Abstract:

The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) members agreed to adopt a common quality assurance system to maintain standards and improve the quality of higher education. Evaluating the acquisition of competencies and skills is a key factor in proving the quality of a degree. On the other hand, laboratory sessions play an important role in technical studies and are an interesting framework for developing specific competencies. In the present work, a lab session included in a thermal engineering course is described to show an example of how to promote the acquisition of competencies such as “knowledge of applied thermodynamics” and “ability to apply new technologies”. The lab consists of using a Matlab application developed in the heat engines area of the University of Jaén that implements thermodynamics relations so that properties of pure substances can be determined. Thus, the lab objectives are to support the learning of how to determine thermodynamic properties of pure substances, explain how the thermodynamics tables are obtained, and train the use of these tables. The laboratory session consists of three parts: firstly, a method for obtaining properties and the corresponding tables for water vapor is explained. Then, the student does the same for another substance using the Matlab application. Once the tables for water vapor are obtained, the student graphs the saturated liquid and saturated vapor lines using data from these tables. Since it is assumed that the mathematical theory related to the determination of the properties of non-ideal substances is one of the most complex contents of a thermodynamic course, the laboratory practice presented can significative support the acquisition of the competencies involved.

Keywords:

Laboratory session, thermodynamic properties, thermal engineering, Matlab, thermodynamic relations.