Optimizing Thermal Energy Storage for Cogeneration Applications: A Faculty and Engineering Technology Student Collaboration Using Excel

摘要

This paper has a two-fold purpose. Not only does it solve a significant engineering problem and present a solution for the optimization of thermal energy storage for use in cogeneration systems applications but it also identifies the importance of one-on-one faculty-student research and it how excel software can overcome the need for higher-level mathematics. The problem is a familiar one to the engineers who must determine the optimum size of a thermal storage system that is not too large or too small for a customer's thermal demand while matching it with the correct cogeneration system size (kwe). The problem's solution however becomes an opportunity to enlist the help of an undergraduate student to help solve a fairly complicated problem. This pedagogy is seen as critical and necessary to the education of the engineering technology student; building self-confidence in his/her analytical skills to solve the problem via a "simple" spreadsheet that would otherwise require calculus and optimization techniques. No sooner has the student followed and contributed to the solution's methodology that he realizes that he has actually used a probabilistic method in its solution: The Monte Carlo Method, a term that perhaps would frighten the student if revealed earlier but now becomes a part of his solutions "tool box". This paper reports on the pedagogy of this collaboration as well as the useful results that were obtained.