The module provides profound insights into the physics, technology and system design of solar cells, photovoltaic systems and solar thermal devices. Also, it deals with fuel cells technology and their applications.
The indicative content of the module is as follows:
SOLAR ENERGY
Unit 1: Solar radiation: Solar angles. Solar radiation. Solar resource
Unit 2: Radiation heat transfer: Ideal surface radiation. Real Surface Radiation. Radiation between surfaces.
Unit 3:Convection heat transfer: Flat plate. Internal Flow. Natural convection. Multimode heat transfer
Unit 4: Solar energy collectors: Flat plate collector. Thermal analysis. Compound Parabolic collector and evacuated tube collector.
Unit 5: Thermosolar power. Concentrating collector’s storage, hybrid systems. Industrial processes: solar desalination and solar drying.
Unit 6: Photovoltaic systems: Semiconductors, Types of PV Materials. Related equipment: power trackers. Efficiency.
Unit 7: PV Applications: Stand-alone/Direct-coupled/Grid connected system. Solar water heaters, solar dryers, solar cooker, designs, working principles, calculations of performance/ efficiency, heat loss. Solar PV systems: Basic ideas about solar Photo Voltaic (SPVS) systems, sizing a small SPVS: calculation of energy needs, power, energy, current, number of solar modules and batteries required for Households and Institutions
Unit 8: FUEL CELLS
Basic electrochemical principles of the hydrogen fuel cells, basic fuel cell design concepts,
Hydrogen production (Thermo chemical processes, water electrolysis, photo biological process)
Hydrogen storage, Thermoelectricity
How fuel cells are used for every day purposes: road, water and air transport vehicles, portable and stationary use.
Entrepreneurship is a specialized business course designed to provide you the skills needed to effectively organize, develop, create, and manage their own business. This course provides an introduction to the knowledge and skills needed to be an entrepreneur, especially the identification, evaluation and exploitation of opportunities in mechanical and energy engineering. It helps to prepare a ground where you view entrepreneurship as a desirable and feasible career option. In particular it seeks to build the necessary competencies and motivation for a career in entrepreneurship.
The aim of the module is to:
Summary:
Engineers in training need industrial exposure and on-job-training during the academic programmes of study. As part of the programme’s training regime, at the end of Semester II, students are required to attend placements in industry for period of at least 320 hours over a period of about 8-10 weeks. Building on the Creating Job Creators (CJC) concept framework, training can be undertaken in CJC specific businesses in line with the students’ CJC focused activities and interests conducted in the second and third years of study. Where community or outreach engagements are possible, the students may be directly engaged in the community applying and learning engineering problem solving skills in activities related to their CJC activities with verifiable engineering problem solving accrued from the attachment/engagement
The course aims to provide the analysis of Vibration phenomena in Mechanical systems. The course provides mathematical relationships between the stiffness of a mechanical construction system and the frequency of the system. The course highlights the major area of advantages as well as the disadvantages of vibrations in mechanical engineering.
Indicative Content
- Single degree of freedom vibration
- Types of vibrations, Damping methods and logarithmic decrement
- Practical systems: Equivalent stiffness and mass from energy methods
- Rotational imbalance and whirling of shafts
- Vibration of multi-degree of freedom systems
- Equations of motion and matrix analysis, normal modes and modal superposition.
- Solve vibration problems using software (MATLAB- or any software)
Engineering Project Management module is intended to help students understand the nature of Projects and the technicalities involved in handling projects and managing the various phases of the project life cycle. The module explores the project management functions that are carried out at the different stages of a project’s life cycle and the analytical tools applied thereof.
At the end of the module students are able to:
- assure fits and limits, represent welding and riveting symbols, auxiliary views of inclined surfaces
- represent intersection of solids
- develop prism, cylinders, cones and other shapes
- assure assembly drawing and locking devices, pulleys. bearings and gears.
The course aims to provide fundamental concepts of turbo-machines as applied to Engineering practice. It covers application to hydraulic machines, specific speed and machine selection, machine-system operation, application to axial flow compressors and turbines, radial turbines and compressors.
The course aims the application of dynamic principles in the working principle of machines. It covers the inertia forces in the slider crank mechanism, the balance of rotating and reciprocating parts. The course also deals with the analysis of gyroscopic couple and the working principle and dynamic analysis of the governor.
Lecturer: Dr. Bernard B. Munyazikwiye