Thermal Engineering is a highly skilled area and candidates, who wish to join Thermal engineering courses should have good aptitude for straight mathematics and science subjects, inclusive of analytical and problem solving skills, trigonometry, chemistry and physics.

Thermal engineering is a discipline that can solve problems pertaining to mass transfer, heat transfer, fluid mechanics and thermodynamics. Master of Technology in Thermal Engineering is a two-year course if it is offered as full-time course. It is also offered as a part-time course in some institutions and the names of Government colleges offering thermal engineering as a full-time course in India are given below:

Government Thermal Engineering Colleges:

• Government College of Technology, Coimbatore

• College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram

• Government College of Engineering, Salem

• Government College of Engineering, Amravati

• Indian Institute of Technology, Karagpur

Eligibility requirement:

For seeking admission to the Master of Technology in Thermal Engineering course, candidates must have completed their Bachelor of Engineering or Technology in any discipline. However, preference will be given to candidates with B.E/B. Tech in Chemical and mechanical engineering since these candidates are highly suitable for Master of Technology in Thermal Engineering course.

Admission Procedure:

Admission of students to this PG Engineering course is done based on the GATE score secured by the candidates.

About M. Tech in Thermal Engineering course:

Thermal Engineering course offered by the aforesaid colleges are designed to offer an in-depth and sound training and knowledge to the students on different aspects of evaluation, control, testing, manufacture and even designing of thermal systems and equipments. This branch of engineering has a great role to play in energy, automobiles, power generation and R & AC sectors. The content of the course aims at development of required technical and analytical competence among engineers. The main aim of the course is to prepare mechanical engineers to take up development and research activities. The curriculum of the course is designed in consulting with experts from reputed educational institutions, industries and research organizations keeping in pace with current industrial and technological requirements and developments.

Course content:

Master of Technology in Thermal Engineering course normally includes the following subjects:

• Energy analysis of thermal systems

• Advanced heat transfer

• Modeling of thermal systems

• Viscous fluid flow

• Gas dynamics

• Energy economics and management

• Computational fluid dynamics

• Design of heat exchangers

Some of the electives offered in the course are given below:

• Instrumentation for engineers

• Energy Conservation and audit

• Design of thermal turbo machine

• SI Engines

• Refrigeration engineering

• Combustion

• Heat exchanger network synthesis

• CI Engines

• Air Conditioning Engineering

Job areas of thermal engineers:

Thermal Engineers specialize in the field of thermodynamics, which is a complex subject area dealing with the conversion of heat energy into other sources like mass transfer, electrical, mechanical and chemical energy. These professionals are called upon to work in a number of industries inclusive of design of heating or cooling equipment, optimization for power companies, power management and also in the development of renewable energies.

Skills required to become a successful thermal engineer:

As mentioned earlier, Thermal engineering is a highly skilled area, which requires good analytical, problem solving and mathematical skills. These professionals should be able to communicate both in writing and verbally and should possess good computer literacy skills and they should have real interest and concern in environmental issues.

Career prospects after M. Tech Thermal Engineering:

Energy conservation is an area, which is gaining more and more importance these days and this area highly needs the help of thermal engineers. Therefore, these professionals are demanded in industries in the fields like renewable energy, petrochemicals and they can enjoy a solid future job scope.