chads-blog

Hydrokinetic Turbine Design Analysis Review

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:57:11 +0100

The hydrokinetic turbine team has done it again. We have just completed giving our second of four reviews. This review was entitled a "Design Analysis Review" and game the team and me the opportunity to show some of the data we have collected and outline our component testing plans which will help us define the architecture for the product.

Highlights of the presentation include a plot of angle of attack that was created for a full 360 sweep of the turbine. I was able to create this plot by modeling the angle of attack as a simple sinusoid using the geometry of Tip Speed Ratio and flow velocity to justify the curve fit.

We are looking to conduct some key component tests in the coming weeks on NACA foil 4415 to determine lift values at low reynolds number. Below is the presentation that was given.

Enjoy

Senior Design Project Preliminary Design Review

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:57:46 +0100

Below is the presentation I gave with my three other group mates for our preliminary design for a water purification system to be deployed in third world areas with limited access to clean drinking water.

Specifically the group will be focusing on the design of an H-Darrieus water turbine to generate energy from a flowing river.
Enjoy

Valve Test and Ballon Failure

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:21:55 +0100

Last week I worked with Tom Gallmeyer to develop a test to see how fast pressurized air flowed through a Ball valve that is currently the primary choice for our steam engine valve. The test we designed was to videotape a balloon connected to our valve inflate under water and measure the time and height change of the water to calculate a flow rate.
We ran this test on different valve opening and length of openings and created some repeatable data for the rate of flow through our valve which was above 500in^3/sec for fully opened. The really fun videos however, came from when we ran explosive tests on the balloon. Below is an example of inflating the balloon until failure. The pressurized air is at 60 psi and the test rig was designed and built by tom and myself.... enjoy

Valve Test to Failure from Chad Gibbs on Vimeo.

Independent Study- Steam Pistion

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:34:16 +0100

Question: Could a modern steam engine that is made with modern materials and electronic valves be a viable solution to the internal combustion engine?

Motivation: Steam engines create power from steam in a cycle that is more efficient than the internal combustion cycle and produces more low end torque than a comparable size IC engine . Steam can be generated from a wide variety of renewable sources including biomass as well as solar. These provided the incentive to explore whether a steam engine could be viable in the 21st Century

Research: For more information on current steam engine efforts explore:
A Fresh View of the Steam Car for Today
Green Steam (With Videos)
Modernising the Fireless Steam Accumulator Locomotive

Design: The group is currently working to finalize a design for the steam piston and set-up. Below is an image of the preliminary setup modeled in SolidWorks.

Pictures of parts will be uploaded when availible

Candy Dispenser Goes Live

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:34:50 +0100

10/27/2009- Durham, NC, After a frantic finish to get our candy dispenser operational which included a last minute design change after clogging was an issue for the first design I am very satisfied with the result. By the time we had finished building our project we had used less than 40% of the budget. An consensus was reached to invest in decorations to add to the Halloween feel of the machine. A fog machine and speakers as well as an orange light and strobe were added to increase the spookiness factor of our project.

Now that the project is complete it is time to move onto my independent study and to begin getting parts made.

Candy Dispenser Live from Chad Gibbs on Vimeo.

Candy Dispenser

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:07:33 +0100

I am putting the finishing touches on a candy dispensing machine that was designed to distribute a set amount of candy to kids on Halloween when a homeowner can't be home on Halloween night to supervise candy distribution. Below is picture of the first design draft. More pictures to come when the project is complete.