User:Bdkraem/Bdkraem-hydram

Individual Project Page for Hydraulic Ram

Initial Tasks
My first task was to figure out the details of the input pipes that lead into the hydraulic ram. As high pressure at the inlet to the ram was more important than the volume of water entering the ram, a 12' high pipe structure was decided upon.

There will be a 10', 2" diameter PVC pipe going straight up. It will have a 2" to 1.5" reducer at the end to attach a 2', 1.5" diameter PVC pipe. This will create a 12 foot high water source, hopefully giving us sufficient pressure.

The 1.5" diameter pipe will lead into a 90 degree elbow joint that will lead into a ball valve that will allow us to open and close the water source to the hydraulic ram.

Assign Week 2
Week 2 will likely be more planning. I will be helping the team figure out the dimensions of the ram itself and what parts will be used in creating a functioning ram.

Week 2 Narrative
This week was more planning for the actual parts on the inside of the RAM. For the sake of consistency, I will be looking into getting pipes that are the same size as the input leading into the ram itself, this way we do not need to buy or obtain any extra reducers.

I have also purchased all the pipes that are needed for the input. The total cost of this input portion was only $12. I also cut the 10' length of 2" diamter pipe in half as to facilitate mobility. As such, I also had to purchase a 2" to 2" coupling to connect the two 5' lengths together.

I also found an image of a hydraulic ram that is going to look a lot like ours, pictured to the right. The main difference is that an extra valve will be added before the pressure vessel. This way we can show how the pressure vessel increases efficiency of the entire system. The pressure gauge will also be deleted, but this model is fairly close to what will be built.

Initial Tasks
This week we'll hopefully be finalizing the project. We have indentified all the components we need on the team page and we are just waiting for the components to be ordered and come in the mail. Once they arrive, we should be able to just put everything into place and watch the ram work.