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As part of the LFSRSF team in the Semester of Spring 2014, I helped complete the construction and documentation of the LFSRSF. I, along with the team, succeeded in documenting the entire construction of the filter, designed a new sand drain, made some modifications to the previous design and also initiated backwash. Along the entire process I helped in manufacture, such as drilling and milling and helping my team mates along the entire way. I also made sure that the filter was safe to use by checking that the filter was stable with a center of mass calculation. By After testing the filter we where able to determine what the head loss through our filter was during backwash and during filtration and have made conclusions from this data to improve the design. By the end of the semester we accomplished what we wanted, granted that we came a little short of using the filter with clay and coagulant. However, the filter is ready to be used and tested in the future, with the hopes of further improving the design. As a new member of the Low Flow SRSF my intentions for this year is to assist the team in realizing the goal of running the LFSRSF and to ensure a smooth and successful operation. In order to achieve this goal we must construct a recycling system that will provide a continuos source of water. We must install and test various components including the slotted manifolds, the sand drain and the sand itself. We will also begin to collect data on the system. We will look for parameters such as headloss through the filter and its multiple components as well as the distribution of flow within the filter column. As of now the construction of the LFSRSF is going smoothly and the team has good expectations. I have performed the stability test of the system, helped finish the recycling system, the sensor port installation, and assisted in leak tests. Also, the trunks have been installed and the holes where the slotted branches (key component of the filter column) have been drilled. We will soon be ready to test the entire column.
Fall 2013 Contributions
As a member of the Ram Pump team, I'm happy to say that the semester proved to be quite successful. At the beginning of the semester the Ram Pump team started with one mission it needed to accomplish: to create a Ram Pump that would deliver 70mL/s to the chemical stock tanks and the bathrooms of the AguaClara plant in Honduras. Although we did not reach this goal, we succeeded in ways that we did not expect.
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