I spent the beginning of this semester getting oriented to the AguaClara project and the plate settler spacing research team. In addition to the time that I spent with the plate settler spacing team, I read research articles on water treatment, attended the demo plant demonstration, and presented the demo plant with Vanish to a freshmen class.
The first challenge that our team faced was determining what tube diameters to test. I spent time working with Sarah Long to determine whether or not shear stress would be the limiting factor for minimum tube diameter. During this time, I learned how to use MathCad to mainpulate equations, and I studied some fundamental fluid dynamics.
Another assignment that I had was to research a more uniform and easy to manage material than straws to use as tube settlers. Ultimately, the honeycomb that I found was less economical and more cumbersome than the tube-manifold system used by Matt Hurst.
For our teach-in, I presented background information, goals, and details on the sedimentation portion of our experimental apparatus. Teach-In
I have also written some of the meeting minutes: [Meeting Minutes|
For our midterm report, I wrote about the sedimentation portion of our experimental apparatus: