156B Week 5

Overview of Status of Analysis, Design, Fabrication, Tests, etc.

The team conducted flow visualization tests and tests to determine the uniformity of the copper plate temperature when heated.

Accomplishments from Previous Week

• • Completed flow visualization test with fog machine on old wind tunnel geometry

  • Brainstormed how to machine pressed-powder insulation

  • Machined copper plate to size

  • Acquired acrylic for wind tunnel

  • Created Solidworks CFD analysis with the mesh to check pressure drop and uniform flow

Goals for Next Week (list names after each item). Use specific and measurable objectives.

• • Purchase copper plate mount materials and begin machining (Austin)

  • Machine the insulation to correct dimensions (Tian)

  • Create preliminary Labview/arduino program for temperature controller (Liz)

  • Finalize anemometer fixture and purchase materials (Anthony)

  • Determine method of calibrating velocity measurement (Anthony)

  • Begin assembling wind tunnel acrylic structure (Tian)

Sponsor Comments from Last Meeting and Actions Taken to Address these Comments

• • Seshadri is lending us a rotor meter, which guarantees uniform flow and controlled cfm. We can vary the outlet area to achieve different flow speeds.

    • We have borrowed the rotor meter. We also bought a fan, which is our priority setup.

  • Seshadri advises us to give 2-3 weeks for performing of the experiment in order to ensure our setup matches theory.

    • The majority of our parts are here, the rest will come in during this week. We plan to finish assembling by the end of this week/middle of next week.

Instructor Comments from Last Meeting and Actions Taken to Address these Comments

• • Figure out why putting 1 heater on top of the other is not allowed by manufacturer.

    • One side of the heater is insulated, so it would be counterproductive to place another heater against

  • Dr. T says that anemometer is inaccurate for low flow speeds and to see if anemometer specs have error vs. flow speed chart. However, CFM is proportional to RPM so getting one point with the anemometer of high flow speed will allow us to calibrate lower flow speeds. We are considering this option for calibrating fan RPM to flow speed, but will also continue researching whether lower flow speeds exist.

Risks and Areas of Concern

• • Will we be able to achieve the desirable 1-3 m/s flow speed range?

  • Will we be able to measure mass flow rate?

Resources or Information Required but not Available

• • What to use for flow speed of 4-15 m/s for calibration?

Schedule

• • Finish fabrication of wind tunnel by the end of the week in order to perform experiments the following two weeks

Budget

• • $216.25 spent, $1783.75 remaining

Progress on Report and Webpage

• • Report section, specifically the applicable standards has been added

  • This week