Hands-on approach to Fluid Dynamics by using industrial fluid-power trainers for Engineering Students

Nelson Granda Marulanda; Joseph Tang; Tom Spendlove

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Experimentation and Laboratory-Oriented Studies Division Technical Session 1: Experiential Learning in Fluids, Structures, and Course/Lab Design
Page Count: 15
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41660
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/41660
Download Count: 179

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Paper Authors

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Nelson Granda Marulanda Western Carolina University

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Nelson A. Granda Marulanda is an Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering + Technology at Western Carolina University. Nelson has a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, a Masters in Manufacturing Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico, and a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from The University of Tennessee Knoxville. Before becoming a professor, he worked for several years in the Eolic and Aerospace industry. Nelson’s research interest revolved around Sustainable Development through the triple bottom line and System Thinking approach. Nelson believes that education is the key to achieving a sustainable world.

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Joseph Tang Western Carolina University

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Joseph Tang is an assistant professor at the College of Engineering and Technology at Western Carolina University

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Tom Spendlove

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Tom Spendlove is a mechanical engineer working in the education field at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. He has ten years of experience as a manufacturing design engineer and twenty as an engineering educator. His areas of interest are additive manufacturing, sustainable development, STEAM projects, student competitions and interdisciplinary projects.

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Abstract

Engineering students and Engineering Technology students at Western Carolina University have many similarities at the beginning of their curriculum, but as the students progress in their degrees, the differences become more pronounced and relevant to their respective programs. An upper-level Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) student with a Mechanical Concentration takes the Fluid Dynamics course focused on a theoretical approach to fluids, while a Bachelor of Science Engineering Technology (BS-ET) upper-level student takes a Fluid Power Systems course with a focus on a more practical or applied approach to fluids. These differences in emphasis in the Fluids courses are also true in general between the BSE and BS-ET programs. This paper shows the implementation and assessment of a hands-on laboratory experience activity using the ET fluid power trainers for the BSE Fluid Dynamic course students. For the laboratory activity, the Industrial Fluid Power Trainers MF102 Series from the Fluid Power Training Institute were used to allow the students to directly work with the concepts of Pressure Drops, the relationships between Pressure-Force-Area, and the importance of the Bernoulli and Continuity equation. These concepts were presented to the students using a pressure in a series circuit, a regenerative circuit, and a weighted cylinder circuit. During the activity, the students were first introduced to the Trainers and showed how to build a simple circuit and then were guided to build the remainder of the circuits themselves. The laboratory activity was performed after the theoretical concepts were previously discussed in the Fluid Dynamic course in order to assess if the hands-on activity helped the students to visualize and better understand these concepts. The assessment method used to evaluate this experience was a retrospective survey where participants were provided a single survey after the end of the laboratory. The survey was a seven-question instrument with six 5-point Likert scale questions and one open-ended qualitative question. For each of the Likert questions, the participants were asked to reflect on each question and provide their answers describing their experience before and after the laboratory activity. The retrospective survey method was adopted to observe the effect of a short-term activity like the laboratory exercise and help mitigate the survey burden of having to answer two surveys in a short period. The instrument and survey data are presented in this paper. A paired difference statistical test is performed on the quantitative survey responses, and a histogram-generated word cloud of the qualitative responses is shown. The results show a very significant and positive learning experience for the BSE students, suggesting that the Fluid Power laboratory activity can teach, or effectively reinforce, fluids concepts that the students would not have otherwise learned, or learned as well, in the standard Fluid Dynamic course.

Citation
Format

Granda Marulanda, N., & Tang, J., & Spendlove, T. (2022, August), Hands-on approach to Fluid Dynamics by using industrial fluid-power trainers for Engineering Students Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41660

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Engineering students and Engineering Technology students at Western Carolina University have many similarities at the beginning of their curriculum, but as the students progress in their degrees, the differences become more pronounced and relevant to their respective programs. An upper-level Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) student with a Mechanical Concentration takes the Fluid Dynamics course focused on a theoretical approach to fluids, while a Bachelor of Science Engineering Technology (BS-ET) upper-level student takes a Fluid Power Systems course with a focus on a more practical or applied approach to fluids.   These differences in emphasis in the Fluids courses are also true in general between the BSE and BS-ET programs. This paper shows the implementation and assessment of a hands-on laboratory experience activity using the ET fluid power trainers for the BSE Fluid Dynamic course students. For the laboratory activity, the Industrial Fluid Power Trainers MF102 Series from the Fluid Power Training Institute were used to allow the students to directly work with the concepts of Pressure Drops, the relationships between Pressure-Force-Area, and the importance of the Bernoulli and Continuity equation. These concepts were presented to the students using a pressure in a series circuit, a regenerative circuit, and a weighted cylinder circuit. During the activity, the students were first introduced to the Trainers and showed how to build a simple circuit and then were guided to build the remainder of the circuits themselves. The laboratory activity was performed after the theoretical concepts were previously discussed in the Fluid Dynamic course in order to assess if the hands-on activity helped the students to visualize and better understand these concepts. The assessment method used to evaluate this experience was a retrospective survey where participants were provided a single survey after the end of the laboratory. The survey was a seven-question instrument with six 5-point Likert scale questions and one open-ended qualitative question. For each of the Likert questions, the participants were asked to reflect on each question and provide their answers describing their experience before and after the laboratory activity. The retrospective survey method was adopted to observe the effect of a short-term activity like the laboratory exercise and help mitigate the survey burden of having to answer two surveys in a short period. The instrument and survey data are presented in this paper. A paired difference statistical test is performed on the quantitative survey responses, and a histogram-generated word cloud of the qualitative responses is shown. The results show a very significant and positive learning experience for the BSE students, suggesting that the Fluid Power laboratory activity can teach, or effectively reinforce, fluids concepts that the students would not have otherwise learned, or learned as well, in the standard Fluid Dynamic course.


AU  - Nelson Granda Marulanda
AU  - Joseph Tang
AU  - Tom Spendlove
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Hands-on approach to Fluid Dynamics by using industrial fluid-power trainers for Engineering Students
UR  - https://strategy.asee.org/41660
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--41660
ER  -