Blog Entry #1 for Capstone 2 for the work accomplished during the period of May 1, 2021 - Sept 10, 2021
Thus far, our team has purchased 90% of the materials needed for the project in its entirety, but has enough materials on-hand to start testing our Temperature Control System. The team has performed preliminary testing of various set-ups of the system. Preliminary testing was necessary to develop our final system design. We have tested the Peltier devices individually at 5V and 12V. We tested various combinations of multiple Peltiers at different voltage levels. We combined the Peltier with heat sinks, thermal paste, and fans in different orientations to develop an understanding for how they affect the performance of the Peltier. We added the waterblock and pump to the system to test the temperature control capability to affect the water. Peltiers performance is heavily affected by the ability to remove the heat it produces. From testing we found the effectiveness of the Peltiers can be improved by increasing the heat sink size, increasing the airflow across the heat sink and Peltier using fans, stacking Peltiers, or water cooling the Peltier using another waterblock. Below is a visual of our design during our preliminary testing workshop:
We found we can increase the water temperature well beyond our desired amount, but we have not been able to show that the original design will absolutely cool the water below what we desire. We were able to produce temperatures as low as -5°C by stacking Peltiers on top of each other, but that does not directly relate to water temperature. Although, we believe watercooling the Peltiers will give us the performance increase we need without compromising efficiency by stacking the Peltiers.
Our original plan was to air cool the Peltier units using large aluminum heatsinks, fans and through initial testing we determined that it was adequate for our purposes, but we are going to explore water cooling our Peltier units to determine a more efficient and effective solution to keep the temperature of the hot side as low as possible to give us the best results we can get. We realized during preliminary testing that we need a more robust clamp to hold the system together, so we have since gathered the materials to build this for our next test. Another obstacle we currently face is having each member of the team carry components of our system separately. Along with the components, we have to carry our tool bags with us. We plan to find a central location where we can store our system so we can eliminate the possibility of forgetting a component at home or not run the risk of a component breaking. Besides securing a location to store our components, we are also wanting to request permission from Dr. Chang to use the power supplies in the school labs.
We will begin actual testing and take down measurements now that we have gathered all of our essential components. We have tested our components to make sure they are fully functional/operational, we will run tests with different configurations, like single TEC or double (stacked) TECs. We plan to develop different methods of testing the Temperature Control System. The team will clarify how we will validate the effectiveness of our project. We will use the methods developed to acquire data and assess the project. We plan to alter the design based on what we learn from the data acquired. Also, our original design required the use of heat sink(s) and fans to cool down our system. However, we plan to run tests on a new design that would cool down the system using a PC radiator.
Our original plan was to air cool the Peltier units using large aluminum heatsinks, fans and through initial testing we determined that it was adequate for our purposes, but we are going to explore water cooling our Peltier units to determine a more efficient and effective solution to keep the temperature of the hot side as low as possible to give us the best results we can get. We realized during preliminary testing that we need a more robust clamp to hold the system together, so we have since gathered the materials to build this for our next test. Another obstacle we currently face is having each member of the team carry components of our system separately. Along with the components, we have to carry our tool bags with us. We plan to find a central location where we can store our system so we can eliminate the possibility of forgetting a component at home or not run the risk of a component breaking. Besides securing a location to store our components, we are also wanting to request permission from Dr. Chang to use the power supplies in the school labs.
We will begin actual testing and take down measurements now that we have gathered all of our essential components. We have tested our components to make sure they are fully functional/operational, we will run tests with different configurations, like single TEC or double (stacked) TECs. We plan to develop different methods of testing the Temperature Control System. The team will clarify how we will validate the effectiveness of our project. We will use the methods developed to acquire data and assess the project. We plan to alter the design based on what we learn from the data acquired. Also, our original design required the use of heat sink(s) and fans to cool down our system. However, we plan to run tests on a new design that would cool down the system using a PC radiator.
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