User:Givememyusername/ENES-100/Project 1/CDIO

Problem Statement
A Water ram must be built to move a body of water to a water tower. - Thomas Kim has been given the responsibility to create the Plunger/Waste Valve part of the Water Ram.
 * Team responsibilities and Jobs

- Rivesh Patel has been given the responsibility to overlook over all design and improve flaws in project

- Josh Ziegler has been to create the Pressure valve and Air Chamber. - A basic understanding of the physics and mechanics of water rams is recommended before this build is started.
 * Research

- Principles of Operations

1. The Amount of Water needed per day can be found with a Mathematical relationship with the flow rate of the Water Ram. It can be found with this equation.

V(F/E)0.6=P(1440) V= The amount of water gallon per min the drive pipe is pushing out.

F= The fall is the vertical distance from the top of the source of the water to the water ram.

E= The elevation is the vertical distance form the water ram to then end of the delivery pipe.

.6= the average efficiency of a water ram.

P= The gallons per min the delivery pipe is pushing out.

1440= Min in one day.

2. The length of the drive pipe can be found by following general guidelines. Fall in feet=F;Length of drive pipe=L

F=[3,15]    6(F)=L

F=[16,25]  4(F)=L

F=[26,50]  3(F)=L

3. If the drive pipe exceeds the guidelines length it is recommended to use a Stand Pipe. The Stand pipe should have a supply line twice the size larger then the drive pipe and the stand pipe should be three times the size of the drive pipe.

Requirements for each element or component derived from system level goals and requirements
Requirements: Water pressure must be high enough in the waste valve where the water recoils back into the intake pipe.

The initial design
-Two 1.25 inch Check valves were purchased at home depot and one of the check valves was disassembled. The spring was removed for one. This one would be used for the Check Valve for the Air chamber. The other Check valve would remain as is and would be used as a waste valve. The reason for this is to allow minimal resistance for the water going up the check valve before the air chamber and maximum resistance going down causing pressure to build inside the air chamber. The resistance for the waste valve would need to be adjusted so the spring was left in.

- A table vice was used to securely attach the 1-1/4 inch Male adapter. The table vice was also convenient for disassembling PVC attachments that were a bit stuck.

- A hack saw was used to cut the PVC into the required length. If multiple PVC pieces of the same length were required a Miter saw was used.

- Finding parts to make a 1-1/4 PVC adapt into a 3 inch PVC was nearly impossible at Home Depot. Several odd and awkward female to male adapters were used to work around it. It is recommended that if you wish to continue or start this project to go to a store specializing in plumbing to reduce frustration and save time.

- A drill press with a 15/16 inch bit was used in combination with a pipe center to initially make the hole for the delivery pipe. The delivery pipe has a outside diameter of 1 inch. A bit slightly smaller was used to prepare it for Dremeling. The delivery pipe hole is placed on the lowest end of the Air chamber.

- A Dremel was used to ensure a more snug fit for the delivery pipe.

- Here is a closer look at the assembled half of the air chamber.

- The Bench grinder was used to ensure a more snug fit between PVC parts cut by the hack saw.

Experiment prototypes and tests need for design
- The weight to pressure ratio in the waste valve is going to need to be found through testing.

- The amount of water needed at the delivery pipe will be needed to find out the length and height the drive pipe must be. Refer back to the Water Ram equation to find this out.

Creative and critical thinking, and problem solving
-The piston has a spring so the so the weight of it will be adjustable according to the pressure.

Prior work, reuse and reverse engineering
-A dismantled water ram was found at the Howard Community College Enes-100 Lab. The team has begun to piece the parts together to have a physical model to work with for our new and improved water ram. In the end it was agreed that the old water ram would no longer be used but instead be salvaged for parts. Only the Air Chamber was kept.

Performance, life cycle cost and value
The overall cost of this project was around $88.

Check valves $16

It requires no energy or fuel to run so it costs nothing to run as long as you can get a large body of water for free.

Aesthetics and human factors
The PVC can be unappealing and this contraption makes a loud steady clanking resulting from the waste valve. Some call it the "Heart of the Ram".

Implementation, verification, test and environmental sustainability
Testing is required for the water ram. Environmentally, it can handle the force of some water. Construction of the water ram is with PVC pipes, therefore, after the future teams do careful testing on the water ram, they will be able to see how much water force the water ram can take exactly.

--Riveshp (discuss • contribs) 15:16, 14 March 2013 (UTC)

Operations
Operations of the water ram still need to be done. Future testing of the water ram is required to push this project further along its process.

--Riveshp (discuss • contribs) 15:17, 14 March 2013 (UTC)

Maintainability, reliability, and safety
After reviewing videos from previous weeks and construction of the water ram as listed above, as a group, we believe that the reliability and maintainability of the water ram can be used for many semesters to come, if the future groups take care of the pieces and use them safely.

Next Steps
1) start testing with the pieces that are currently involved with the water ram 2) Find a way, either from a pond or water hose at home, to have a stronger water flow or stronger current in water. The faster the water is released the more production the water ram releases, which equals higher production rates at the end.

--Riveshp (discuss • contribs) 15:23, 14 March 2013 (UTC)