Assignments were given weekly and it was expected to be completed in order to fully understand the material being taught in the class. Each unit covered a specific topic in Thermodynamic Applications and was taught through the assignments. However, assignments were completed in groups of two in order to encourage group work to better understand the material. In the engineering industry, rarely will one have to work alone to solve a particular problem. These assignments served as a way to teach the class how to work together to solve real-world problems. As a group, my partner and I were assigned other groups assignments each week to look over and grade for effort. This allowed us to see different methods of problem-solving that we might not have been previously exposed to. Each section was composed of approximately five assignments, each ranging from 2-6 problems a week, and was followed by one test each.
Homework Section 1:
The first unit of homework mainly involved the cycles of gas powered systems. In each system, air was assumed as the primary fluid for combustion and ideal isentropic processes were applied unless otherwise stated in the problem. These cycles included: Otto, Diesel, Brayton, and Jet.
French-Fishback_Hw 1.2Michael Boles & Yunus Cengel (2015). Thermodynamics, an Engineering Approach (8th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.
Homework Section 2:
The only cycle discussed for section 2 was the Rankine cycle. There were many modifications made to the cycle to make it unique. Such modifications included reheating and regeneration. Water was assumed as the primary fuel sources unless otherwise noted in a problem. Using this cycle meant that we had to also assume that the fluid could exist as a saturated liquid, super heated vapor, or a mixture of both. This information was used to find the states of a given cycle and solve the question.
French-Fishback_HW 2.1