University of Puerto Rico - Mayagüez

College of Engineering
Mechanical Engineering Department

Thermal Sciences Laboratory

INME4236

SYLLABUS

1 General Information:
Credit-Hours: 2 credits, 3 hours laboratory per week, 1 hour lecture per week
Instructor: Omar Orozco
Title:
Office:
Phone:
Office Hours: Will be scheduled through google schedule or online.upr.edu platform.

During office hours’ time the professor will be available through the google meet or Microsoft teams platform. The
professor will provide a link such that students can connect to interact online with the professor. Instructors will do the
same at their usual office hours’ time. Students are required to have their cameras turned on during online office hours

E-mail: omar.orozco@upr.edu
Course online platform: online.upr.edu
Teaching Assistants:
Section 010H – Lectures: Fri 9:30am-10:20am, Lab: Wed AM - Omar Orozco – - omar.orozco@upr.edu
Section 030H – Lectures: Fri 9:30am-10:20am, Lab: Mon PM - Harold Valle – harold.valle@upr.edu
Section 040H – Lectures: Fri 10:30am-11:20am, Lab: Wed PM - Jose Orozco – jose.orozco5@upr.edu
Section 050H – Lectures: Fri 11:30am-12:20pm, Lab: Fri PM - Emmanuel Ruscalleda – - emmanuel.ruscalleda@upr.edu
Section 051H – Lectures: Fri 11:30am-12:20pm, Lab: Mon AM - Jose Orozco – jose.orozco5@upr.edu
Section 076H – Lectures: Fri 10:30am-11:20am, Lab: Thu PM - Harold Valle – harold.valle@upr.edu
Section 077H – Lectures: Fri 9:30am-10:20am, Lab: Tue PM - Emmanuel Ruscalleda – emmanuel.ruscalleda@upr.edu

2 Course Description:
Experiments and projects in the Thermal Sciences discipline including the areas of Thermodynamics, Heat Transfer and
Fluid Mechanics. Transducers, sensors and data acquisition systems are used to measure temperature, flow rate,
pressure, voltage and electrical current in various systems and applications.

3 Pre/Co-requisites:
Prerequisite: INME 4235 (Instrumentation and Measurement Laboratory)

4 Textbook, Supplies and Other Resources:

Handouts provided by the instructor located in the course webpage:

Textbooks:
Incropera, F.P. and DeWitt, D.P., Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer, latest edition, New York, John Wiley and
Sons.
Moran, M. and Shapiro H., Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics, latest edition, New York, John Wiley and
Sons.
White F., Fluid Mechanics 7th Edition, 2011, McGraw Hill, New York, NY
Fox W, Robert, and Alan T Mcdonald. Introduction to Flud Mechanics. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2004.
Beckwith, T. G. and Marangoni, R, D., 1990, Mechanical Measurements, 4th Edition, New York, Addison Wesley.
Dally, J. W., Riley, W. F. and McConnell, K. G., 1984, Engineering Measurements, New York, John Wiley and Sons.
Holman, J.P., 1978, Experimental Methods for Engineers, 3rd Edition, New York, McGraw-Hill. NIST E-Handbook of
Statistical Methods: http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/
UPRM Library Electronic Resources: http://www.uprm.edu/library/cre/listdbsp.php

5 Purpose:
The purpose of this course is to provide practice and expose the mechanical engineering student to various heat transfer
analysis and thermodynamic systems. Students will be able to physically observe and learn the operation of various
equipment and analyze their thermal performance as well as apply the knowledge obtained in heat transfer,
thermodynamics, and fluid mechanics courses. At the end of the course students will acquire the basic tools to analyze,
synthesize, and design and test engineering thermal systems involved with multi-mode heat transfer processes.

6 Course Goals:
To experimentally demonstrate several concepts on heat transfer and thermodynamics.
To show physical configuration and operation of various equipment where heat transfer and thermodynamic processes
take place.
To relate prior knowledge from heat transfer, thermodynamics, and fluid mechanics courses to real processes.
To familiarize students with data acquisition systems and interpretation of experimental results.
To expose students to the application of thermal analysis to real systems.
To develop engineering skills through the design and evaluation of a system to meet desired needs.
To integrate prior knowledge from several ME courses through the development of one project.
To develop technical writing skills through the preparation of technical reports.
To develop communication skills through oral presentations related to experimental setups and results obtained in the
laboratory.

7 Requirements:
All students are expected to:
● Attend the course’s lectures on a continuous basis and on a timely fashion
● Read and study the material provided during lectures
● Gather information on the operation and functionality of all the equipment required by the experiment before
going to the laboratory
● Report experimental results by technical reports and oral presentations
● Pass satisfactorily short partial tests

8 Laboratory/Field Work :
Five experiments and one final project will be performed during the semester where students will become familiar with the
operation of various equipment and data acquisition systems. Three experiments will be conducted in presential manner
and the others two will be done virtually. For presential experiments the use of a mask is mandatory for the initiation and
completion of the activity. For remote experiments, he students will connect via teamviewer to the computer in the
laboratory that controls the equipment. The students will be additionally connected with the instructor using Microsoft
teams or google meet. The students will have webcams to see the laboratory. The Microsoft teams or google meet
sessions as well as teamviewer activity will be recorded. The students will save the acquired data remotely for later
analysis. In the laboratory, the technician and Instructors will assist the students.

Laboratories are considered a major part of the class, and all students are required to participate. Food and drinks are not
permitted during presential experiments.

9 Course Outline and Schedule:

Review the schedule for the lectures and laboratory sessions in the online.upr.edu.

10 Instructional Strategy:
The section will be divided into three groups of students that will work as a team. For each experiment, there are four
activities that are executed in the following sequence: lectures, experimental session, report and oral presentation. A
description of each activity follows.

Lectures: During this activity, the Professor will review fundamental theory relevant to the experimental activity. The
experimental setup and the required experimental data that must be collected will be discussed.
All lectures will be synchronous.

Experimental Session: During this task one group will be in the lab and other group will be conducted synchronously.
During this task, the group is expected to perform the experiment and collect data.

Prior to conducting the experiment, a short quiz (10 minutes) will be given to each student. The quiz will be graded right
away. The quizzes will be worth 5 points in total. The quiz will be given using the online.upr.edu platform. It will consist
of sequential questions picked randomly from a pool of questions. The quiz will be open during the first 10 minutes of the
class. For those will be remote, they must be connected to Microsoft teams with their cameras turned on and microphones
turned on while doing the quiz and the session will be recorded.

Students must meet at the equipment site on the dates scheduled for the experimental sessions. For students in remote
manner, it is required to make 3 connections simultaneously. (1) The students will be connected via Microsoft Teams with
the cameras turned on. (2) The students will connect via teamviewer to the computer that controls the equipment in the
lab (3) The students will connect to a webcam in the laboratory in order to see the experimental station. Teamviewer and
Microsoft teams sessions will be recorded.

It is mandatory to be present during laboratory sessions. If you are not, you will not be allowed to work on the report and
you will get a zero for that task.

Each student must save the acquired data in their computers to be able to do the analysis. Right after the experiment is
conducted the student will have to upload the saved data in the online platform . You will have until 11 am or 5pm on
the date of the experiment to upload this file. Failure to do this will result in losing 3 points from the total report grade
(3/100).
The instructors will not provide data once the experiments are finished.

Upon finalizing the experiment and while still in the laboratory session a Form called “Team Work” must be filled and
signed by each group member and the corresponding Instructor. Signatures will be done using the signrequest software.
The group leader will send the signrequest form to the other team members and the instructor. The form can be found in
the course webpage. The form will contain the following information:
1. The Group leader for that experimental report
a. All group members will choose a group leader, the selection can be done by voting.
b. The group leader could and should change for each experiment.
2. The task each group member will conduct towards completion of the report
a. The Group leader should assign the tasks
3. A specific date for submission of the work done by each student (ideally 3 days before due date)
4. A specific date for a meeting where all group members can discuss the work done by each individual member
(ideally 2 days before the due date and we encourage the group to meet using google meets or Microsoft teams
and record the session).
Final report organization should be done by one student, typically the leader. All team members should have at least 1
day to revise the final document before it is submitted.

Ideal sequence to follow when working in a group.

Day 1 experiment is conducted
Day 2-3-4 each member work on a specific part of the report
Day 5 all members meet and discuss each other’ s work.
Day 6 the group leader organizes the material and prepares final document
Day 7 report is submitted.

STUDENTS MUST COMPLY AT ALL TIMES WITH SAFETY REGULATIONS. The ability of the students to work in teams
will be considered during evaluation.

Reports (including final project report):

Students on each group must submit the reports in electronic format through the online.upr.edu platform. All reports will
be verified using the Turnitin tool. A maximum of 25% similarity on the report will be accepted. Reports with more than
25% similarity will be considered as academic dishonesty and a zero grade will be assigned.

Students are strongly encourage to check the percentage of similarity before submitting the report using the tools in the
moodle course: (https://ecourses.uprm.edu)
From the left menu, select Courses
1. Biblioteca
2. Turnitin_BibliotecaGeneral
3. Log in
https://ecourses.uprm.edu/course/view.php?id=1188

All group members must be present at the time of submission. All students must electronically sign the first page.
Submission of the report will be done during regular laboratory class time. The students and the Instructor will decide
when during the class hours this activity will take place. Each student will verbally certify that all members work the
assigned parts and were present during the discussion session of the report. The members that are not present online
to submit the report will get a zero for that report.

The deadline for the submission of the report will be the “next class after the experiment was conducted” at the beginning
of the class or on the 10th day after the experiment is conducted at the beginning of the class, whichever occurs first.
Typically, the next class is 7 calendar days after the experiment is conducted. If you are not able to submit the report on
the due date you can and should do it before.

Additionally, the report and all the supplementary information (excel files, EES files, etc) must be uploaded to the online
platform. Failure to submit this information will cause the group to get a zero in the report. Everything has to be uploaded
before the due date. Otherwise the online platform will assign a zero for that task.

In the rare case you cannot adequately complete the report by the specified due date, you can discuss the case with your
instructor in order to have additional time. The additional time can never be more than 10 calendar days after the
experiment is conducted and the submission date must be during normal working days.

The file name of the electronic version should be formatted as follows:

“Fall2021INME4236_SecXXX_GroupX_LabName.pdf (i.e. Fall2021INME4236_Sec076_GroupA_WT.pdf”).

For the LabName use the following abbreviations: Cooling Towers: CT

Water Tunnel: WT
Convection and radiation: CR
Heat Exchangers: HE
Refrigeration: RE
Final Project: FP

Failure to follow the name convention will cause the group to get a zero in the report.

If a group submits the report past the specified deadline, 20 points per day of delay from the submission deadline will be
discounted for late reports (days late will not be divided into minutes delay, therefore, 1 min delay implies 20 points of
discount).

For each report submitted you must fill in a peer evaluation sheet, in which you will evaluate the work done by the
members of your group on that particular report including yourself. Each group member will have an average grade (from
0 to 10) from the peer evaluations. This average grade will be used to weigh the final report grade. The Instructor will
review the peer evaluations and inform each student of the average obtained. For example:
Member 1 received the following grades from the other group members and himself: 8 , 9, 10, 7
The average is 8.5
The group received a grade of 95/100 for the report
Member 1 receives a grade of 95*8.5/10 = 80.75/100 for that report
The students MUST submit the peer review using the online.upr.edu platform. Failure to do so will result in a grade of zero
assigned to the student that did not submit the peer review for that report. The file name should be formatted as follows:
“Spring2021INME4236_SecXXX_GroupX_LabName_PR_StudentLastName_StudentName.pdf” (i.e.
Spring2021INME4236_Sec076_ GroupA_WT_PR_Perez_Juan.pdf”). If you don’t comply with the format for the file name
the file will not be accepted and you will get a zero for that report.

The laboratory report must be written in Technical English comprising the following parts: title/abstract, background,
objective, methods, results and discussion, conclusion, references, and appendixes. The report should not exceed 12
pages (excluding references and appendices). The font should be “Times New Roman #12”, color black and 1.5 line
spacing. The cover page of the report must show the title of the experiment, instructor’s name, section number, and group
member’s names. This is just a summary, more details on how to prepare the technical report can be found in the handout
on how to write reports.
If the report does not follow the format specified on the handout on how to write reports, the report will not be accepted
and 10 points out of 100 will be lost for that particular report. The report will have to be fixed to follow the format and
resubmitted before 5 calendar days by uploading it into the online platform (this option will not be available for reports
that are submitted past the deadline, therefore, if you don’t follow the format and you submit your report past the deadline,
you will not get the chance of fixing the format and resubmitting 5 days later, therefore, you will get a zero in that report).
The format for the file name must be: “Fall2021INME4236_SecXXX_GroupX_LabName_ResubmissionFormat.pdf”
If again the report fails to follow the format the report will not be accepted and 0 points out of 100 will be assigned to the
report. Additionally, failure to follow the name convention on the resubmission file will cause the group to get a zero in the
report.

Moreover, if the report contains a substantial and involuntary amount of errors in calculations, plots, and/or analysis due to
a wrong interpretation of the theoretical concepts, the report will have to be corrected and re-submitted within 2 weeks of
being returned by the instructor in order to obtain a grade. The grade can improve upon correction of the errors. Be aware
that, If the group uses this option as a mechanism for having two more weeks for submitting the report you will not get the
option of grade improvement and your group might get a zero for that report.
The format for the file name of the resubmitted report must be:
“Fall2021INME4236_SecXXX_GroupX_LabName_ResubmissionErrors.pdf”
If the report is not corrected within the 2 weeks time frame, a zero grade will be assigned for that report.

Every corrected version should be submitted through an online platform and not using the Turnitin tool.

Oral Presentations:
Students in each group must present their findings to the class orally during presentation days. Presentations will take
place on the dates specified in the schedule sheet.

Use of powerpoint is mandatory.

At the end of the semester each student should have presented at least twice.
All members in the group must attend the presentations and be prepared to answer questions.
Performance during the presentation will be evaluated and graded. You need to have your camera turned on during oral
presentations.
The power point presentation must be uploaded to the online.upr.edu before the class on presentation days. Failure to do
so will result in a grade of zero for the presentation. The file name should be formatted as follows:
“Fall2020INME4236_SecXXX_ GroupX_LabName_presentation.pdf”
(i.e. Fall2020INME4236_Sec076_ GroupA_WT_presentation.pdf”). If you don’t comply with the format for the file name
the file will not be accepted, and you will get a zero for that presentation.

Each experiment will be presented orally by two members of the team. These two members will be evaluated for all the
items contained in the oral evaluation form. The non-presenting members will also be evaluated, but items 12-20 will not
be evaluated. Each student will have 5 oral evaluations. At least 2 must correspond to instances where students
presented which will account for 8% of the final course grade. The evaluations corresponding to instances where students
did not present will account for 2% of the final course grade.
The Instructors will randomly pick the two students from the group who will give the presentation. The rest of the members
might have to answer questions.

Oral presentations will be conducted synchronously at the time scheduled for the lab sessions using google meet or
Microsoft teams platforms. The online presentation will be recorded. The cameras have to be on all the time for all the
students.

Exams:
The students will take two exams related to the experiments previously performed. There will be no make-up exams. The
only exception is in case of a medical emergency upon presentation of Medical Certificate. In this case, only the grade of
one of the exams will be accounted for. In the rare case of missing the two exams due to medical emergencies a final
exam will be offered to the student and will count 40% of the grade.

Exams will be taken online. The students will be connected to Microsoft teams during the exam, with their camera on and
showing the space around the student. Microphones also have to be turned on. The exam session will be recorded. A
USB camera is recommended for this, however, a cell phone can act as a USB camera.

11 Final Projects
The objective is to integrate prior knowledge from several ME courses through the development of one final project
related to the topics covered in this course.
Students will submit a proposal for the final project by October 1st. It should include the topics: Heat Transfer,
Thermodynamics and Fluids. You should include a description of the idea and how the project could be conducted.
Students have the equipment in the laboratory available for the final project at the moment of build it and test it.
The group with the best idea of each section will receive a bonus of 3 points (added directly to the total for the course).
Since there are 7 section of INME4236 this semester, 5 out of the 7 will be selected and each group will have the option to
work on one of those 5 final project ideas selected.
Before week 13, each group must present a progress report containing:
1) Preliminary theoretical design
2) Design to be implemented
3) A list of materials to be used
4) Methodology: What will you measure? Where? What quantities will be computed with the measured values and
how is related with what you thought in part 1)
The total 4% of the grade for the progress report will be divided into items 1 through 4 sequentially. The Progress
report has to be uploaded to the online.upr.edu platform.

Students will work on the theoretical design of the proposed experiment. Students need to use prior knowledge learned
and design the system to comply with the design parameters by using theoretical models.
The same rules that apply for regular reports are valid for the final report.
The Final project design will be presented orally via google meet or Microsoft teams.
Students are encouraged to use any type of video conferencing system for working in groups.
Final project must include a discussion regarding ethics, safety, society, and environment

12 Evaluation/Grade Reporting:
The course grade will be distributed as follows

Experimental 30 6% for each experiment

Reports: %
Quizzes 5
%
Oral presentation: 10 8% for individual presentations and 2% for presentation given by other team members
%
Exams: 40 20% each exam
%
d) Project: 15 4% for the progress report, 7% for the report and 4% for oral presentation
%
e) Bonus points: 3 Project proposal
%

The course grade will be determined based on the following scale:

100 – 90%→A 89 – 80% →B 79 – 70% →C
69 – 60% →D 59 – 0% →F

13 Attendance and Behavior:

Students must connect/arrive to the classroom or laboratory site before the exact time. Students arriving 10 minutes late
will not be able to take the quiz and therefore they will get a zero in the quiz. Students connecting/arriving 20 minutes late
or more to the laboratory site will be considered absent and will not be allowed to participate on the report (they will be
allowed to stay and watch if they want to). The same policy applies for the oral presentation sessions.
There will be no Make-up labs. The only exception is in case of a medical emergency upon presentation of Medical
Certificate. In this case, the student must perform an experiment individually which could be different from the one
scheduled for the semester and write his or her own report as well as present the results orally individually.

14 Campus Resources (If applicable):

The General Library and University Computer Center is available for additional references.

15 According to Law 51
Students will identify themselves with the Institution and the instructor of the course for purposes of assessment (exams)
accommodations. For more information please call the Student with Disabilities Office which is part of the Dean of
Students office (Chemistry Building, room 019) at (787)265-3862 or (787)832-4040 extensions 3250 or 3258.

16 Policy regarding academic dishonesty.

Any attempt to commit academic dishonesty in any course activity, no matter of the weight that the activity has in the
final course grade, nor if successful or not, will result in an F as a final grade for the course and in addition a disciplinary
process for academic dishonesty will be started. It is strongly suggested that the student get familiarized with
Certification 161 2014-2015 (Reglamento de Estudiantes del Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez de la Universidad de
Puerto Rico)