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The experiment affirmed that the velocity of the jet, its length, and the type of surface it impacts are all limiting parameters. By observing the water jet at different flow rates it was observed that the length of the jet is dependent on the velocity of the jet. At low flow rates the length of the jet is shorter than at higher flow rates. As seen in Figure 1, the length of the jet refers to the part of the jet where the water surface is turbulence-free and thus appears smooth and transparent. It is when the surface of the jet becomes sufficiently turbulent that air is entrained as the symmetry of the jet breaks during freefallfree fall. When the a jet hits the water surface a void forms in the water and from the tip of this void an air bubble is pinched off creating foam; thereforeas demonstrated in the attached scientific paper: The entrainment of air by water jet impinging on a free surface. Therefore, when the water jet hits hit a solid smooth surface there is was no bubble foam formation.
Conclusions
At the end of all of our testing, we determined that inserting a 5cm-diameter pipe would effectively reduce the amount of bubbles produced by the LFOM, while not constricting the overall plant flow rate. Hopefully this design change can be easily executed in the AguaClara plants in Honduras to fix the foam problem. (This only works for a 7.5" I.D. LFOM. You cannot make this conclusion for the AguaClara plant. What about the inclined plane? Does this work??)