Guidelines:
Design a complete HVAC system for a floor plan (commercial or residential (include cooling load calculation, units selection and duct design layout)
-One Space should be done using manuel calculation (follow the format of the sample example provided in the notes
-Use the same materials used currently in the Kingdom with standard insulation
-show ASHRAE tables,charts and psychrometric
In addition to technical report please provide the following:
Recognize contemporary local, national, regional and global issues in the mechanical engineering discipline professional development and continued education or demonstrate the ability to stay up to date and broaden knowledge and skills on the current trends of the Mechanical Engineering discipline through professional development and continued education
-write and submitt technical report with small presentation at the end of semester (last day of of lecture)
-Replace and repeat the same calculation for new insulation material
“BioPCM”
| Thermal Conductivity (W m-1 °C-1) | 0.2 |
-submitt soft and hard copies of all your work (no pdf)
Most `standard model’ reports will contain some or all of the following sections, usually in this order. Each of these sections will be discussed in more detail below.
- `Abstract’ or `summary’.
- `Acknowledgements’.
- `Introduction’.
- `Objectives’.
- `Theory’.
- `Method’ or `methodology’ or `procedures’.
- `Results’.
- `Discussion’ or `interpretation’.
- `Conclusion’.
- `Recommendations’.
- `References’ and/or `bibliography’.
- `Appendices’.
A `standard model’ report will probably also contain a table of contents, a list of abbreviations and technical terms, and perhaps an index if the document is long.
3.1 Abstract or summary
An abstract or summary (they mean essentially the same thing) should contain a brief overview of the report, including its conclusions and recommendations if there are any. A good length for an abstract is 300 words; some scientific journals actually specify this number of words explicitly. The abstract of a scientific paper or report is considered to be capable of `standing alone’ and being published separately. For this reason the heading `abstract’ in a report is usually not numbered. Numbering usually starts with the introduction.
3.2 Introduction
The introduction sets out what the report is about, and what its role is in relation to other work in the field. If describing experiments, the introduction will usually summarise other related experiments, and show how the work to be described extends or supersedes these earlier studies. If the report is about development (e.g., software development) the introduction will often set out what the purpose of the development is, who will benefit, and how it will be used. If the report is a review, it will usually just state the scope of the report and the readership for which it is intended.
In most technical reports, the introduction will say something about the context of the report, that is, how the work it describes forms part of the overall body of work in that subject area. When describing an investigation, the introduction will usually state explicitly what the investigators set out to find.
My approach is to finish the introduction with a list of the questions I set out to answer, and give the answers to these questions in the conclusions. I like to be quite explicit about this, and even label the questions `question 1′, `question 2′, etc. Whether you do this or not, the reader should be able to look at the conclusion of your report and verify that you have found out what you claimed you would find out.
3.3 Objectives
This section, if present, states what the work being reported was expected to achieve, why it was undertaken, and at whose instigation. I usually prefer to put this information at the end of the introduction, but this is just a matter of taste.
3.4 Acknowledgements
It is polite to give a brief note of thanks to those people who have helped directly in the work the report describes. In a novel, the authors often thank their friends and family; most scientists and engineers consider it slightly pretentious to do this in a technical report. In the last few weeks I have read technical reports that acknowledged the invaluable assistance of the late Princess of Wales, Jesus, and the author’s pet dog. I would like to know in particular the role played by the dog.
If the report is destined for publication, and describes work supported by a grant, the grant-awarding body may insist that it be acknowledged. It seems reasonable to me to do this.
3.5 Theory
The theory section, if used, describes any background theory needed for the reader to understand the report. Such a section is usually found only in reports that use mathematics that the typical reader cannot be expected to know in advance.
3.6 Method
In the `method’ section you should describe the way the work was carried out, what equipment you used, and any particular problems that had to be overcome. If the report is describing a survey, you should say how you chose your subjects, how you checked for bias, and how you analysed the results.
3.7 Results
In the standard model, results are usually given as plainly as possible, and without any comment. It is often difficult to know how much data to put into this section. My feeling is that you should include enough data to enable to reader to be confident that you have done what you said you would do, and that your conclusions will be trustworthy. This certainly does not mean that you should include reams of print-outs and copies of questionnaire returns. I try to summarise the results into a few tables and graphs.
Most readers that are used to reading scientific reports will become uncomfortable if you call a section `results’ and put anything in it apart from plain results.
3.8 Discussion
In this section the author provides an interpretation of the results, compares them with other published findings — if there are any — and points out any potential shortcomings in the work.
The `discussion’ section of a traditional report is the place where the author is allowed to be less objective than usual. In this section it is acceptable to mention opinions, and speculate slightly about the significance of the work.
In particular, if your findings are unusual, or very much at odds with other people’s conclusions, you should explain why you think this might be. Otherwise the reader will probably assume you have just made a mistake.
3.9 Conclusion
The conclusion gives the overall findings of the study. It is important to realise that `conclusion’ does not just mean `the last bit of the report’. Your conclusions should really be statements that can be concluded from the rest of the work. A conclusion is not a summary. (You can include a summary as well, if you like). When I mark students’ reports, one of the questions I ask about them is `do the conclusions follow from the body of the report?’
3.10 Recommendations
In this section the author normally includes any advice he or she wishes to offer the reader. If the report is about making some sort of business decision, the appropriate course of action will usually be recommended here. Some people use the recommendations sections for suggestions of further work, which seems reasonable to me.
3.11 References and bibliography
The purpose of citing references is to allow the reader to follow up your work, and perhaps check that the conclusions you draw really follow from the sources you cite. References are not, as many students appear to think, a method for convincing the examiner that you have read a lot. You should give enough detail that if the reader wanted to follow up your references, he or she would be able to do so. For books, you should give the authors, year, edition (if there’s more than one), publisher’s name and publisher’s location. For articles in journals give the authors, year, name of the publication, volume and page numbers. If you can’t give all these details, you probably don’t have a proper reference.
The rise in Web-based publishing has created its own citation problems. The same basic principle applies, however, as it does to citing printed works: the citation must be sufficient to allow the reader to follow up the reference. If possible, you should cite a URL that will take the reader directly to the document you cite. Giving the URL for a `home’ or `welcome’ page is generally not helpful. As a matter of good style, you should give the names of the authors and the publication date, if you are able to determine them.
Although it is not peculiar to Web-based publication, authors should be aware of the problem that not all references have equal weight. References to articles in peer-reviewed journals will be more convincing than references to non-reviewed sources. Since anyone can publish anything on a Web site, there is a real risk of citing something that is not very authoratitive.
Many students seem not to know the difference between `references’ and `bibliography’. The bibliography is the set of publications that the authors referred to in a general sense in writing the report or carrying out the work it describes. These publications will not usually be cited explicitly in the text. References, on the other hand, are given in support of some specific assertion, and are always mentioned explicitly in the text. Normally this citation would be given after the statement the author wants to support. A common method is to give the authors and year in the text, e.g, (Bloggs, 1995), and the full details at the end of the report or in a footnote.
In scientific writing, if you make any statement that is not one of plain fact or measurement, you must justify it, or refer the reader to another publication where it is justified. The making of unjustified assertions is probably the single most common criticism leveled at students’ writing.
If you use another person’s words directly, you must be clear about this and give a full reference. If you use more than a few words, or a picture, or results, you should seek the author’s permission first, and state in your report that you obtained such permission. If you don’t do this you’re probably breaking the law, as well as being unprofessional.
3.12 Appendices
The appendices are where the author will usually place any material that is not directly relevant to the report, and will only be read by small number of people. I usually use appendices for mathematical proofs, electrical circuit diagrams and sections of computer programs
