SUSTAINABLE  ENERGY  RESEARCH  LABORATORY

 

MEEN 315 Principles of Thermodynamics Course Syllabus

 

Howdy! Welcome to MEEN 315 Principles of Thermodynamics class. This syllabus is provided to you in addition to the ABET syllabus to give you more detailed information that you may find very useful. As you read this syllabus, you will see the grading policy, office hours, class website, your responsibilities to be successful in the class, and our class schedule on a calendar base. If there is anything unclear to you, please do not hesitate to ask.

 

Instructor                  :     Dr. Nesrin Ozalp

                                              Office: 241B

                                              Email: nesrin.ozalp@qatar.tamu.edu

                                              Office hours: Monday 14:00-15:00; Tuesday 14:00-15:00, or by appointment.                            

Course Description: Theory and application of energy methods in engineering; conservation of mass and energy; energy transfer by heat, work and mass; thermodynamic properties; analysis of open and closed systems; second law of thermodynamics and entropy; gas, vapor and refrigeration cycles. Three credits (2-2).

Lecture times         : Sunday 11:00-11:50; Tuesday 11:00-11: 50; Recitation on Thursday 11:00-12:50.

Textbook                 : Thermodynamics, An Engineering Approach, Yunus A. Cengel and Michael A. Boles, 6^th Edition,   McGraw-Hill.

Class folder               : Share drive (Z) under MEEN 315.   

Grading policy          : 10% Homework, 10% Quizzes, Midterms at 20% each, Final Exam at 40%.

The grading will be relative, e.g. curved, but, in general, the minimum scale will be based on A = 90-100%, B = 80-89%, C = 70-79%, etc. Pluses and minuses will be given at the discretion of the instructor.

Reading Assignments:

We will be using 6^th Edition of Cengel’s book, “Thermodynamics, An Engineering Approach”. All of your reading assignments will be from this book and the handouts distributed in the class. You can see in the attached calendar that there are reading assignments stated on the last column of the table. It is very important that you read those materials as they will help you to understand the subject better. Therefore I encourage you to read the enclosed stated chapters before coming to class. If you miss your reading before the class, please try to do so on the same day of the class.

Homework assignments:

There will be a homework assignment every week starting from the first week. Your homework grades will account 10% of your total grade. Each homework set will include either 2 or 3 quantitative problems. Please note that your lowest homework score will be dropped. Homeworks will be due at the beginning of the class on the due day printed on your homework. Homeworks submitted after the class will not be accepted.   

Quizzes:

There will be a 10 minute quiz once a week at the beginning of the class. You can refer to the attached syllabus for quiz days. The quizzes will account 10% of your total grade. Each quiz will include 4 non-quantitative questions. It means that you will not do any calculations but will answer comment questions just similar to the comment questions at the problems section of your Thermo text book. Quizzes will be closed books and closed notes. Please note that your lowest quiz score will be dropped. 

Midterm exams:

There will be 2 midterm exams as noted in the attached calendar. Each midterm exam will account 20% of your total grade in this class. Your midterm exams will have two parts: Part I will include comment questions in a similar fashion to your quiz questions, whereas Part II will cover quantitative problems similar to your homework questions. Therefore, you will find your Midterm exams to be a combination of your quizzes and homework sets. By the time you take your Midterm Exams, you will have sufficient practice on the subject matter. Therefore, you will be able to answer your homework or quiz kind of questions in a shorter time because of the practice that you will have gained through studying your homework, quizzes and recitations.

Final exam:

Your final exam will cover all of the topics that you will learn during the course of this Thermodynamics class. The exam format will be same as your Midterm Exams, e.g. Part I on comment questions, Part II on quantitative problem solving. Your score on the final exam will account 40% of your total grade. The final exam will be given during the scheduled Final Exam week at the end of the semester.

Academic honesty:

Ethical behavior and academic honesty are expected and required of students and even more so of engineers and scientists. Evidence of cheating during an exam or quiz may result in failure of the entire course for the student(s) in question. The same goes for homework that is not your own work.

 

Having spoken of the exams and the assignments, I would like to remind you the Aggie Honor Code:

 

"An Aggie does not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those who do."

 

Upon accepting admission to Texas A&M University, a student immediately assumes a commitment to uphold the Honor Code, to accept responsibility for learning and to follow the philosophy and rules of the Honor System. Students will be required to state their commitment on examinations, research papers, and other academic work.  Ignorance of the rules does not exclude any member of the Texas A&M University community from the requirements or the processes of the Honor System. For additional information please visit: www.tamu.edu/aggiehonor/.

 

 

Therefore, on all course work, assignments, and examinations at Texas A&M University, the following Honor Pledge shall be preprinted and signed by the student:

 

 

"On my honor, as an Aggie, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this academic work."

 

 

 

 

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Policy Statement:

 

If you have any disabilities that preventing you from attending classes etc. please let me know. Please note the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act Policy Statement:

 

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you believe you have a disability requiring an accommodation, please contact Disability Services (disabiliy.tamu.edu) in Room B118 of Cain Hall or call 845-1637.

 

Course Outcomes

 

By the end of the semester, you will be able to do the following:

1. Determination of thermodynamics properties of real substances, such as steam and refrigerant 134a, and ideal gases from either tabular data or equations of state.

2. Analysis of processes involving ideal gases and real substances as working fluids in both closed systems and open systems or control volumes to determine process diagrams.

3. Application of the first law of thermodynamics to perform energy balances, and determine heat and work transfers to/from a system.

4. Analysis of systems and control volumes through the application of the second law to determine efficiency of heat engines and compare with Carnot heat engine efficiency.

5. Determination of the coefficient of performance of refrigerators and heat pumps.

6. Determination of entropy changes for both ideal gases and real substances, and determination of the properties of a working fluid at the end of an isentropic process.

7. Application of both the first and second laws to determine heat transfer, work, and property changes during processes occurring in both closed and open systems.

8. Understanding and calculation of exergy, the measure of work potential.

9. Analysis of basic Otto, Diesel, Rankine and Bryton cycles.

 

 

MEEN 315 PRINCIPLES OF THERMODYNAMICS COURSE SYLLABUS

 

All reading assignments are from “Thermodynamics, An Engineering Approach”, 6^th edition, Cengel & Boles

 

 

                

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Teaching