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The AguaClara team has addressed each of these shortcomings. Our strategy to reduce the engineering design costs is to both publish our design algorithms and create an automated, web-based, design tool that will enable partner organizations to obtain detailed design documentation including 3-D CAD drawings of an AguaClara plant that is customized to the size of local materials that will be used for construction. The team has developed designs for hydraulic flocculators that are economical to construct. These designs are based on a combination of fundamental fluid mechanics and ongoing research. The team has invented a gravity powered flow control module Flow Controller that delivers a constant flow rate and that is adjusted simply by raising or lowering a flexible tube. The AguaClara team has committed to open source engineering (freely sharing all of our research findings and our design algorithms). Although the AguaClara design process is sophisticated, the resulting designs appear deceptively simple and use components that can be repaired and replaced by plant operators.
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