Saint Martin’s University Mechanical Engineering Department

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Saint Martins UniversityMechanical Engineering
Department

• An Integrated Concept-to-Prototype Capstone
  Design Experience
• Amanie N. Abdelmessih, Ph.D.
• Professor Thermal Engineering Laboratories
  Director

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Saint Martins UniversityMechanical Engineering
Department

• Introduction
• 1 2 semester capstone design
• Individual team
• Real world scenarios
• Customer
• Concept to prototype (limited time, budget)
• Economics and business

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Saint Martins UniversityMechanical Engineering
Department

• ME 498 Senior Design I
• The first of a two-course sequence providing a
  culminating experience to seniors. Students will
  design a significant engineering project
  requiring engineering practice and development of
  alternatives and evaluation based on technical,
  financial and social considerations. Course will
  stress design methods, conceptualization,
  synthesis, creativity, open-ended design,
  economics, safety, team building, component and
  system development. In the first course, project
  normally will be conducted through preliminary
  design, with students working independently.
  Emphasis on written, graphic and oral
  communication, as well as technical content.
  Prerequisites are instrumentation, heat transfer,
  system analysis and design and machine design.
• ME 499 Senior Design II
• a continuation of ME 498. The project is taken
  through final design, construction and testing,
  with students working in design teams.
  Culmination of design experience and synthesis of
  all theoretical and practical knowledge into the
  production of an engineering artifact/system.

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Saint Martins UniversityMechanical Engineering
Department

• Objectives
• Major design experience (ABET a, c, k)
• Communication skills (ABET g)
• Teamwork (ABET d)
• Solve major real life engineering problems during
  prototyping and testing (ABET b, c, e)
• Independent in depth research (ABET i)
• Socio-economic and socio-political (ABET h, j)
• Ethical issues (ABET f)

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Saint Martins UniversityMechanical Engineering
Department

• Structure of the class
• Mondays
• Lectures, Seminars, workshops
• Wednesdays
• Design team Customer
• Fridays Team meeting

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Saint Martins UniversityMechanical Engineering
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• Leadership Positions
• Project Manager
• Treasurer
• Secretary
• Web master
• Created positions as necessary

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Saint Martins UniversityMechanical Engineering
Department

• Instrumented Air Conditioning Bench Experiment
• Design Specifications
• Refrigeration Cycle
• 1.  Demonstrate the operation of a real
  refrigeration cycle
• 2.  Monitor power requirements for the system
• 3.  Monitor heat input and output of the system
• Psychrometric
• 4. Demonstrate the effects of air velocity on
  the wet bulb temperature
• 5.  Demonstrate the effect of the addition and
  removal of heat above or below the dew point
• Economic 5000 1000
• Space restrictions 1.5 m x 0.9 m (5 x 3 ft)

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Saint Martins UniversityMechanical Engineering
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• Designed and Constructed Refrigeration /Air
  Conditioning Apparatus

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Saint Martins UniversityMechanical Engineering
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• 6 experiments
• Within budget
• Space limitations
• Safe
• Numerous courses

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Saint Martins UniversityMechanical Engineering
Department

• Table 1 Assessment of Capstone Project by
  Industrial Engineering Panel
• Saint Martin's College
• Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Report
• Absorption Cycle
• Spring 2003
• PANELIST NAME ____________________________________
  ___________________
• POSITION _________________________________________
  _____________________
• COMPANY __________________________________________
  ___________________
• CRITIQUE OF REPORT
• Title page Reasonable Missing
• Project was Well defined not
  clear
• Project development Thorough very
  poor
• Organization was Exceptional Poor
  
• Figures, tables Appropriate Needed
  
• Technical writing quality Very
  good Poor
• Conclusion Appropriate Lacking
• Appendices Appropriate Needed
• Math, science Engineering concepts
• Applied none

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Saint Martins UniversityMechanical Engineering
Department

• Table 2 Assessment of Oral Communications and
  Project by Industrial Engineering Panel
• Saint Martin's College
• Mechanical Engineering Senior Design
  Presentations
• Absorption Refrigeration Cycle
• Spring 2003
• PANELIST NAME ____________________________________
  ___________________
• POSITION _________________________________________
  _____________________
• COMPANY __________________________________________
  ___________________
• CRITIQUE OF PRESENTATION
• Presentation was Compelling Dragge
  d
• Project was Well defined not
  clear
• Organization was Exceptional Poor
• Use of Visual Aids Exceptional Need
  ed
• Conclusion Appropriate Lacking
• Presenters seemed Competent
  Incompetent
• GENERAL COMMENTS
• INDIVIDUAL COMMENTS

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Saint Martins UniversityMechanical Engineering
Department
Table 3 Student Assessment (Based on your
experience in ME 498 and ME 499, rate each of the
following on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being
the most)
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Saint Martins UniversityMechanical Engineering
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Questions
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Participation of the School of Business

• The faculties of Engineering and Business worked
  together
• Quasi-concurrent engineering group
• Students of marketing and finance join the
  engineering design team
• The marketing team
• Initial phase (when design concepts are
  discussed) Market evaluation surveys
• Assess demands
• Evaluate possible markets and marketability of
  each design

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Saint Martins UniversityMechanical Engineering
Department
Participation of the School of Business

• Assistance is provided by the School of Business
• During the second semester (the design is
  translated into a prototype)
• Finance/administration team.
• Keep track of the expenditure both in manpower
  and in resources
• Evaluates sources of supply
• Keep the project within budgetary limits and on
  schedule
• Produces a cost analysis document.

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Saint Martins UniversityMechanical Engineering
Department
Example of Marketing Team Activities

• Multi-terrain (land and water) one-person
  recreational vehicle
• Conducted surveys on the demand for recreational
  hovercrafts against amphibians
• Ascertained the maximum cost that the consumer
  was willing to pay for such a vehicle
• Suggested certain other markets such as search
  and rescue, and the military
• The suggestions of the business students lead to
  a modification in the design to incorporate a
  higher all-up weight and a better control system
• Produced a comprehensive marketing document.

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Desalination System Design Reverse osmosis
system (September 2001-May 2002)

• Understanding the impact of engineering solutions
  in a global and social context
• recognized that due to the growth of population,
  agriculture and industry, it is inevitable that
  more communities and countries are in shortage of
  drinkable water
• shortage of drinkable water becomes a major
  problem in the world. About 70 of the world is
  covered by water but only 2.5 available for
  human consumption

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Saint Martins UniversityMechanical Engineering
Department

• However, 70 of the available freshwater is
  either frozen in icecaps in the north and south
  poles or it lies in underground aquifers as
  groundwater, which cannot be reached easily for
  direct usage
• Students learned that the World Health
  Organization (WHO) has found that about 5 million
  people die each year due to unsafe water supplies
  and bad hygienic conditions.

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• Problem Solving
• Design and build a desalination system
• Observations
• Process of desalination occurs naturally on the
  earth
• The cycle of water vapor evaporating from the
  surface of the sea and then condensing to produce
  rainwater (distillation cycle)
• The freezing of seawater at the polar regions of
  earth
• Due to salt being rejected from the formation of
  ice crystals
• Brainstormed for current state-of-the-art systems
  or innovative concept process systems

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• The types of plants that students thought
  feasible to them include
• Reverse osmosis plants
• Vapor-compression distillation
• Multi-stage flash, multi-effect distillation
• Electro-dialysis plants.

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• The decision parameters were
• Initial cost
• Feasibility as a student project
• Universality
• Efficiency, energy consumption, and maintenance
• Ease of operation
• Size
• Environmental impact

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• considered if they can use regenerative energy
  sources
• Put emphasis on environmental impact and energy
  efficiencies
• After analyzing all options, weighing advantages
  and disadvantages, students selected a reverse
  osmosis system for their two-semester projects
  according to their decision matrix

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• Coordinated with the marketing team
• Find the market target
• Cost analysis
• Unique position of the product
• Teamed with chemistry and civil engineering
  (environmental stem)
• Define and measure the quality of drinking water
• Tested with a known (1000 ppm) metal solution
  sample
• Found no metal were detected after processes
• Collaborated with the college ministry and the
  music department of the Saint Martins college
• charity music concert named as Pure Water Concert
  to raise money to send the desalination system to
  an orphanage operated by Benedictine sisters in
  Tanzania, Africa.

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ABET Outcomes

• Demonstrated ABET Outcomes such as
• (h) understanding the impact of engineering
  solutions in a global and social context
• (c) design a system, component, or process to
  meet desired needs
• (i) understanding contemporary engineering issues
  
• (d) functioning on multi-disciplinary teams.

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Subsystem

• Low pressure pump that sends brackish water to
  sediment filter
• Ultraviolet pre-treatment
• High pressure pump increases pressure to the
  osmotic pressure
• The membrane where reverse osmosis occurs
• Various hoses and lines, pressure gages, valves,
  flow meters and switches

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Students Work

• Students calculated NPSH of the low and high
  pressure pumps
• Efficiencies
• Operating costs
• Osmotic pressure and membrane recovery rates and
  rejection rates
• Power and energy consumptions
• Students produced Autocad drawings

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• Specifications of the system
• Project management charts (Gant charts)
• Detailed maintenance manual
• Because of the budget constraint students only
  could afford a membrane that can process 0.2 GPM
  at an operating pressure of 600 psi.
• The total expenses for the project were 1464.41,
  a little over the intended budget of 1000.

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Conclusion

• Challenges for Conducting and assessing a
  Capstone Design course in a small college
  setting
• Limited amount of resources available, both in
  terms of finance and in expertise
• Providing students with a complete design
  experience, encompassing both stems of mechanical
  engineering
• students be exposed to the real world with
  customer-defined constraints, budgetary controls,
  time limitations and so on.
• Students must be made aware of the socio-economic
  and ethical aspects of the task on hand.

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• Advantages of the small college setting
• Closer ties can be forged with the School of
  Business
• Can share a common goal of allowing their
  students to work in a real-world environment
• A pseudo engineering company which is
  production-oriented (and a somewhat exacting
  customer!) is ideal for creating the scenario for
  a capstone course
• Department of English lends support in assessment
  of outcomes related to written and oral
  communications.
• It is reiterated that the capstone design course
  is a work in progress, and each year brings with
  it new challenges and rewards. This generates a
  continuum of improvement both in the conduct and
  assessment of the course.