ME 422 Heat Transfer

Fall 2022
Project 1: Design of a Useful, Multifunctional Cup
Final Deliverables due Wednesday 26/02//24

Remember the teacup? It’s great for drinking a nice cup of hot tea but probably not too well suited for
other uses, for example, drinking cold beverages or bringing along on car rides. For this project, you’re
going to design a better, or at least, a useful, multifunctional cup or container for drinking liquids. That’s
the only design requirement that you will be given-you must be able to drink from it. You’ll have to
come up with other design criteria based upon what you want your cup or container to do.
At the end of the project, you will have designed a cup or liquid container that you can drink from. You
will have
• a specified set of design criteria
• user feedback and evaluation
• quantitative analyses with predictions of how your design preforms against your criteria
• clearly defined its geometry (e.g., CAD model), materials, function (i.e., what it can do and how
it works), interaction (i.e., how a person uses it), and character (i.e., what/how you think and
feel about it).
Project Steps

Step 1: Idea Generation

Come up with some ideas, lots of ideas. One way is to sit down (alone or with others) and just think of as
many ideas as you can. At this point, it doesn’t matter how feasible or costly, or even, possible the idea
is. You want a big pool of ideas without constraints. For example, think of ideas related to passive
insulation, sustainable materials, lightweight, large capacity, compact or collapsible, multiple materials,
leakproof, active heating and/or cooling, easy to use.

Step 2: Initial Design Development and Refinement

When developing and refining a design, it’s important to get and consider feedback from actual users.
Based on the ideas generated in Step 1, come up with (at least) five ideas and sketch them out (e.g,
labeled cartoon drawings that show function and interaction). Find at least one potential user (e.g.,
family member, friend, classmate not in this course) and get their feedback on your design (e.g, would
they use it? any improvements, etc.)

Step 3: Set Design Specifications

Consider the user feedback from Step 2 and decide for yourself on a design. Generate a list of
specifications that design should meet. For connection to this class, you should include some that deal
with temperature or thermal energy.
Step 4: Create a Design and Evaluate Using Quantitative Analysis

Create a design (in CAD) and use quantitative analysis to evaluate your design. Note that based on your
analysis you may have to go back to Step 3 and modify some of your design specifications.
In order to learn and practice what you are studying in this class, you must do some specific conduction
heat transfer analyses
Simple calculations:
• one-dimensional steady state analysis through the walls of the cup/container
• transient. lumped model analysis of liquid inside the cup/container
Finite element simulations (using Solidworks Simulation):
• Three-dimensional steady-state and transient analyses
As it is necessary for you; decide which analyses is/are appropriate for your design, it is likely that you
will create and use different models. It’s possible that different analyses will lead to conflicting results.
In such cases, you’ll have to weigh the results and come to a conclusion.
Experiment with parameters of your model. For example, evaluate several wall thicknesses to see the
effect on the time a liquid cool to a specified temperature.

Step 5: Iterate with the User

Go back to your user(s) and show them your proposed design. Get their feedback.

Step 6: Testing and Evaluation of Final Design

Incorporate any changes that you’d like to make. Quantitatively evaluate your final design with respect
to your design specifications.

Step 7: Prototype Demonstration and Presentation

In this case, since we aren’t doing any physical prototyping and testing, you can create a summary and
presentation of your design and performance evaluations. In this case, you’ll create an advertising pitch
for your cup/container in the form of infographic-type poster and a report describing all of the work
done.

Schedule

1) Check-in. Next week-Monday, 29/01/24 in class.

Complete Steps 1 and 2. Before class, submit documentation of your five ideas (e.g., photos or scans of
your five ideas and a short write-up of your user(s) interview. In breakout rooms, you will present your
ideas to your classmates and get their feedback.

3) Final deliverables due on Mon. 26/02/24.

• Specific details of what the report should contain will be provided.
• In class, you’ll give a short in-class presentation of your product ad and summary of your
report.