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Once this was changed, I moved on to drawing the piece that would fit into this coupling and stop water from flowing into it. This piece consists of a PVC pipe, a cap to cover the top of the PVC pipe, and a tube extending out of the cap to allow for easy handling and for air to escape. To draw the pipe and the long tube, I used existing information in the pipe database to determine the appropriate inner and outer diameters based on the pipe schedules. The algorithm to draw the cap, however, required a lot of research. I spent a lot of time looking into different types of PVC caps online via McMaster and other resources. I ran into trouble in finding information on the thickness of the cap walls and the inner height of the caps because McMaster would not provide me with the information and was finally able to get the information from Spears Manufacturing. I merged this information into the Pipe Database so that a nominal pipe size now has a cap height and cap diameter associated with it that can be called by the functions CapHeight(NominalPipeSize) and CapDiameter(NominalPipeSize). Now, caps can be drawn at accurate sizes for any pipe size. I updated this on the Pipe Database Design Program.
The completed script for the control piece in the MathCAD file "ChimneyStops" is now debugged and ready to be reviewed so it can be merged into the general Final Designs\AutoCAD scripts. My next step is designing the caps to control flow between the launder pipe and the exit channel using the Orifice equation.
Since the midterm, I have written the code to draw control pieces for the launder side of the sedimentation tank. I created a separate file to draw only PVC caps, "pvccap", similar to the Pipe MathCAD file, so that caps can be drawn for any purpose. I also, drew the control piece that would be used to re-fill the sedimentation tank, after it had been drained. This script is in the MathCAD file "LaunderCap". This control piece consisted of a short stub of pipe attached to a cap with a hole in it. The constraints for this control piece are that the pipe have the same outer diameter as the launder and that the size of the orifice in the cap has to be such that the flow rate through the control piece and into the sedimentation tank is not higher than the flow rate out of the other sedimentation tanks and through the exit channel. This is important so that the other sedimentation tanks are not emptied when the drained one is re-filled, and so an equal water level is maintained in each. This was calculated using the Orifice Equation and the information is included on the Launder Design Program page.
In addition, the coupling for the launder through the wall separating the sedimentation tank and the exit channel needed to be drawn. However, the script had to be altered from the coupling script used for the inlet chimneys, because the constraint for the launder coupling is the inner diameter of the coupling socket (equal to the outer diameter of the launder), rather than the inner diameter of the coupling pipe. There is still a slight problem with this script that should be worked out in the next week.
Summer 2009 Contributions
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Overall, this summer was a great learning experience for me. Working on the Materials List allowed me to learn about the geometry and functions of the majority of the components of the plant, and I feel like I have a greater understanding of the AguaClara project as a whole.
Pages Created/Updated
Launder Channel Design Program
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