I am an undergraduate mechanical engineering student seeking suggestions on topics related to either thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer or renewable energy for my final year project. The topics I have found require a higher level of education. I am trying to bring it down to an undergraduate level, however I am hoping that new suggestions might shed more light or spark a new interest.
Thank you in advance.
You could look into residential heating and cooling, the impact of insulation and other "treatments" including leakage. You could get some information from people who are selling insulation upgrades as a service. You can also find information about this online and from some local power companies. Compare prices too (insulation and power), as the cost/benefit ratio will change with location (climate, construction prices, power price, etc.). Ask someone who has actually done this (added insulation) and don't just take the word of people selling something.
Research the entire life cycle of something (gas car, EV, refrigerator, etc.) from the mine to the factory to the show room to the customer to the junkyard and if it's left to rot in a field polluting the environment for decades. Go to a junkyard and see how these things are left. Go to a mine or a factory if there's one nearby. Follow the truck from the dump to the landfill.
Find at least one (hopefully more) people who have actually installed solar panels on their roof and ask how it has worked out for them. Have the panels paid for themselves? Do they still work? Have there been any problems? Get the numbers too, not just the feelings or opinions.
Dudley J Benton has covered most of my thoughts, but I think that evaluation of micro-CHP at domestic level (mainly small gas engines with heat recovery) is still worthwhile despite the use of fossil fuels. We will need a lot of back-up for electricity grids that are based on unreliable energy sources (wind and solar). As a more remote topic, the Peltier effect applied to cooling offers some originality.
Will-Mari The fastest changing field currently is the very rapid rise in data processing centers and emergence of artificial intelligence. This is projected to double power use in the USA! Data centers critically need cooling for the increasingly more powerful data chips. Reviewing the different methods of cooling such chips, their thermodynamic effectiveness, and how this industry is changing would be a valuable contribution. A quality review would also boost opportunities for advanced education and offer job opportunities if you are interested in that field.
For "fluid mechanics, heat transfer" e.g. Search for:
"cooling chips" "cooling electronic chips", "cooling GPU", and particularly "Cooling NVIDIA GPU" processors etc.
Examine the processing power trends vs cooling requirement trends. Distinguish chip cooling versus large room level air conditioning.
I would welcome draft copies to review etc. Some example searches: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C19&q=cooling+chips&btnG= https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C19&q=cooling+electronic+chips&btnG= https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C19&q=cooling+NVIDIA+GPU+&btnG=
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C19&as_ylo=2024&q=data+processing+center+forecasts&btnG=
If you want to add "thermodynamics", you could review the efficiency and reliability of different power sources. Brayton Simple Gas Turbine "Peakers". Combined Cycle power plants versus solar and wind. (& versus the VAST Power Cycles at VASTPowerSystems.com if you wish).
PS You could also note scientific factors relating to "controlling" "climate change". Note particularly where data centers are promising to be more "green", "clean", "environmental" and seek "net zero" etc. Yet they actually require far higher power reliability and controllability than typical industry power!
PPS you could also compare the predictions of data center growth versus the climate predictions of the IPCC.
Reality Check, compare the NIPCC predictions.
Note particularly the publications since 2020 by Demetris Koutsoyiannis on whether CO2 leads or lags Temperature.
IPCC https://www.ipcc.ch
About the NIPCC – Climate Change Reconsidered
https://climatechangereconsidered.org/about-the-nipcc/
Demetris Koustoyiannis at: https://www.itia.ntua.gr/en/search/?authors=koutsoyiannis&tags=climate
(CAUTION: Be VERY circumspect and objective about comparing these last three if you chose to include them. That is NOT required. Beware. Alarmists try to destroy careers of any who don't advocate their policies.)
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