User:Toluaj/enes100/ProjecT 3

''This is designed for a person working on a project for 4 weeks as part of a 3 credit class. Please copy this form to your user page. Then delete everything in italics when filling out this form.''

Write problem/project Goal
To create an hydraulic ram that will pump water from an elevated source to destination higher than its source; in addition, the ram must be able to pump at least 20% of the water sent into the ram to height of about 15ft where as the water source is from about 10ft

My First Task
With previous knowledge gained from working with an hydraulic ram already, my first task was to start sourcing for a 1"inch ball non return valve with was needed to replace the malfunctioning part of the ram my previous team and I had constructed since my new team mates and I plan on using it.

Summary of actual work over first weekend
This week didn't go as planned, i hoped we could get started on the new ram, but we couldn't so hopefully we could get it started at the beginning of the 2nd week.

Week1 Narrative
11/12/12: For the first day, I met with my team members talked with them about ideas for the hydraulic ram, we talked about creating a tutorial on how to make a hydraulic ram so future teams will have some sources to look at. In addition, we ran to an issue about location, we needed a place where we could test the ram, but unfortunately most of us lived in town houses so there would be no elevated area like a pardo or back yard which we could use for proper testing. After this we talked about the materials needed for the ram, a major one was the 1" inch ball non-return valve, which is needed to replace the one in the already constructed ram.

11/14/12: Talked with my team mates, since two of them were new and didn't quite understand the concept and how a ram works, I decided to do some testing with the ram explaining to them how it work, showing them the area of the ram which was notworking properly; therefore, explaining/ demonstrating the need of a new 1" inch ball non-return valve.

11/16/12: I went sourcing for the 1" inch ball non-return. I checked with lowes, home depot and some local plumber store, unfortunately the stores I checked had some non return valve but they were not the type needed. Mostly the price of the valve ranged from $10 to $21. I placed a picture of the old non return valve that needs to be replaced and a picture of old hydraulic ram that needs to be reconstructed





My Second Task
I got a message from tim that he had found a 1" inch ball non return valve, with this we can move forward with reconstructing the ram, but we would have to get new parts like PVC pipe since we used PVC cement to glue the parts of the previous ram so there is no way we can use them again.

Summary of actual work over second weekend
Unfortunately the major goal for the week was not fully achieved which will result in some future set back in the construction of the smaller ram.

Week2 Narrative
11/19/12: Met with my team members and discussed future plans for the ram .We decided to create a smaller ram that we would use test the adjustment that would be made to the larger ram to ensure that when we fixed the larger ram that it would work. Then we talked about how would be able to meet up over the break to work on the smaller ram.

11/21/12: Tim, Halima and I met up in school to start on the smaller ram, we decided to do a 1/2"inch ram. Then we created a design for the ram, listed the ram that would be needed for the ram. After this we went to Home- depot to get the supplies, the total expenses summed up to about $27.00 . Here are the list of the materials that were brought and the prices. After getting the supplies Halima and I wanted to start working on the smaller ram but unfortunately we had no materials like saw to cut the PVC into the right measurement to start construction.

:3. 1/2" inch pipe - $ 1.86 :4. 1"-1" couplings- $0.77 :5. 1"- 1/2" bushing - $1. 26 :6. 1/2"- 1/2" coupling - $0.77 :7. Brass swing check valve- $9.27 :8. 1 x 1/2" 90 degrees elbow PVC_ $1.46 :9. 1/2" inch barded hose attachment- $ 3.52 :10. attachment nozzle for delivery tube



My Third task
hopefully get the 1/2 inch ram working and test it in order to use the correction steps used in the smaller ram to fix and make adjustments to the the larger ram and start testing

Summary of actual work over third weekend
For this week I was able to accomplish majority of the work I planned on doing and even more. I was able to almost finish construction of the 1/2 inch ram it is about 90% finished; in addition, I was able to start and finish the reconstruction of the larger ram. I also did some testing on the larger ram, and did some personal research to find out why a swing check valve would not be flapping even though there is incoming pressure

Week3 Narrative
3/11/12: Today we worked on the smaller hydraulic ram. First I disassembled the ram and used a sand paper to file the edges of the PVC pipes in order to have smooth ends. Then I used some PVC cement to glue the components of the pressure, but this took a while since we ran into some issue with the PVC cement. Apparently the cap of the container was glued to its body thereby making the difficult to open it. Halima and I tried using a wrench to open it, but it didn't work, with help of another class mate it was finally open. Then Halima and I glued the parts together

5/11/12: Today, I was able to get a hold of some plumber's putty, which I used to mold the two swing check valve into the ram, which would act as the waste valve and the non- return valve respectively. I also made the delivery/ out put pipe for the smaller ram. since the putty takes about 15min- 20mins to dry, i decided to work on reconstructing the bigger ram. The new part (non -return ball check valve) for the larger ram had come in. Since my previous team and I had glued in the old non return valve, we had to carefully saw off this part and try as much as possible to leave some PVC behind, so we could lash on a PVC 1"-1" coupling attach which would be attached into the new part. After this I continued molding in the second swing check valve into the ram.

6/11/12: Tim and I met up today to work on ram. Surprisingly the plumber's putty on the smaller ram had not dried so I couldn't continue working with it since i didn't want the putty to crack off. With the putty drying, Tim and I worked on the Larger ram, did some testing with it and surprisingly the ram didn't work. Actual the same problem that had happened before occurred again, the swing check valve didn't flap. We tested the ram once more still didn't work, then we decided to call it a day, do some research on why it is not working and continue from there

2/12/12: I decided to do some research on why the swing check was not working. Found some websites that talked about the swing check valve and how to worked. Most website said that the valve requires a strong pressure flow to open the valve and when this pressure decreases that the valve closes. with this information I guess we are not getting enough pressure flow. Here is the link to the website that talks about the valve http://www.pdhengineer.com/courses/m/M-4001.pdf

My Fourth task
For my final week, I want to finish construction of the 1/2"inch ram and test it. For the bigger ram, I want to find a solution to its problem and do some testing

Summary of actual work over fourth weekend
Actually this week went exactly as planned,I was able to finish construction on the half inch hydraulic ram and test both the bigger and half inch ram test.

Week4 Narrative
12/3/12: with additional knowledge gained from research to why the hydraulic ram was not working, the team and I decided to test the hydraulic ram on a higher elevation. We took our testing outside to the stair beside the Student activities building, placing our bucket ( water source) on the steps making its height roughly about 9ft in order to gain the pressure flow that the research said we were not gaining. We did some testing with the ram, but surprisingly ever though we were gaining much more pressure the swing check valve did not flap. Added some more length to our delivery pipe thinking it will help create a back pressure that will aid in flapping the valve; this then made the output to a height of 8ft. Did more testing this new adjustments, but it did not make any difference to the outcome.

12/7/12: Met up with Halima, Shane to finally finish working on the half inch ram. Since the plumber's putty was not working, we used hot glue to re-enforce the swing check valve into the PVC pipes. After this we tested the ram, and surprisingly the swing check that acts as the waste valve did flap slightly, but the other one which was suppose to act as a non-return valve did not work. This may be due to a number of reason, one of which includes the fact that a swing check value can't perform the function of an actual non return valve. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNBXEa3wuz8&feature=youtu.be

12/9/12: worked on team page, added testing videos, picture, summary, story and material list

Complete Team Page
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Hydraulic_ram/Howard_Community_College/Fall2012/p3501ATandT