Changes to the wind tunnel design were requested by Professor Seshadri. New components are being purchased and adjustments to the design have been made, but still need to be finalized. The heater we have purchased has sufficient power to heat the copper plate fast enough. The RTD circuit is still being troubleshooted. Controller design will also start this week.
Accomplishments from Previous Week
Obtained rotameter
Complete physical tests with heating pad and copper plate
Spoke to Tom about different ways to mount the copper plate with the insulation
Facility management confirmed that we have sufficient shop air in the reservoirs to run our experiment for the 3 hours, twice a day
Goals for Next Week (list names after each item). Use specific and measurable objectives.
Assemble wind tunnel (Tian)
Machine insulation (Tian)
Finish RTD circuit (Anthony)
Machine plate mount assembly (Austin)
Design Labview temperature controller and purchase hardware components (Liz)
Research how to measure power consumption with PWM using SSR (Anthony/Austin)
Sponsor Comments from Last Meeting and Actions Taken to Address these Comments
Seshadri suggests using ⅛” copper plate - no issues against ¼” but prefers ⅛”
Nick prefers ¼” so that there are more options for mounting - we will likely stick to ¼”
Seshadri wants top-down wind tunnel so buoyancy is uniform - our design is being changed to reflect this requirement
Fan reaches 5m/s in absence of any pressure drop
Maximum operating temperature between 150-200degC is sufficient
Instructor Comments from Last Meeting and Actions Taken to Address these Comments
Suggests using power supplies in parallel so that duty cycle is known and can be used to calculate power consumption of heater
Put black electric tape on the surface of the copper plate for better IR image.
Different configuration for plate-mounting, with steel pins and spring loaded bottom.
Redesigned plate-mounting configuration utilizing these suggestions.
Risks and Areas of Concern
RTD signal conditioning circuit needs to be troubleshooted (there is a short in the circuit)
How to calculate power consumption if using duty cycle with SSR
Resources or Information Required but not Available
Schedule
Finish fabrication of wind tunnel by the end of the week in order to perform experiments the following two weeks
Finish RTD signal conditioning circuit
Purchase components for temperature controller
Budget
$216.25 spent, $1783.75 remaining
Progress on Report and Webpage
First draft of report completed
Webpage multimedia page started