MSc Thermal Power & Fluid Engineering / Course details

This course unit detail provides the framework for delivery in 20/21 and may be subject to change due to any additional Covid-19 impact.  Please see Blackboard / course unit related emails for any further updates.

Prime movers are of central importance to industrial economies. This unit covers refined analytical methods that allow the analysis of important power plant and air-conditioning applications, particularly with reference to the limitations imposed by the second law of thermodynamics. 

Familiarise the students in power generation with advanced concepts such as exergy analysis, lost work, dissociation and irreversibility,

Enable the students in the application of above concepts to thermodynamic systems, including prime movers (devices that convert fuel bound energy into power), combustion (as applied in, say, internal combustion engines) and air conditioning applications.

Familiarise the students with advanced steam power systems (i.e. ground based vapour power turbines) and their thermodynamic cycle analyses.

Review and apply material on reciprocating and gas turbine engine cycles, fuel cells and refrigeration cycles.

Provide a rational thermodynamic underpinning for the power generation module including prime mover design and development process vis-à-vis efficiency ,utilisation and associated considerations .

Thermochemistry and Equilibrium Combustion: Reaction equations, air to fuel ratios, pollutants and temperature of product gases. Definition of Gibbs and Helmholtz free energies. Application of the free energies to generalized thermochemical equilibrium (dissociation and pollutant formation in combustion), effects on flame temperature.

Power Engineering Cycles: Review of appropriate material on steam and reciprocating engines, gas turbine engines and refrigeration cycles and fuel cells .

Gas Turbine and Fuel Cells: Introduction to fundamentals for performance analysis and design

The unit includes an EBL group project on steam cycles to reinforce the above theoretical concepts  pertaining to  both thermodynamic and component efficiencies in a modern power generation setting to highlight losses and design basis for power generation .

Written feedback provided on the group reports and coursework. Feedback provided according to school deadlines. Refer to section 8 for feedback relating to EBL activity.