Fall 2018 - Spring 2019
Fall 2018 - Spring 2019
Fall 2018 - Spring 2019
Fall 2017
pumped water tower optimization
in collaboration with tage das & morgan potts
Water towers are large, elevated tanks which reliably supply pressurized water to the surrounding region. The goal of this project was to construct a water tower which could supply pressurized water to a nozzle via a hose and thereby produce a sustained, robust jet flow. The final demonstration was a "tug-of-war" between two teams; using the jet flow, two opposing teams battled to push a wood block in opposite directions.
Each team had up to 2 minutes to pump water from the ground to their tank, and up to 15 seconds to drain the tank using only gravity. At the end of the 15 seconds, the team with the block farthest from their tower won.
The team faced both a fluid mechanics optimization problem and a strength of materials design challenge. The team had to optimize the height of the tower, considering the water that would have to be pumped to that height and the force that water could apply on the block. Then, the team had to ensure that they could support the mass of water at that height.
Performing finite element analysis (FEA) on the entire structure with the maximum mass of water and a slight lateral load (to anticipate error in construction) ensured that the tower would hold.
Each team had up to 2 minutes to pump water from the ground to their tank, and up to 15 seconds to drain the tank using only gravity. At the end of the 15 seconds, the team with the block farthest from their tower won.
