The University of Arizona HVAC System Design course has been growing steadily over the past few years. The coursework includes a project where student teams are given buildings of differing orientations and configurations located in various cities with varying weather conditions. This year, there were 9 teams each with 6 members.
Practicing Professional Engineers in the HVAC industry serve as both course instructors and project mentors. The teams work with their mentor, select appropriate design criteria, perform heating, cooling, ventilating, and psychrometric load calculations, select equipment, and develop ductwork and piping layout plans with sizing. Then, a mock campus is created including all of the buildings from each of the teams where they are tasked with designing a central plant and utility distribution system to serve the campus.
The teams each give 20 minute presentations with a question/answer session afterward with their professors and other industry professional serving as judges. And as an added bonus, after the presentations are over everyone mingles and enjoys some local pizza! Comments from the judges are integrated into a final design report.
If you have any questions about this HVAC System Design course, feel free to contact Buzz Wright (buzz@kwmech.com).