DEVELOPING INNOVATIVE TEACHING MATERIALS THAT USE MOLECULAR SIMULATIONS IN ENGINEERING THERMODYNAMICS

摘要

Traditionally, Engineering Thermodynamics is presented to undergraduate mechanical engineering students from a classical viewpoint. The emphasis in the courses is on analyzing processes involving bulk thermodynamic properties of materials to ascertain the performance of systems of significant size such as internal combustion engines, steam boiler power plants, vapour compression refrigeration systems, gas compressors etc. This emphasis may need to change so that mechanical engineers gain a better understanding of areas such as nanotechnology, fuel cells, photovoltaic cells and solid state electronics. A further need for change, is because thermodynamics, as a subject, has a reputation that many students apply formulae in a rote-like manner and struggle to understand the underlying physics and practicalities. One of our innovations is to use simple one and two dimensional hard sphere simulations to demonstrate the validity of such basic constants as Avogadro's Number and the Boltzman constant, and then visually demonstrate the ideal gas equation explaining concepts such as temperature and pressure and the way in which they relate to the volume containing a specified number of molecules.