Nanditha's Individual Contribution Page

Summer 2009 Contributions

I am a member of the Design. As a new member of AguaClara, I have spent the past few weeks learning a lot about the plant, what it looks like, it's different components, and getting a basic idea of how it works. I have also learned how to use MathCAD to do calculations and coding with different variables.

Andrew Sargent and I are on the sub-team working on the Automated Materials List. The goal is to have to have the list output to the user the total amount of materials needed and their prices based on the plant specifications entered by the user. My partner and I used the Variable Naming Guide as a starting point to find the variables needed to calculate the necessary areas, lengths, and volumes, and searched through many of the plant's component's MathCAD files to find the right variables. I calculated the total volume of concrete needed to construct sections of the plant including the entrance tank, the sedimentation tank, the floc tank, the entrance and inlet channel tanks, and the drop chimneys. I also calculated the total amount of ferrous cement needed to construct the inlet slopes in the sedimentation tank and updated the code to calculate the volume of the floc baffles and the number corrugated sheets needed to construct the lamella. Together, Andrew and I were able to calculate the total volume of concrete required to construct the plant. In addition to the concrete, we calculated the length of pipe needed for the weirs, sed plate frame, and launders.

We created the Materials List Design Program to explain what the Automated Materials List was and list the Program Inputs and Outputs. We updated the Variable Naming Guide with all the variables we had created to describe the different volumes and pipe lengths of the plant. Also, an important part of our task was organizing the MathCAD file so it was more understandable and sectioned off into the different types of materials.

Our next step, now that we have calculated all the necessary materials, is to check the materials to the price list to estimate a budget for the given plant.

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