Floating Flocs Meeting Minutes

Spring 2009 Minutes

Completed new experimental set-up.
Wrote Process Controller methods.
Completed plans, including a tentative timeline, for research and MathCAD modeling; delegated tasks.
Installed pumps, one before aerator and one just before flow accumulator. The one before the aerator is to allow flow into the aerator even when the pressure in the aerator is high. The pump just before the flow accumulator is to allow control over the flow rate (replaces PID).
Completed a replication of last semester's experiment and confirmed that results were similar, at least in the first data collection period. The subsequent data collection periods had decreasing gas removal rates, perhaps because of clogging issues, air pockets trapped in the sand filter, and varying bed expansions because of inconsistent flow.
Added a flush valve to flush out bubbles that may have formed in the line before water enters the sand filter. Water will be flushed out of the line for 60 seconds between data collection periods.
Began experiment to test the flush valve.

Encountered problem with water not entering aerator after the aerator reached a certain pressure. Solved problem by installing a pump between water source and aerator.
Continue debugging aerator to establish an appropriate ratio of on and off times for the wasting valve.
Talk to Monroe about the sand filter--maybe use a cylinder of larger cylinder to prevent wall effects.

Talk to Monroe about changing the sand filter size.
Prepare for teach-ins.
Measure differences in DO due to aerator to ensure consistent levels of dissolved gases.
Start experimentation with bed depth and begin data analysis on results of the experiment.

We have been logging activities daily on the Floating Flocs Google Calendar. For greater detail, refer to the calendar here. (This calendar is also linked from our Summer 2009 Meeting Minutes page.)