This will be the final blog post in this series as I have now graduated as a MSc in engineering design and applied mechanics. Wooop! In this post I will report on the work carried out between handing in and presenting my thesis. I will summarise the feedback that I received and then list some practical advice for those interested.
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| Heat pipe with luer and end cap |
Final work
In the last 10 days before presenting, I felt it would be worthwhile to try and charge/seal the prototypes and then thermally test them. However, I was never able to evacuate the heat pipes correctly or seal them after the charging attempt. It was pre-mature going ahead with prototyping and it would have been better stopping sooner and writing up on the results, even if it meant that the heat pipes were not created.
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| Testing set up (HP highlighted in red) |
However, regardless of the seal, I still wanted to go ahead with the testing to see what kind of heat conductivity I might get out of the prototypes (stubborn). I set up the apparatus as shown on the right, with the heat pipe clamped gently in the heater (the evaporator end) and a fan set up at the condenser side (to focus the flow, I made a cardboard box element to focus the flow - left image). It was necessary to deflect the forced cool air from the hot end and so a guard (aluminium foil) was placed between both ends. As the HP was not filled correctly, the applied heat only increased the temperature at the hot end and there was an accumulation of heat there. After reaching around 90 °C, it was removed and it was observed that the Si seemed to warp. The results were not conclusive but due to time limits I took some readings using a laser infra-red thermometer which was awkward due to the experimental set up. This was a good example of how not to run an experiment...
Feedback
Although the literature review and presentation was good, I lacked enough analysis and structure relating to the experimental results. I should have focused on the wick structure element and characterised it
more thoroughly, perhaps by comparing it to other wick structures
currently available. I didn't persuade the examiner that by further investing effort in a lizard inspired wick surface, a more effective and economic solution could be found for the cooling problem. But the biggest rookie mistake I made was that I did not summarise clearly the results of the hypothesis in the summary. These were expensive mistakes...
Final words of advice
Here are some final words of advice which might help you out:
- Create a deadline for when to stop creating new data, finish experiments, develop prototypes etc. Focus on the analysis of the work you have done to that date as you will be more thorough and scientific in your analysis. I would suggest stopping 3 weeks before you hand in the thesis. I found this hard to do...
- Present your supervisor with bullet point lists of what you have accomplished every week in a paragraph. Less is more for these busy people!
- Order parts and components early in the process and make sure you have funds (ask your supervisor). However, I would suggest only ordering parts when you know they will work...or at least are nearly sure they will!
- You have to hand in the thesis in hard copy and electronic. I think the
number of hard copies vary depending on the department/supervisor and number of examiners.
- The presentation can last 30 minutes. After this, there is a round
of questions which lasts approx. 45 minutes. There can be questions from
the examiners (two in my case, one being my supervisor) and I also had a
question from a member of the audience. I don't think that
inviting guests is of any benefit to your presentation but then again,
maybe you might feel more like a rock star. You are then asked to leave where they will make the judgement.
- I had too much to say during the presentation and although I practised it with a friend beforehand, I felt I was rushing through it. The feedback on the slide show was good but I think that I should have reduced the amount of content and chatter. You can find the presentation below (Prezi of course):
Thank you/mange tak!
Thanks for reading and keep in touch with me through LinkedIn:
dk.linkedin.com/in/bryanoregan/ or visit my website: www.suiledesign.com - always interested in collaborating on projects when I can. Good luck! Bryan.
