This week, Michael Cole and Alejandro Martin worked rigorously last week to finalize the design for our tank.

Our tank will include a 6in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe to minimize turbulence and maximize the flow rate of the water. This will give us better results to evaluate our fin’s thrust. To do this, we will cut the pipe longitudinally into 4 sections so that each section has a quarter of a curve. The sections will be inserted upright into the corners and center of the front and back walls, along with 2 partitions running through the center of the tank. Pictured is our SolidWorks design of the tank.

Michael and Alejandro also designed a way to measure the flow rate, and correspondingly, through calculations, the power output by the fins. We are using a paddle wheel design. We will 3D print the wheel with several cupped paddles extruding from the center, and mount several tiny magnets on the spokes of the paddles. Also, we will 3D print bearings to reduce friction, and we will have a reed switch placed close to the wheel to detect the magnets. The reed switch pick up data from the magnets, which we can then code to calculate the flow rate and power output.

This week, we plan on buying the materials and start building our tank.