Mid-Term Semester Accomplishments
So far this semester has been a lot of construction and modification. The pilot plant team and myself has taken the first few weeks of the semester to ensure that the data collected for the pilot plant in the future will be accurate. Although the modifications took longer that was initially planned I believe the time was well spent to ensure that there is no bypassing in the tank and the flow measuring bucket is in place. While the tank was off line time was not wasted the turbidity meters were pressurized, a method for submerging the tube settlers was developed and tank lighting was improved by submerging a large florescent light. The connections holding the baffles together had also managed to come loose and thus time was spent to disassemble the entire system and tighten all connections.
Kevin, Dave and I work together to design the sedimentation tank that will hopefully be added to the flocculator at the water treatment plant. Currently a preliminary design has been completed and an evaulation of the the design's plausibility is under way, along with a cost analysis.
I did a lot work to update the old reports to the wiki. Compiling large portions of the three past reports. I was aided in this task by Rebecca, Dave and Kevin. For the midterm report I altered and updated a lot of the goals for the semester as well as updating the sections of the wiki report that pertained to the tank modifications. My Gantt chart was also updated and posted to the wiki.
Pilot Plant
Meeting Minutes Spring 2008
For the reports I produced several of the schematics of the changes to be made for the plant.
Schematics include:
This first schematic shows how the the submersible light is suspended under water.
This schematic shows how we intended to and submerge the settling tubes to eliminate the temperature difference in the settling column.
This is the system designed to pressurize the turbidimeters, this presssurization was needed to keep oxygen in solution.
My Gantt Chart can also be seen below, it contains and update list of what I will be working on for the rest of the semester.
End of Semester Accomplishments:
The pilot plant team split into three sections mid way through the semester. Kevin, Dave and myself were all a part of the sedimentation tank design and construction group. I did significant work on the multiple versions of the sludge blanket sedimentation tank design that were done before the the final design that was constructed was completed. I also worked on the lamella design. Although still under adjustment much time and thought were put into the first two versions (the third is currently being worked on) Also this semester, between Dave, Kevin and myself we constructed the entire sedimentation tank ourselves. From initial construction to the fixes that went in afterwards. In regards to research, although no quantitative research came out of the sedimentation tank, much knowledge was gathered from observing flow through the tank and observing how the blanket formed and how the tank reacted to a very low alum dose (tiny floc) compared to a higher dose (large floc).
The wiki reported was updated through out the semester as designs changed and research and construction continued. Because there was a continuous adjustment throughout the semester with all group members contributing to the wiki and reviewing it should be noted that the amount of comments on the sedimentation page are not completely reflected of the amount of peer review that actually took place.
Pages Worked On:
- I created many equations pages (not listed here to avoid clutter)