Heat Exchanger Lab for Chemical Engineering Undergraduates
Resumen
Third year chemical engineering undergraduate students at The University of Akron designed and fabricated a heat exchanger for a stirred tank as part of a Chemical Engineering Laboratory course. The heat exchanger portion of this course was three weeks of the fifteen week long semester. Students applied concepts of scale-up and dimensional analysis to predict performance of a larger vessel. The students had hands-on experience in fabricating their heat exchangers and practical application of scale-up principles. The student teams presented the results of their scale-up design to a “customer” that included discussions of economics and marketing. The assessment of the student performance was based upon oral presentations and their understanding and application of heat exchange concepts. Student feedback on the lab was positive. The students preferred the freedom to design, fabricate and test their own designs.