February 2, 2012
8:00-9:30:
Keith, Kunsoo, and Nick discussed which of our ideas should be used as our final sketches. From Keith we chose his idea for a positioning system and an idea involving a balloon to control the smoke flow. From Kunsoo we chose his idea that involved a curve path for eliminating large particles and an idea involving creating a homogeneous gas. Lastly, from Nick we chose his idea involving a flexible nozzle that could control the stream size and position. Kunsoo and Keith each were assigned to do two sketches while Nick and Matt were assigned one each. Kunsoo and Nick then took photos of their sketches to be posted online.
February 8, 2112
8:00-8:15
All members met to organize future meeting times with mentor. Also, we discussed the problem statement and how to progress.
February 14, 2012
9:00-10:30
Keith, Matt, and Nick met with Prof. Wootton. We discussed our various ideas with him, our problem statement and timeline, and research we should look into. Problem Statement: Have something that analyzes the flow visualization of two and three dimensional path lines around an object in the tunnel, such that the path lines are visible without the need of safety equipment and recordable. As for the timeline, Wootton told us to generally plan stages of: 1. Research 2. Concept experimentation 3. Real prototype He also suggested that we meet with John who works in the basement in the room where the flow visualization system is.
After our meeting, we worked on improving by adding pictures to the group wiki page and by formatting our group member section and uploaded Matt's sketches.
5:00-5:45
Kunsoo, Matt, and Nick met with John and brought him up to speed with our ideas. For when we need to meet him next, our entire group and he are free during club hours, on Friday before 5, and Monday 5-6. We then discussed our timeline and came up with the outline: 1. Research details of ideas 2. Pricing and ordering of parts for testing 3. Concept testing 4. Design Revision (and preparation of midterm powerpoint on final design) 5. Prototyping The final version we posted on the main page of the group wiki.
February 21, 2012
9:00-10:00
Kunsoo, Matt, and Nick met with Prof. Wootton. We went over the wiki page and the timeline with the suggestion of adding a list of "deliverables" and moving the words wind tunnel to the second sentence of the problem statement. It was also discussed improving the problem statement with the addition of an introduction, problem constraints, and criteria for evaluating the final solution. It was decided that we were to embed videos and a results section for future data collection. For research into fog machines, we were told to look at: 1. what the size/density of the particles are 2. price 3. and that we should talk to John for a demonstration. We should also look into mylar streamers and the posible ways of creating a positioning system. For now, our plan of action is to do more research and perhaps start buying equipment (and how we should work out buying things as a group).
February 23, 2012
5:00-5:45 p. m.
Kieth, Matt, and Nick met today with John and experimented with the oil droplet generator and whether injecting the stream at a point inlet would line up 1 to 1 with a point in the testing stream. The results of our testing can be seen in our new testing section on the main wiki site for the group. We also gathered various PIV pictures from John to use on the wiki.
February 27, 2012
5:00-6:00 p. m.
Keith, Kunsoo, and Nick discussed future goals while Matt went to pick up the smoke machine to bring it down to the automotive lab so that the rest of the group could see it in action.
We set future goals to look into lab access and asking John to give us a safety tutorial for the wind tunnel (so that we could work on the project at more flexible times).
John came in a bit after we did and he said no due to the fact that no one was allowed to operate the wind tunnel without the proper supervision.
Once Matt arrived we demoed the smoke machine in conjunction with the wind tunnel.
The smoke allowed for much better visualization then before although the smoke was not as focused as we would have liked.
We then discussed possible ideas for progression with the actual project, thus we came up with three points to target with ideas/research:
1. smoke delivery
2. positioning system
3. imaging
For the positioning system, possible ideas/questions include:
* use an arduino to control servos on a square rack
* use an IR sensor with the arduino--we decided against this because one could just keep track of servo position
* radial vs. square
* position of the system relative to the wind tunnel's mouth
We also need to look into the smoke machine more--we need a better way to control the stream without too much leakage and heat.
While working with the machine, we used a plastic hose and funnel to catch the smoke and channel it into a thinner stream into the wind tunnel.
Through this we discovered that the mouth of the smoke machine heats up, which could potentially melt the hose if made of a certain plastic.
Also, as the smoke hit the funnel condensation occurred causing "leakage."
Therefore, we will have to come up with ideas pertaining to materials and the possibility of counteracting the leakage.
On this we decided as a group that we would each come up with at least two good sketches of ideas pertaining to these problems for March 5th.
February 28, 2012
Kieth, Kunsoo, and Nick met with Prof. Wootton. We discussed the results from our testing the previous day and our initial ideas to counter our problems. Kieth and Nick also went to the lab to test the streamers. ****
