rushed and that affected our analysis in the end.•I have no improvements to suggest. I think that I learned a lot from this project the way it is. Thanks.

This course has been the bane of my existence. It has kept me awake at night, given me nightmares, had me up at ungodly hours, cursing at myself and anything that moved, and the grade I get from it will undoubtedly be unimpressive to anyone not familiar with the course. However, despite all of this, it is quite possibly the best course I have taken at Union College. It has prepared me for working in the real work and with other engineers & management in a way I could not expect. My ability to give presentations, although perhaps not notably, has increased specifically due to this course. All in all, in spite of its notoriety and how well it’s lived up to that notoriety, what I have gained from this course is both immense and unquantifiable.

---An Mer439 Survivor