Educational Programs

On this page you will find a number of programs that I have created for use within the educational community. These programs are used for homework exercises and also to help create class notes that illustrate important physics.

This program was developed for an internal combustion engines class at the University of Michigan (ME 438). The jist of the program is that it simulates the temperature and emissions after adiabatic (no heat loss) combustion in a "virtual" engine. This analysis is not new to those who have taken thermodynamic courses, and can be used in conjunction with these classes for further understanding of the material (please contact the author if you are a professor and wish to utilize the program for your course). Currently the program calculates the flame temperature for 28 different fuels, allows for 4 different components of air and can simulate up to 14 different chemical species.

This simulation was created to help ME 438 students at the University of Michigan better understand the workings of internal combustion engines. This is done by creating idealized thermodynamic cycles that simulate the processes within an engine. This program can also be used within any class to help illustrate the first and second laws of thermodynamics. Currently, it contains the following idealized cycles with and without intake and exhaust events utilzing either an ideal gas with constant specific heats or idealized fuel-air combustion:

 

Unless otherwise expressly stated, all original material of whatever nature created by Dr. Christopher D. Depcik () and included in this website and any related pages is licensed under a .
Creative Commons License
Date Created: May 28, 2003
Last Revised: January 3, 2007