The proposed Instructional Co-generation Laboratory would expand our experimental instruction in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, electrical generation, data acquisition, and system design. The requested system includes a gas turbine/generator, a waste heat boiler, a condenser, an absorption cooler, and a computer data acquisition and control system with continuous stack gas monitoring. The system will be used to perform a series of experiments in our Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Technology programs. In addition to the usual general performance evaluations, the experiments would include convection and two-phase heat transfer, psychometrics and stack gas monitoring. Both of our programs include senior project sequences which give the students experience in engineering design. Much of the engineering design for the proposed laboratory would be done--with faculty supervision--as projects in these courses. The completed system would serve about 100 students per year by providing experimental operation and detailed performance analysis of a modern co-generation and cooling system.
